Disruption of accounts? Well Hargreaves account numbers are going up as is its AUM.
You want to talk about Freetrade - but you are forgetting that Freetrade is not actually disrupting HL. Not even close. It is not even clear that it is attempting to do that.
It might be a long term ambition to challenge HL - but it has to survive long enough for that. Not just survive but provide a competitive product and service levels. It may die or just be gobbled up (which of course could be a good exit for some investors).
And on that note many of those new brokers you refer to will disappear. Just like many of the neo brokers from the past (yes it is not the first time that cheap brokers have come along). I use the term ‘cheap’ advisedly and I am mainly using it in reference to the time they existed.
Many of the new brokers don’t have sustainable businesses. One wealth manager has already exited. But I agree with you that one or more will ‘make it’. Which one? Well I don’t know.
It is early days for the ‘pan european’ space. We don’t fully know how the niches will break down. We don’t know if a London based organisation will be perceived well in the EU space. What we know is that the competition in some of those countries will be tough.
There are many, many cultural issues to be tackled - and even more so in France and Germany. One of the reasons is the disparate way pension arrangements are made in different countries.
And as far as the UK market is concerned anyway does anyone think Hargreaves will roll over and die? What do you think would happen if they dropped some of their trading charges?
Freetrade still needs massive injections of capital. It’s present business model is a starting model and imo isn’t sustainable. And the recent share lending revenue stream story underlines that Freetrade needs a clear path to profitability.
My own way of looking at things is in terms of pluses and minuses. Good investors weigh these up. There are enough fan type investors to sing about the merits of FT and shout down the risks and challenges.
I speak as someone who worked for one the world’s biggest fund managers and the ex CTO of a very successful startup. I think I know a little bit about this market - and also how tough it is to make it.