Press Releases

Following the launch of a new cash Lifetime ISA by Nottingham Building Society, AJ Bell looks at whether the Help to Buy ISA or Lifetime ISA is better for different customers.

The Government would risk a backlash from younger voters if it caves to pressure to scrap the Lifetime ISA (LISA), AJ Bell warns.

Last month the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its Retirement Outcomes Review, a long-awaited report on the pension freedoms.

Graduates have paid off £50 million in student loans that they didn’t owe in just one year

AJ Bell has today launched a new mobile app for clients of AJ Bell Investcentre, its adviser platform. The option to add adviser branding will be added later this year.

The Lifetime ISA is a valuable new option for people saving for a house deposit or retirement but there are some complications in the rules that are catching investors out.

The AJ Bell Managed Portfolio Service (MPS) and its range of passive funds have now been mapped to the risk ratings provided by EValue and Defaqto.

AJ Bell has launched a stocks and shares Lifetime ISA (LISA) for clients of financial advisers via the AJ Bell Investcentre platform. AJ Bell is only the second adviser platform to offer a LISA.

AJ Bell Investcentre has announced two unique Luminary 2018 seminars for advisers and paraplanners this June.

AJ Bell has reduced the price investors pay for its Passive Balanced fund by 6% as part of a wider commitment to passing economies of scale back to investors as it grows its fund business.

AJ Bell has today become the first investment platform in the UK to launch a Developer Hub through which banks and other financial apps will be able to request to link to the AJ Bell Youinvest platform.

Continued strong growth at AJ Bell boosts profits by 24% ahead of potential IPO

AJ Bell has signed a multi-year deal with British Triathlon to become title partner of the AJ Bell World Triathlon Leeds.

AJ Bell, one of the UK’s leading investment platforms operating in both the direct-to-consumer and advised markets, has appointed Laura Carstensen to its Board as non-executive director as it prepares to list on the London Stock Exchange.

Next month (6 April 2018) is the third anniversary of the pension freedoms and new research* from AJ Bell shows that:

Investors have exactly three weeks today to make the most of this year’s £20,000 ISA allowance before the end of the tax year.

Ryan Hughes, head of active portfolios at AJ Bell, analyses the funds that could be considered by ISA investors with three different attitudes to risk and one for income seekers:

As the Lifetime ISA (LISA) approaches its one year anniversary, analysis from AJ Bell shows that many LISA investors are responding to rising inflation and seeking value in funds. Cash holdings, which accounted for 46% of all LISA holdings in September 2017, have fallen by 13% in the past 5 months whilst fund holdings have enjoyed a 10% rise over the same period.

“The FTSE 100 looks to be stabilising in the wake of February’s sudden sell-off but the index is still trading some 7% below the all-time closing high of 7,779 reached two months ago. It is being helped by a slight retreat in Government bond yields, where an increase had threatened to suck some cash away from stocks, and especially sterling, whose gains in late 2017 had threatened to unpick the simple, post-Brexit-referendum narrative of pound down/FTSE 100 up,” says Russ Mould, AJ Bell Investment Director.

Analysis of investment trends via AJ Bell Youinvest (www.youinvest.co.uk) so far this ISA season shows:

“Although Chancellor Philip Hammond failed to stick to the planned 15-minute script, he stayed ‘on message’ otherwise, reaffirming the Government’s commitment to reducing the annual budget deficit and the £41 billion annual interest bill on the overall national debt,” says Russ Mould, AJ Bell Investment Director.

AJ Bell has launched four new portfolios within its Managed Portfolio Service (MPS) that are targeted to provide a specific level of income. The income portfolios have been launched in response to the ongoing demand for income solutions from advisers and their clients and will be particularly relevant to income drawdown clients.

With just over a month until the tax year end, AJ Bell senior analyst Tom Selby outlines his top ten tips to help consumers keep a step ahead of the taxman and turbo-charge their savings.

AJ Bell has launched an active management version of its Managed Portfolio Service for financial advisers. The new portfolios, which are available exclusively on the AJ Bell Investcentre platform, give advisers greater flexibility to meet differing client needs by mirroring AJ Bell’s existing passive MPS but with the new portfolios implemented via a choice of actively managed funds.

“America’s leading stock indices have yet to fully recover all of the ground they lost in early February but they are still in positive territory for the year, to suggest that a big freeze is not about to engulf the markets just yet,” says AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould.

AJ Bell Youinvest has overtaken Hargreaves Lansdown to take the top spot in Platforum’s annual Investor Experience Leaderboard and was voted Best Direct Platform at the awards ceremony held on 13 February.

AJ Bell has reduced the management charge on its Managed Portfolio Service (MPS) by 40%. The price cut came into effect on 1 February 2018 and sees the annual management charge reduce from 0.25% + VAT to 0.15% + VAT. The change makes the AJ Bell MPS one of the cheapest in the market for financial advisers and their clients.

Research under Mifid II spotlight underperformed the market last year.

AJ Bell’s new head office at 4 Exchange Quay (EQ4) has been independently recognised as a high-performance workplace, ranking it as the highest rated office in Manchester.

“Some investors may be feeling a little groggy today after a sharp pullback in two cannabis tracker funds which are traded in America, following comments from US Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he may rescind the Obama administration’s ‘Cole Memo,’ which loosened federal rules on medical or recreational use of marijuana,” says Russ Mould, AJ Bell Investment Director.

Gold may have been put in the shade by a barnstorming performance from global equities (and Bitcoin) but it rose by a perfectly respectable 13% in dollar terms in 2017 and it has started the new year with rattle, going back above $1,300 an ounce.

