In general, financial services firms are no good at managing their message. That is a good thing as far as I'm concerned, as it keeps me and my chaps in a job, but there are some leading lights in the industry who we would never dare go near on saying the right thing to the right people at the right time.
Such a one is the mighty Bristolian Behemoth, Hargreaves Lansdown. Seemingly impervious to the kind of snafus which befall other providers of their size, HL is a news and marketing machine which rarely mis-steps. The confidence they take from this might be why they floated something called a 'trial balloon' yesterday about their long-anticipated pricing strategy. For those unfamiliar, a 'trial balloon' is generally used by companies or politicians to gauge public reaction to a controversial message. So, for example, a junior Tory minister or MP might be sent out front to say that a...
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