Hargreaves Lansdown, which made its name by offering individual investors direct access to its execution-only platform, has refocused its sights on the corporate benefits market.

The firm will launch a corporate version of its Vantage platform in 2010 and is targeting UK employers.

The product will offer an integrated platform for workplace savings and employee benefits, with corporate ISA and share scheme capability sitting alongside group self-invested personal pensions (Sipps).

Sources close to the company said Hargreaves has already signed up its first client and will go live with the 9,000 life plan on April 6, 2010.

Hargreaves changed its group Sipp strategy in May this year, which resulted in the redundancy of its group Sipp business development manager, Dave Petchey. At the time, it was considered to be due to the impact of the recession, but it is now clearly a development into a market that is experiencing considerable activity.

No fewer than six out of 10 of the UK’s largest consultants are preparing to launch corporate wealth platforms in the next year, in an effort to replace fees that will be lost as final salary schemes close.

Mercer and Buck Consultants are expected to launch platforms in Q1 2010, while Aon, Hymans Robertson, Xafinity and BlueFin will follow later in the year.

Katharine Photiou, a principal in Mercer’s strategic benefits consulting and delivery team, said: “The UK employee benefit market is entering a new paradigm of wider defined contribution and corporate-funded saving vehicles distributed through the workplace. These vehicles offer further choice, retention and engagement for employees.

“There will be component parts of the consulting and delivery model that Mercer will offer in-house, and parts we continue to source and use third parties to deliver.”

Hewitt Associates and Jardine Lloyd Thompson claim they already have the technology to offer employees access to pensions, benefits, ISA and share schemes on the same platform.

Only Watson Wyatt, Lane Clark & Peacock, Punter Southall and Capita Hartshead claim to have no plans for such a venture.

The platforms also cater for those earning above £180,000, for whom pension accrual is no longer tax efficient.

Standard Life, Scottish Widows, Legal & General, Axa, Zurich and Friends Provident are also planning launches in 2010.

But some consultants argue single-provider platforms will be too restrictive, and a best-of-breed approach among providers will become best practice.

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