“One technical sign of a really healthy market is good breadth, with lots of the constituents taking an index higher, while it can be a cause for concern if a small group of heavyweight stocks or just one hot sector, is responsible for a benchmark’s gains,” says Russ Mould, AJ Bell Investment Director.

The statistician and philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb gave the name “Black Swan” to an unpredictable, even highly improbable event that could have an unforeseen extreme impact, and with global financial markets enjoying a period of remarkable calm investors need to be on the look-out for possible shocks to make sure they are not caught off guard in the year ahead.

The FTSE 100 could launch a concerted attack on the 8,000 mark for the first time in 2018, according to investment platform AJ Bell

AJ Bell has seen profit before tax increase by 29% to £21.7 million for 2017 (Full Year 2016: £16.8m) as the investment platform continues its strong growth of customers and assets under administration (AUA).

“The old saying ‘markets like to climb a wall of worry’ proved spot on in 2017,” comments Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

After a relatively quiet year for pensions in 2017, Andy Bell, chief executive of AJ Bell outlines five areas of the pension system that policymakers need to address in 2018.

“The start of a new year is always a good time to take stock of your finances but this year there are a number of specific changes coming into effect in April 2018 that people should be planning for,” comments Tom Selby, senior analyst at AJ Bell.

2017 has been an interesting year for retail investors. With equity markets hovering around record levels many portfolios will be looking very healthy but this also raises the question of whether we are reaching the end of the bull-run and are moving into bubble territory.

A relentless series of new all-time highs for the main US stock market indices will be welcomed by investors in American shares and funds but it also raises questions about the outlook for 2018.

Pensions legend Mike Morrison has been given the prestigious lifetime achievement award at the annual Personal Finance Society awards, which took place last night (Wednesday 22 November) at the Roundhouse in Camden.

As the Work and Pensions Committee today continues its probe into the pension freedoms and how to engage the public with pension planning, new research suggests UK consumers entering income drawdown are three times more likely to seek professional financial advice than they are to use the Government’s free Pension Wise service.

Kevin Doran has been appointed chief investment officer and managing director of AJ Bell Investments with immediate effect.

AJ Bell calls for provider discretion on death benefits to be abolished

Engagement gap could be leading to poor decisions.

AJ Bell believes a cut to the pension Annual Allowance is the most likely outcome in the Budget, rather than more radical reform of the pension tax relief rules.

AJ Bell has further strengthened its investment team with the appointment of Simon Molica as fund manager with immediate effect.

AJ Bell has launched the first Fund and Investment Trust (FIT) awards where the winners are voted for by users of its platform, both customers and financial advisers.

AJ Bell has been selected by Scottish Investment Trust to take over the running of 6,750 ISA and Dealing Accounts from its Savings Scheme on behalf of 6,000 investors.

Leading investment platform provider AJ Bell has announced the date and speaker line up for its Investival 2017 event.

AJ Bell has appointed Peter Hopkins to the role of Technical Director, with responsibility for overseeing the platforms’ technical support for financial advisers and its involvement in industry consultations.

AJ Bell has appointed Gary Dale as Sales Director of its adviser platform, AJ Bell Investcentre.

The vast majority of financial advisers say they disagree with the current Transfer Value Analysis (TVAS) assumptions used to assess Defined Benefit (DB) to Defined Contribution (DC) pension transfers, as the regulator prepares to launch a major review of its rules.

Ambiguity around the level of the Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA) means HMRC should make the rules regarding refunding pension contributions more flexible, according to AJ Bell.

As voters prepare to head to the polls, Tom Selby, senior analyst at AJ Bell looks at the key Conservative and Labour manifesto pledges on personal finance issues, as well as the major policy initiatives that went unmentioned.

New business inflows at AJ Bell grew 68% to £3.6bn during the first six months of its financial year (1 Oct 2016 – 31 March 2017) up from £2.1bn in the prior year.

AJ Bell has launched an online Due Diligence Hub that outlines the key areas advisers should focus on when selecting the right investment platform for their clients’ needs.

Stock markets are bubbling up again, with America’s NASDAQ, the UK’s FTSE 250 and Germany’s DAX all setting new record highs this week. Hopes for some details this week on President Trump’s long-awaited tax cuts are one reason why.

The most startling market reaction to Theresa May’s decision to call a General Election is sterling’s rally to around $1.28 and movements in the currency markets may well shape short-term market movements in the run-up to 8 June.

AJ Bell has launched a new capital gains tax (CGT) tool to help advisers monitor and manage clients’ CGT liabilities.

The Fundsmith Equity fund was the most purchased fund via the AJ Bell Youinvest platform during Q1 2017 but the new Woodford Income Focus fund entered the top ten at number two, despite the offer period only opening on 20 March 2017.

“The FTSE 100 is trading only marginally below its March all-time high of 7,430 and volatility is still very subdued,” comments Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

AJ Bell has launched a 72 strong Favourite Funds list and an online filtering tool to help DIY investors find the right funds for their portfolio.

AJ Bell is calling for the Government to allow adviser charging to be facilitated via Lifetime ISAs as new research suggests this would encourage take up of the product amongst advised clients.

There is only one week to go until the end of the tax year but it is not too late for investors to make use of six variations of pensions and ISAs that could net them almost £10,000 from the Government.

It is two months since Tesco and Booker announced their merger and the combination of a subsequent 9% slide in Tesco shares (taking them back to where they started before the deal became public) and opposition from two key shareholders is raising the question of whether the transaction is a good one for shareholders or not.