AJ Bell increased its customers by 19,000 in the quarter to bring the number over half a million and boosted its assets under administration (AUA) 5% for a total of £80.3bn, according to its Q2 update.
Across the platform business, AJ Bell increased its AUA 17% in the year. For the quarter, market movements led to 3% of the AUA growth and the company experienced £1.6bn in net inflows, a 33% increase from the same period in 2023.
Michael Summersgill (pictured), chief executive officer at AJ Bell, said: “Surpassing half a million platform customers is a significant milestone for the business which reflects the continued success of our dual-channel model. Having listed in 2018 with just under 200,000 platform customers, this landmark demonstrates the strong execution of our organic growth strategy set out at IPO.”
“We saw strong momentum in the run up to the tax year end as improving retail investor sentiment, together with continued investment in our brand and propositions, helped to deliver £1.4bn of gross inflows in March alone, a new monthly record for the business.”
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The AJ Bell Investments arm increased its assets under management by almost 50% over the past year and 12% in the last quarter, to £5.8bn. The three months to the end of March brought £400m in net flows for the business,
“AJ Bell has always had a strong focus on offering exceptional value to customers and our philosophy of sharing the benefits of scale with our customers as we grow remains key to our strategy,” Summersgill said.
“On 1 April we reduced our custody fees for advised customers and halved our headline dealing fee for D2C customers to £5. We also increased the interest rates payable on cash balances held across all our products, further strengthening our overall customer value proposition.
Summersgill also noted the upcoming launch of AJ Bell’s ‘ready-made’ pension service, helping customers to consolidate and invest their existing pensions.
“Looking further ahead, the growth opportunity for the platform market remains significant and our ongoing brand investment will continue to drive increased awareness of AJ Bell, supporting our long-term growth ambitions.”
This story was written by our sister title Portfolio Adviser
