Fund manager Vanguard has reported a surge in younger investors in the UK.

Around 35% of the firm’s UK investor base is now under 30.

This figure looks set to grow with over 40% of new UK investors in Vanguard’s UK Personal Investor propositions in Q3 being under 30.

The firm said this mirrors a trend it has seen over the past year with a large number of younger investors coming into the market.

The company said that it suspects this is due to mainstream publicity around investing earlier in the year, and the time and opportunity under 30s have had to think about their finances during the pandemic.

Vanguard’s UK Personal Investor propositions saw net new clients in the third quarter of 35,933. This leaves total new clients in the year to date at 157,000.

Vanguard now has 335,029 UK clients (as at 1 November).

The firm attributes a large proportion of the growth in new clients to the launch of the Vanguard Personal Pension (SIPP). The accumulation phase launched in February 2020 and decumulation in December 2020. The company has also been advertising heavily on TV.

The firm also launched Vanguard Personal Financial Planning to the UK market in April this year. The restricted financial advice service targets pension savers with a minimum of £50,000 invested. The service is supported by a Financial Planning team who select only from Vanguard’s funds. 

A spokesperson from Vanguard said: “Investors have been voting with their feet and moving from high-cost investing to low-cost investing, over a period of many years. This hasn’t happened overnight. However, we’ve seen a considerable acceleration in interest from retail investors over the past 18 months.

“For those fortunate enough to have retained employment, and perhaps even accumulated savings, lockdowns and working from home may have provided an opportunity to reflect and take actions on finances. Nevertheless, we believe the effect has been to catalyse the ongoing, longer term secular trend. This has been borne out by continued interest over the last quarter in the long-term, low-cost approach we advocate, as the country has begun to open up.

“At Vanguard we believe this is an outcome of doing the right thing for investors. As such we have invested considerably in our investor platform and service over the past year, and will continue to do so.”

Vanguard added that the most popular funds with UK investors for the third quarter were LifeStrategy 80, LifeStrategy 60, LifeStrategy 100, S&P 500 UCITS ETF Distributing (VUSA) and FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund Accumulation.