AJ Bell saw a record increase in platform users in the first three months of the year driven by a boom in non-advised customers, up 48% over the past year.
The FTSE 250 platform provider’s total assets under administration exceeded £65bn for the first time, a 35% rise over the last year, with total net inflows of £1.5bn during the quarter.
Total platform assets under administration soared 38% over the past year and 5% in the quarter to £58bn.
AJ Bell CEO hails firm’s ‘price advantage’ over rivals
AJ Bell chief executive officer Andy Bell (pictured) said its adviser platform saw its largest ever quarterly increase in new customers, a “testimony to our award-winning proposition and the price advantage our customers enjoy compared to other major adviser platforms”.
The investment platform’s total customer numbers increased by 32% over the last year, with an 11% rise in Q2, to 346,797.
Advised customers rose 14% over the past year to 118,509 and 6% in the quarter but non-advised customers saw the biggest jump, rising by 15% in the quarter to 213,767.
Surge of retail investors make for ‘barnstorming year’
Edison Group director of research Neil Shah said the surge of retail investors over the pandemic saw AJ Bell sustain a “barnstorming year”.
Shah said that the platform’s continued direct to consumer inflows “hints at a strong market for investors looking to essentially manage their own money – a trend that appears to have persisted as we begin to re-emerge from lockdowns”.
He added that this latest update also showed that many of those retail investors “are here to stay”.
Bell said the the platform continued to see “growing numbers” of younger people joining as they invest through pensions and Isas.
AJ Bell Investments boosted by MPS and multi-asset funds
AJ Bell’s investment arm also had a positive quarter with assets under management seeing a 40% surge in the quarter to £1.4bn, up 180% over the last year.
Bell said the strong quarter was driven by the increasing popularity of its managed portfolio service, as well as strong inflows into its range of multi-asset funds, with its Responsible Growth fund proving particularly popular.
The £37m Responsible Growth fund was launched in November, and AJ Bell swiftly bolstered its ESG proposition with the launch of a responsible MPS last month.
AJ Bell expects to announce its full results for the six months ended 31 March 2021 on 27 May.
In an RNS update last month, AJ Bell predicted it would smash its revenue forecast for the year by at least £6m, bringing in £136m.
Its share price is down 4.14% at 447.30p.
