Platform and SIPP provider AJ Bell has reported a jump in advised customers over the past year of 8% to reach 174,000, according to a quarterly trading update issued today.
Total customer numbers were up by 16% (19,000) to 561,000 over the past year - up 4% on the previous quarter.
Key figures reported today:
• Total advised customers of 174,000, up 8% in the last year and 2% in the quarter
• Total D2C customers of 387,000, up 20% in the last year and 4% in the quarter
• Record assets under administration of £89.5 billion, up 17% in the last year and 3% in the quarter
The company said it saw a year-on-year increase in gross and net inflows across the platform. Gross inflows in the quarter were £3.6 billion (2023: £2.7 billion) with net inflows in the quarter of £1.4 billion (2023: £1.3 billion)
There were favourable market movements of 2% of opening AUA, the firm said.
The company’s investment arm AJ Bell Investments saw Assets under Management (“AUM”) of £7.2 billion, up 38% in the last year and 6% in the quarter. Net inflows in the quarter of £0.4 billion, in line with the prior year (2023: £0.4 billion)
AJ Bell CEO Michael Summersgill said: “I am pleased to report a strong start to the financial year as we continued to attract thousands of new customers and increased levels of assets, resulting in a record 561,000 platform customers and £89.5 billion of platform assets under administration.
“AJ Bell Investments continues to perform exceptionally well with quarterly net inflows of £0.4 billion resulting in total AUM surpassing £7 billion for the first time.
“During the quarter we continued to see the benefits of our dual-channel model and the high-quality propositions that we offer to both the advised and D2C market segments.
He added that Budget speculation about pensions taxation had caused a “short-term behavioural change” among retail investors, which normalised quickly once the content of the Budget became known.
Promote your vacancy to thousands of professionals on Financial Planning Jobs
Our specialist jobs service Financial Planning Jobs can help you reach nearly 12,000 financial professionals. You can set up an Employer Profile and post your job the same day on Financial Planning Jobs (terms apply). Dozens of Financial Planning and Paraplanning firms have used our affordable service to recruit new talent.