Hargreaves Lansdown’s chief executive Chris Hill will quit next year after six years at the helm of the investment and platform provider.

He will step down in November 2023 to give time for the board to find a replacement.

In February he set out a five-year strategy to invest £175m in upgrading the investment platform’s systems and build a tech-led financial advice service.

Deanna Oppenheimer, Hargreaves chair said: “Having started the implementation of the next phase of the company's growth, Chris has decided it is time to pass the reins to a new CEO to continue to execute on this strategy and build on our market leading proposition.”

Mr Hill said: “Having put in place strong foundations that are already delivering results, including an exceptional leadership team, it will be time after a thoughtful transition to hand over to my successor to take the company through the next phase of embedding this strategy."

The news of his planned departure comes as the group faces a £100m lawsuit filed last Friday over its promotion of Neil Woodford’s flagship LF Woodford Equity Income Fund before it collapsed in 2019.

Around 300,000 investors had their money trapped in Woodford’s fund when it was frozen in June 2019, including more than 130,000 Hargreaves Lansdown clients.

The suit has been filed by claims manager RGL Management on behalf of an initial 3,200 investors.

RGL is also suing Link Fund Solutions, the fund's authorised corporate director and said its claim could top £100m.

Hargreaves Lansdown has repeatedly rejected the allegations but declined to comment on the lawsuit from RGL.

The group released its quarterly results on Monday reporting that net inflows in the third quarter were £700m, down by nearly half from last year. Revenues increased 15% to £163m as the platform benefited from higher interest rates on clients’ cash balances.

Mr Hill said: “The impact of the challenging macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop on asset values, client confidence and propensity to invest has been seen across our industry.”

It added 17,000 new clients in the period to bring its total of active clients to 1,754,000, with a client retention rate of 92.2%.

Mr Hill added: “Our focus remains on helping new and existing clients navigate these tough times and engaging with them to help improve their financial resilience.” 

He said the company is on track for a new US Fund launch on 1 November and a pilot launch of its Augmented Advice proposition later this calendar year.