Wednesday 20 May 2015 4:41 am

Hargreaves Lansdown share price falls as costs mount – although pensions savers aren’t buying Ferraris

When the chancellor first announced plans to lift rules forcing pensions savers to buy annuities in 2014, much was made of the fact a generation of pensioners could go and splurge their pension pots on Ferraris.

But two months after savers were given access to their pensions, Hargreaves Lansdown has said people are being eminently sensible about their new-found freedoms.

The financial adviser, one of the UK's largest pensions and drawdown companies, reported lower-than-expected withdrawals over the last couple of months.

"Clients appear to be using the [new] freedoms extremely sensibly, further evidence of the wisdom of trusting the British public with their own money," it said. It added it had been well positioned to cash in from the new rules.

"Hargreaves Lansdown has invested heavily in at-retirement support and planning tools, and has been one of the few companies in the UK fully ready to service the public at the start of pension freedoms," it said.

Meanwhile, cumulative net asset inflows for the year to date hit £5bn – admittedly lower than 2014's £5.34bn, although assets under administration have risen 22 per cent to £55.3bn since the same time last year.

Net revenue for the 10 months to the end of April was £241m, up 0.7 per cent from last year's £239.3m.

But shares in the company fell 3.76 per cent to 1,231.89p as it reported a £2.5m increase in the financial services compensation scheme levy, plus a £3.5m one-off cost of bringing foreign exchange trading income in-house.