Tom Selby is AJ Bell's Director of Public Policy. He joined the company in 2016 as a Senior Analyst before becoming Head of Retirement Policy. He has a degree in Economics from Newcastle University.
Following his degree, Tom worked for seven years as a journalist specialising in pensions and retirement. He spent almost six years at a leading adviser trade magazine, Money Marketing, initially as a pensions reporter before becoming Head of News in 2014. He has won multiple awards for his role as a financial journalist, and was more recently nominated for Expert of the Year at the 2023 Headlinemoney Awards.
Tom is heavily involved with the PR and external communications teams at AJ Bell. His current role involves direct engagement with senior policy makers in Government and regulators. He also sits on the industry working group for the joint review of advice and guidance boundaries being conducted by the FCA and the Treasury. In the past, Tom has successfully campaigned for a number of consumer-focused reforms, including banning pension cold-calling and increasing pension allowances, and he is passionate about improving outcomes for savers and retirees.
Tom is regularly quoted in national print and broadcast media, including appearances on a weekly BBC Radio London personal finance slot. He has also appeared multiple times on BBC’s MoneyBox as an expert, as well as BBC Radio, BBC News, Sky News and LBC.
1 October 2024
Pension withdrawals jump to £52 billion in cost-of-living crisisInflation may have returned closer to ‘normal’ levels in recent months, but three years of spiking prices and rising interest rates has had a huge impact on Brits’ retirement plans, with both the number of people accessing their pension and the amount withdrawn surging in the 2023/24 tax year.
Savers withdrew over £52 billion from their retirement...
19 September 2024
Are you one of the 10 million Brits with an old pension?Brits hold 10 million pension accounts in old ‘closed book’ non-workplace pensions worth a total of £250 billion, a Freedom of Information request from AJ Bell has found.
Closed book pensions are no longer open to new customers. Although some products may still represent good value, closed book providers have limited incentive to compete on cost...
9 August 2024
Why people have been taxed £1.3bn too much on their pensionsNew figures show that people have been taxed £57m too much on withdrawals from their pensions in the past three months, as the total amount of over-taxation hits almost £1.3bn.
Data from HMRC shows that in April, May and June over 16,000 reclaim forms were processed during the quarter from people who had been hit with higher tax bills than...
3 August 2024
What to do with your pension in your 40sWhen it comes to saving for retirement many of us bury our heads in the sand. It’s easy to leave it so long that you fall into the trap of feeling it is too late to start. However, this is not the case and there are lots of things that savers in their 40s should be thinking about as they build their retirement pot.
It’s never too late to startAlth...
3 August 2024
What to do with your pension in your 50sAs you enter your sixth decade you will be getting closer to retirement, meaning you will be planning for it and thinking about when and how to take a retirement income. Here are the main things you need to think about with pensions in your 50s.
Accessing your pensionIf you’re aged 55 or over then you have the option to access your defined...
5 July 2024
Five pensions and savings priorities for the new chancellorWith a stonking Parliamentary majority, new prime minister Keir Starmer has a serious mandate to pursue the reforms set out in Labour’s manifesto. The party has been crystal clear throughout the campaign it will prioritise economic growth and ‘wealth creation’ in government, although details of exactly how these will be achieved or what it might...
18 June 2024
Brits split on key issues ahead of general electionBrits believe investing money into public services (56%), economic growth (37%) and inflation (35%) are the three most important economic issues for the main political parties to consider in the upcoming general election, research commissioned by AJ Bell* reveals.
Ahead of the upcoming election, AJ Bell polled the UK public to see the key issues...
6 June 2024
Eight reasons the British ISA is a bad ideaWhile Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer are focused on finding political dividing lines ahead of the 4 July general election, the Conservatives and Labour are pretty much in lockstep over the need to boost UK capital markets as part of wider efforts to increase productivity.
The British ISA put forward by the government before the general election was...
6 June 2024
AJ Bell’s saving and investing manifesto: Radical ISA simplification and five other key priorities for the next governmentA new government with a fresh mandate post-election will have a huge opportunity to deliver lasting reforms for the benefit of savers and investors. The fact both Labour and the Conservatives have committed to ISA simplification is a huge positive, but to deliver genuine benefits to millions of Brits the next administration needs to be radical.
AJ...
17 April 2024
Stop and think before accessing your pension in ‘peak withdrawals season’The start of the tax year is traditionally peak pension withdrawal season for people with defined contribution (DC) pensions, with hundreds of thousands of savers dipping into their retirement pot – many for the very first time – in order to take advantage of a fresh set of income tax allowances. This can be a perfectly sensible thing to do...
