Platforms

Hargreaves Lansdown is taking aim at the low-end D2C discretionary market after announcing plans to unveil a new discretionary portfolio management service in 2015 with a minimum investment of under £10,000.

Although Hargreaves did not move to an unbundled pricing model until Q4 of its financial year, this week's results gave an early indication of the margin pressures it is facing.

Hargreaves Lansdown has reported a record pre-tax profit of £209.8m for the year to 30 June as it begins to deal with the initial impact of changes to its charging model and falling returns on cash.

Wrap platform Novia has formed a strategic partnership with Tavistock by teaming up with Cocoon Investments to acquire a £250,000 stake in the business.

Old Mutual Wealth chief executive Paul Feeney has contacted clients to defend a decision to shut the Skandia Invesco Perpetual income funds, pointing to "truly exceptional circumstances" following Neil Woodford's departure.

Scotland voting yes to independence from the rest of the UK would be a "disaster" Novia chief executive - and Scot - Bill Vasilieff has said, less than a month before the referendum.

Skandia's decision to switch pension clients out of its Invesco Perpetual Income mandates and into Neil Woodford's new CF Woodford Equity Income fund is expected to cost investors over £6m in trading costs.

Aegon UK has given the role of managing director of its non-advised direct to consumer service Retiready to David Beattie, as part of a management reshuffle.

The regulator is to meet members of Tisa to discuss re-registration rules next month, with the trade body reiterating to platforms best practice guidelines when dealing with super clean share classes after issues arose recently.

Wrap Nucleus saw £725m of inflows in the six months to 30 June, with profits jumping 85% as the platform grew its market share.