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.
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...
23 April 2024
How to spring clean your investmentsIn the wake of the new tax year, a bit of portfolio spring cleaning is an annual ritual for some. The new tax year brings with it fresh pension and ISA allowances and so minds are already attuned to investments and financial goals.
Not everybody will spare a thought for their investments this spring, but they probably should. Even the most...
11 April 2024
ISA investors still shunning UK funds and trusts ahead of UK ISA launchJudging by the most popular investments with ISA investors so far in 2024, it looks like Jeremy Hunt is going to have to rely on individual stock investors to do the heavy lifting when it comes to the UK ISA.
Fund and trust investors are still very much going global with their ISA money in search of superior returns.
None of the twenty most popular...
14 March 2024
The dividend hero investment trusts yielding more than 5%It’s not just cash savers and bond investors who are enjoying income yields above the rate of inflation, so are those buying investment trusts with exceptionally long records of increasing dividends.
Five UK Equity Income trusts are currently yielding above 5%, together providing an average yield of 5.8%. That compares to the best variable Cash ISA...
12 March 2024
UK funds suffer worst outflows on recordThe UK funds industry is going through a dark age: £51 billion has been withdrawn from funds by UK retail investors in the past two years. Add in institutional outflows and the number rises to £108 billion. The scale of these withdrawals is absolutely unprecedented.
For some context, in the depths of the financial crisis the fund industry still saw...
28 February 2024
Five tips for investing in recessionThe advent of a recession doesn’t necessarily mean falling share prices. The market is always looking forward and anticipating what comes next. No-one is pencilling a big rebound in the UK economy this year, or next for that matter, but the low levels of growth expected are not exactly new conditions for British businesses, and are reflected in low...
26 February 2024
Cost of safe haven investing: cash and gilts lose money in real termsIt’s been better to be a hare than a tortoise when it comes to investment markets over the last decade. Cautious investors have significantly underperformed the global stock market and in some cases, they’ve seen the value of their money actually go backwards once inflation is taken into account. More conservative investors will be used to the idea...
6 February 2024
Six steps to spring clean your investment portfolioSoon, spring will be upon us, believe it or not, and many of us will be tempted to rejuvenate our...
