The majority of individual shareholders now tend to deal through platform stockbrokers that offer cheap online dealing for investment trusts and other shares. The largest of these, Hargreaves Lansdown, would not be our preferred choice though. The company is currently in the midst of a takeover, and perhaps that is making the business very risk-averse from a regulatory perspective, because it seems to take a much harder line on regulation where there is any grey area, as is currently the case with the cost disclosure issue.
There are a number of investment trusts where HL will not allow investors to buy shares mainly because it says that MIFID II regulations require it to display relevant information about costs and charges, and it is unable to access that data. We checked today, and you are currently unable to buy the following trusts through Hargreaves Lansdown:
Chenavari Toro Income
Fair Oaks Income
Harbourvest Global Private Equity
HICL Infrastructure
JPEL Private Equity
Life Sciences REIT
Oakley Capital Investments
Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income
The Schiehallion Fund
The Renewables Infrastructure Group
This is not an exhaustive list, but what is really galling here for HL customers is that you can currently buy ALL ten of these trusts with its competitor, Interactive Investor (ii). We generally find that ii offers superior customer service and much quicker payment of dividends as well as the full range of investment trusts for dealing. Whilst switching firms can be expensive and a great deal of administration, we do think it can pay to have more than one stockbroking account, allowing you to gain better access and to compare services.
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