AJ Bell’s investment arm has smashed through the £1bn mark in a year of explosive customer growth for the platform group.
AJ Bell Investments, which reported for the first time, achieved the milestone AUM after attracting £147m of net inflows in Q1 – up 91% compared with the same period last year. Over the last 12 months, it has now doubled in size – up from £500m at the end of 2019.
Money coming into its funds unit was consistent with the wider platform business, which saw total net inflows of £1.6bn in the three months to 31 December 2020 – double the level reported in 2019.
Chief executive Andy Bell (pictured) said the investment business had made “good progress” since launching three years ago under CIO Kevin Doran.
It currently has nine multi-asset funds in its stable, as well as a model portfolio service, which now has a lower AMC of 0.15% after AJ Bell retroactively removed VAT charges last week. Plans to launch a responsible managed portfolio service range are also in the pipeline.
AJ Bell has benefited from an explosion in customer activity during the coronavirus pandemic. Total customer numbers have risen by 30% to 312, 309 over the last 12 months, taking total assets across the firm to £62.5bn.
Growth has continued to be driven by its platform business, which has amassed £55.2bn in AUM.
In Q1 alone, platform customers grew organically by 16,959 – an 88% increase – while net inflows spiked 67% to £1.5bn compared with £900m a year ago.
Bell attributed the surging customer numbers to an “increased awareness and trust in our brand”.
However AJ Bell’s rapid customer growth has sparked capacity concerns. AJ Bell was one of several platform providers to malfunction on one of the UK’s busiest trading days last November as investors rushed to trade following Joe Biden’s presidential win and positive Covid vaccine news from Pfizer/BioNTech.
Since then the platform group has pledged to invest more money into the tech underpinning its platform.
