9 July 2021
AJ Bell Global Growth fund – 3 Year Anniversary‘Buying the portfolio of the future, today’. That’s how we described an investment in the Global Growth fund, back when we launched it in June 2018. The fund focuses on future-facing sectors such as technology – including cutting-edge companies in areas such as artificial intelligence and robotics – as well as alternative energy and emerging...
3 March 2021
AJ Bell funds – February 2021 updateThe AJ Bell funds are managed by us, for you. We make the day-to-day decisions to keep your money working hard whatever the market conditions.
As you'll know, the last twelve months have been a turbulent time. To make sure the AJ Bell funds reflect the changed market landscape in 2021, we’ve updated the asset allocation of each fund as well as...
11 November 2020
Excluding the sinners, rewarding the winners – how we build our Responsible Growth fundWhen choosing which companies to hold in our Responsible Growth fund, we employ two approaches:
1. Exclude companies that operate in certain business areas, are deemed to not meet minimum standards on human rights, anti-corruption, employment rights and the environment, or have been involved in serious controversies.
2. Reward companies that...
4 November 2020
The Hassle Free way to Go GreenWe are all working hard to reduce our carbon footprint to protect the planet for future generations, but making changes can be hard without significantly altering our lifestyles – it is hard to give up your car, or stop exploring the world.
Instead many of us focus on making smaller changes in our lives to make a difference – we may choose to...
6 August 2020
AJ Bell funds – announcing our first ‘Assessment of Value’ reportIn recent years, the FCA have launched a number of initiatives to make investments more transparent and easier for customers to compare.
One such initiative is an ‘Assessment of Value’ report. Written by fund managers, this annual report outlines how the fund has produced value for customers.
There is no defined template for this report, so...
23 July 2020
AJ Bell funds – update to property holdingHere at AJ Bell Investments, we want our range of AJ Bell funds to offer a multi-asset approach to investing. That’s why we have kept property part of their asset allocation, despite periods of underperformance. Property offers something different within our funds, which are otherwise largely made up of bonds and shares.
Asset Class Index 5 Year...
15 May 2020
AJ Bell funds – update to underlying holdingsOne of our most important tasks, when managing the AJ Bell funds, is staying on top of the marketplace. We're always looking for investments that can help deliver the AJ Bell funds' objectives and risk outcomes, while satisfying the team's mantra of 'simple, low cost and transparent'.
With that in mind, we wanted to tell you about two changes we...
23 April 2020
AJ Bell Income and Growth fund update – plugging the (income) gapTo all investors seeking an income, the hit from COVID-19 has come quick and hard. Old rules of thumb have been upended. Governments and central banks have stepped in in ways even those with the battle scars of 2008/09 would have thought unthinkable. As the virus has spread, workforces have been forced into hibernation, causing dividend payments...
3 March 2020
AJ Bell funds asset allocation updateEach January, we review the asset allocation of the AJ Bell growth funds. This process sees us assess the expected returns and risks of the funds’ four asset classes (stocks, bonds, alternatives and cash), across various geographies and sectors. We then decide the appropriate weightings to hold in each before settling on a final investment mix for...
13 February 2020
Beware the (income) trapThe ETF juggernaut continued in 2019, passing through the $6 trillion mark. No active, open-end fund manager appears to be shielded from this growth, with ETF usage becoming widespread in fixed income, ESG and factor investing – alongside the bread and butter of equities – all of which has taken market share from active managers across the board.
H...
3 January 2020
We’re making some changes to our AJ Bell fundsOn 6 January 2020, we’ll be making a couple of changes to our range of AJ Bell funds.
If you hold one of our funds, you’ll already have received a corporate action notice describing the two changes. But to remind you, here’s an explanation of what we’re changing, and why.
We’re renaming the fundsFirst, we’ve decided to rename the AJ Bell growth...
4 November 2019
Help to Buy ISA end nears – what are your options?Hopeful first-time buyers only have a month left before one savings route is shut off to them forever.
The Help to Buy ISA will close to newcomers on 30 November, meaning that anyone who wants to open a new account needs to do so by then. If you’ve already got a Help to Buy ISA open you can keep paying into it and have more than a decade until you...
6 September 2019
Brexit: How we’re positioning the AJ Bell fundsThe markets rallied after the Referendum vote in June 2016 and Trump’s election in November 2016, proving that share price moves are not always in line with economic events.
Matt Brennan, Head of the Passive Funds at AJ Bell, discusses why a No-Deal Brexit might actually lead to positive returns for multi-asset investors and how AJ Bell are...
