Hargreave Hale - Case Study

London and Blackpool based Hargreave Hale stockbrokers and investment managers entered the market in 2008, with the intention to satisfy client demand for SIPPs. Providing a SIPP for Hargreave Hale has meant that client retention and assets under management have increased, whilst providing their clients maximum flexibility and choice without having to setup and maintain an administrative overhead and infrastructure themselves.

Hargreave Hale came to Dunstan Thomas to provide a SIPP administration service delivered through their Imago SIPP administration platform. Imago comprises all the functionality for front and back office SIPP administration activities. With Imago’s modern technology Imago interfaces readily to investment administration, third party and in-house IT systems.

Imago is linked to Hargreave Hale via a web portal. Daily activities and transactions include new business, asset transfers, bank files, payroll and updates for Hargreave Hale’s, Investmaster investment management system. Hargreave Hale maintains the client and FSA relationship even though documentation and data are generated by Imago. At year end, Imago produces all the relevant documents including, benefit statements, SMPI reports and reporting to the FSA and HMRC returns.

Imago and the Dunstan Thomas service has meant Hargreave Hale have been able to come to market with SIPP that is cost effective, flexible and future proofed, to create a unique market proposition within the private client stock broking community.

Stuart Brookes, Director of Hargreave Hale says of the service “the offering has exceeded our initial expectations both in terms of systems and knowledge of Dunstan Thomas staff”.


Chris Read, Chairman of Dunstan Thomas says “Hargreave Hale represent a new way to interact with our clients. It has always seemed natural to us that we should not only develop software for our clients but we should also deliver service to our clients using our own software on their behalf. For us the Hargreave Hale services represent a natural progression for the company and we look forward to delivering the service to many more.”