Laith Khalaf is AJ Bell's Head of Investment Analysis. He joined the company in 2020 and continues to explore the world of personal investing, providing research and analysis to both AJ Bell customers and the media. He has a degree in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge.
Laith is a leading industry commentator with over 20 years’ experience. As well as being a regular contributor to the financial pages of the national press, he’s a frequent guest on TV and radio, and for several years provided daily business bulletins on LBC.
He started his career in 2001 on the customer helpdesk of Hargreaves Lansdown, where he gained invaluable experience understanding what DIY investors wanted, and the range of investments and tax shelters they held. This was in the early days of DIY SIPPs and ISAs, and coincided with the tech crash, the split cap investment trust scandal and the aftermath of the Equitable Life collapse. Suffice to say there was no shortage of drama!
In 2007, Laith began to focus on research and analysis, initially within the pensions market, and quickly built a reputation for providing commentary and data for everyday investors and financial journalists. He then moved on to investment analysis, looking particularly at multi-asset funds, and selecting default funds for group pension schemes. You can find his comments in the national papers most weekends, and he is a frequent guest on AJ Bell’s Money & Markets podcast.
Outside of work, he likes to eat pistachio nuts and has become addicted to padel tennis.
30 January 2026
Bargain hunter investors win in 2025 but not over long termBargain hunters were the most successful type of investor in 2025, topping AJ Bell’s annual Style League table with a return of 38.7%.
Our analysis assumes that at the beginning of the year, the bargain hunter invests in the worst performing Investment Association (IA) fund sector of the previous 12 months. Latin America took the wooden spoon in...
29 December 2025
How a regular savings plan dampens stock market volatilitySimplicity is a virtue when you first start investing, which is why setting up a regular savings plan can take some of the load off the decisions you have to make.
Money is automatically moved from your bank account to your ISA, SIPP or Dealing account every month, and then invested according to the standing instructions you gave when you set up...
11 December 2025
A shocking number of fund managers have failed to outperform the marketIt’s been a dreadful decade for active fund managers. Just 24% of the active funds analysed in AJ Bell’s Manager versus Machine report have beaten a passive alternative in the last 10 years. This is the lowest reading since the report was launched in 2021.
Even if active managers start to turn things around, as they seemed to be in the first half...
26 November 2025
Ethical investingEthical investing is an investment approach considering Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors. Learn more about responsible investing here.
21 November 2025
The risk of under-investing in a stock market bubbleTalk of a stock market bubble is everywhere right now, and for good reason. Valuations in the US stock market are sky high and the enormous technology companies sitting atop the S&P 500 are venturing into an unpredictable AI future, burning through tens of billions of shareholder dollars in their quest not to be left buried in a digital junkyard...
7 November 2025
Discover the truth behind common misconceptions on ETFsWhen it comes to exchange-traded funds (ETFs), many investors fall into a trap of simplifying them as “just passive funds” or misjudging their risks and costs. These funds are becoming increasingly popular in the UK, so it’s worth addressing some common misconceptions
1. ETFs are just plain vanilla passive fundsThis is perhaps the most pervasive...
17 October 2025
How to manage higher capital gains taxLast year’s increases to capital gains tax (CGT) were perhaps not as bad as feared, but calls for reform have restarted as another budget looms. It’s a good time to consider the financial planning threats and opportunities arise.
Higher rates of capital gains tax were an unwelcome addition to the burden shouldered by investors, who already faced...
22 September 2025
Annuities are paying out more: why are pensioners still avoiding them?Annuity rates are looking much juicier than they were thanks to rising bond yields, but retiring pension savers don’t seem to be taking much notice. When George Osborne introduced the pension freedoms a decade ago, the proportion of people buying an annuity at retirement plummeted from 90% to around 10%. It has remained close to that level ever...
26 August 2025
How to invest for passive incomeThe idea of creating an income stream in which you get paid without working is nothing new. It’s actually the fundamental basis of any retirement plan. However, the concept has been repackaged as ‘passive income’ in recent years, as people of working age seek to make more of their assets and abilities to boost their income. It covers all sorts of...
31 July 2025
How fund managers have succeeded in beating the market againIt looks like Donald Trump has done what years of toil and sweat have failed to achieve, namely some measure of outperformance from global active funds.
In the first half of 2025, 51% of active funds in the Global sector outperformed a passive alternative. That’s according to our latest Manager versus Machine report, which analyses over 1,000 funds...
