• Hargreaves Lansdown is partnering with Schroders Capital to add two of its private markets Long-Term Asset Funds (LTAFs) to the platform week commencing 15 September, offering a step change in the availability of LTAFs to the retail investment market.
• HL is the first platform to offer LTAFs within the SIPP wrapper, enabling investors to access to diversified sources of investment growth for their long-term financial future.
• LTAFs give long-term investors access to a wide range of alternative assets, including private market investments, which have until now been available only to a minority of investors.
• Eligible investors will have access to global private equity and energy transition infrastructure capabilities managed by Schroders Capital.

Emma Wall, head of platform investments, Hargreaves Lansdown:

“As the UK’s largest retail investment platform, we are excited to offer our clients the chance to invest in Long-Term Asset Funds week commencing 15 September. Our business has been built upon the mission to democratise investing – and we see this as a milestone for the accessibility of private markets for individual investors in the UK. For retail investors with a long-term investment horizon, the appropriate knowledge and resources, and as part of a well-diversified portfolio, private markets can play an important role in delivering unique growth opportunities beyond what is typically available in public markets.

LTAFs offer retail investors a unique opportunity to access a wide range of alternative assets including private market investments through a fund structure specifically designed to invest in less-liquid assets. Our client and digital teams have worked closely with our colleagues in legal and compliance to ensure that HL’s online journey is both simple to navigate but, more importantly, implements the right restrictions and risk controls associated with restricted mass market investments such as LTAFs.

We are thrilled to be partnering with Schroders on this project given their deep expertise in the sector, and, alongside our digital VCT service launched last year, we look forward to further developments in offering advanced investing options to our appropriate client segments.”

James Lowe, director, private markets, Schroders Capital:

“This marks a watershed moment for the accessibility of private markets for eligible retail investors in the UK. Our partnership with Hargreaves Lansdown combines the best of Schroders Capital’s global private markets expertise and tailored Long Term Asset Funds with Hargreaves Lansdown’s innovative, digital-led approach to offering advanced investment options.

Schroders Capital has led the way in broadening access to private markets in the UK through our dedicated Long-Term Asset Funds. We are excited to offer our two globally diversified LTAFs, providing a wider set of investors with a new access point to invest into high-growth private businesses and essential global energy infrastructure, benefiting from the diversification and return potential unique to private markets.”

Background on LTAFs

• The LTAF is a category of authorised open-ended fund specifically designed to invest efficiently in long-term, illiquid assets. These include private equity, infrastructure, private debt, real estate and venture capital.
• While these investments can have a higher risk of loss than diversified portfolios of listed equities or bonds, they can also potentially deliver higher long-term returns in exchange for less liquidity.
• ETFs, mutual funds and investment trusts are suitable for most investors, but LTAFs are only suitable for those investors with a high level of knowledge, experience, or financial resources that allows them to understand less liquid and higher risk investments.
• You can only buy and sell LTAFs at set times (monthly or quarterly). If you want to take money out, you usually must give at least 90 days’ notice. Sometimes there are additional access rules to help manage the illiquid nature of the underlying holdings.
• LTAFs can already be held in Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs) and Innovative Finance ISAs. From April 2026, eligible investors are expected to be able to also access LTAFs through a Stocks & Shares ISA.

About the Schroders Capital LTAFs

• The Schroders Capital Global Private Equity LTAF is a feeder fund into an existing strategy, the Schroders Capital Semi-Liquid Global Private Equity Fund which was launched in September 2019 and now stands at over $2.5 billion^[1]. Investors will have immediate access to a successful fund at scale with exposure to over 270 companies.
• Managed by Schroders Capital’s Head of Global Private Equity Portfolios, Benjamin Alt, the Fund is focused on small to mid-sized private company investments globally. These encompass US and European SME buyouts and Asia growth companies, with a strong focus on technology and healthcare sectors.
• The Schroders Capital Global Energy Infrastructure LTAF is a feeder fund into the Schroders Capital Semi-Liquid Global Energy Infrastructure Fund, launched 20 months ago, which has a global investment remit and exposure to over 180 individual assets spanning large scale wind farms, solar parks and other infrastructure supporting the energy transition, such as green hydrogen, battery storage, district and industrial heating.
• Schroders Greencoat is one of the largest specialist renewable and energy transition infrastructure managers globally with a presence in the UK, Europe, US and Asia and c.£9.7 billion assets under management.

Discounted share classes 

HL has agreed a discounted OCF with Schroders Capital for HL clients. Schroders Capital have launched a new Q1 share class for each LTAF, which both have a lower OCF than the standard Z share class in the market. The Q1 share classes are detailed below:

• Schroders Capital Global Private Equity LTAF – Class Q1 Acc Accumulation GBP – (GB00BS0LGM28)
• Schroders Capital Global Equity Infrastructure LTAF Class Q1 Acc Accumulation GBP (GB00BS0LGN35)

Source: Schroders Capital

Michael Aldridge, President and CRO at private markets data specialist Accelex, said in an email: “Opening private markets to retail investors is a double-edged sword. On one side, these assets have historically delivered strong long-term returns and valuable diversification for investors. For fund managers, it also unlocks a vast new pool of capital and additional fee income. On the other, retail investors could end up taking on risks without having a complete understanding of the investment.

In public markets, investors get real-time pricing, clean data and daily performance updates. Private markets are nothing like that. There’s no instant information, no ticker and no standardisation, just fragmented documents and unstructured formats. Even large institutional investors rely on teams of analysts to compile a picture of their holdings.

It’s vital that private funds managing investments and trading platforms offering access to these assets educate retail investors on the nuances of private markets and make performance and valuations crystal clear. That means investing in technology such as AI to turn messy, unstructured data into something investors can understand. Fail to do this, and retirement savers will be flying blind. If losses follow, the damage to trust could hit private markets far harder than any regulatory setback.”