Hargreaves Lansdown has seen the average age of clients drop from 45 to 37 in what it believes is a significant shift in its client demographics, it revealed today in its half yearly results.

Shirley Garrood, senior independent director at Hargreaves Lansdown, is to step down at the end of 2020 in order to take up the position of chair of Royal London Asset Management in 2021.

In 1981 two bored but ambitious accountants started a British investment business from a spare room. Today they are billionaires.

Stephen Lansdown, one of the two founders of online investment platform and wealth manager Hargreaves Lansdown, has sold £103m of shares in the business.