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.
21 August 2024
Three years into the cost of living crisis: which investments performed best?In August 2021, the inflationary crisis began to take off with the CPI measure of inflation jumping to 3.2%, up from 2% in July of that year. Consumer price inflation then climbed all the way up to a peak of 11.1% in October 2022 before gradually, and painfully, falling back to current levels. The latest inflation figure crept up a touch to 2.2%...
5 August 2024
What are T-bills and how do they work?This article explains all you need to know about Treasury bills, including what they are and how they work, as well as the risks, returns and tax treatment of T-bills.
31 July 2024
Cash ISA glut continues into JuneThe Cash ISA glut has some legs left in it yet, as savers ploughed a further £3.4 billion into these tax shelters in June, according to the latest figures released by the Bank of England. This compares to average June inflows of £700 million in the previous 10 years. Until recently that size of inflow would have been more associated with the end of...
25 July 2024
Just a third of active fund managers outperform passivesAJ Bell’s latest Manager versus Machine report paints an alarming picture for active managers, who are struggling to beat tracker funds on performance, and are losing hands down when it comes to attracting investors’ money.
The report looks at the performance of active funds across seven equity sectors and compares them to the average passive fund...
26 June 2024
What the merger of Alliance Trust and Witan means for investorsA blockbuster merger has been announced of two of the biggest and oldest names in the investment trust world – Alliance Trust and Witan.
The deal will result in lower annual charges for investors, as well as preserving the long dividend track records of both trusts. The share price of both trusts rose on the back of the news, especially Witan...
17 June 2024
How our personal finances have changed under a Tory GovernmentThe Conservatives came to power in 2010, and during that time there have been a raft of changes to our personal finances. There have been some bold and positive achievements in the past 14 years, though it is by no means an entirely rosy picture, and to the extent that welfare spending falls under the heading of personal finance, the austerity...
5 June 2024
Cash ISAs see record inflows in AprilApril was a blistering month for Cash ISA sales as higher interest rates pulled in hordes of punters. The £11.7 billion inflow was the highest since ISAs were introduced in 1999, according to Bank of England data. The record inflow into Cash ISAs suggests the cost-of-living crisis might be ebbing away, as consumers find themselves with a few extra...
16 May 2024
The FTSE 100 might be at a record high, but these three UK stock indices aren’tIt’s been a tremendous month for the UK stock market, with the UK index forging ahead of international peers, including the mighty S&P 500. This is an encouraging performance for long suffering investors in the UK’s flagging benchmark index, but we shouldn’t get too carried away with ourselves. The rise in the Footsie has been part of a global risk...
16 May 2024
Why is £253bn of cash sitting in bank accounts paying no interest?A mountain of cash paying no interest to savers built up in the wake of the financial crisis as a result of low interest rates and bank funding schemes introduced by the Bank of England. Between March 2009, when interest rates were cut to the emergency level of 0.5%, and October 2022, this cash pile rose from £58 billion to £272 billion, according...
1 May 2024
The funds and trusts that have beaten Warren BuffettWarren Buffett needs no introduction as the world’s most famous investor. Over a long and illustrious career stretching back to 1965, he’s produced a mind-boggling 4,384,749% return for investors through his investment vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway. In other words, $100 invested in 1965 would today be worth over $4.3 million. For some context the...
