Hargreaves Lansdown has posted a record £150bn assets under administration and said the number of net new clients climbed 48% to 1,858,000 active clients in the three months to the end of March.

In a trading update published today the firm said it gained 34,000 net new clients in the period.

It reported “good momentum” with increased gross inflows, net new clients and share dealing volumes.

Hargreaves posted net new business of £1.6bn in the period and closing assets under administration of £149.7bn.

It said revenue for the period was £199.7m, up 6% from £188.1m in the same period in 2023.

Dan Olley, chief executive, said: "Our relentless focus on client service, making it easy to save and invest to ensure that we meet our clients' needs has delivered clear results this quarter.”

He said more clients had focused on using their ISA and SIPP allowances and that client retention levels stood at 91.4% in the quarter.

Its active savings account launched two years ago hit a £10bn milestone with a 75% uplift in new client numbers compared to the previous year.

Share dealing volumes averaged 794,000 per month in the quarter up from 770,000. Overseas deal volumes grew to represent 23.6% of total deals in the quarter up from 16.8%.

Looking ahead Mr Olley said that momentum continued into April “as clients take advantage of the benefits of investing at the start of the tax year."

He said: “We continue to make good progress against our priorities for the year - improving our client proposition, controlling our costs and increasing our execution pace so that we can capitalise on the significant growth opportunities that lie ahead and create value for all our stakeholders.”

Hargreaves Lansdown has seen a number of changes to the senior management team in recent months. 

Alison Platt replaced Deanna Oppenheimer as chair of the board in February. Ms Oppenheimer unexpectedly quit in November after activist investors threatened to vote against her re-appointment at the December AGM.

Some investors had been unhappy with the firm’s share price performance in recent years, including one of the founders, Peter Hargreaves. Deanna Oppenheimer served as chair for six years during which the share price fell from a peak of 2,419p in May 2019 to 706p by the time she quit. Today's figures sent the shares climbing 4% to 820p.

The company will issue a fourth quarter trading update on 19 July and then the full year results on 9 August.