AJ Bell has seen a “noticeable change” in both customer contributions to pensions and tax-free cash withdrawals ahead of the Budget this month.
In a year-end trading update, Michael Summersgill, chief executive of AJ Bell, said while the behavioural changes of customers amid press coverage in the run up to October 30, had not materially impacted business performance, it represented “significant decisions for individual customers.”
As a result of this, AJ Bell has called on the Treasury to commit to a pension tax lock in the Budget to guarantee stability in key pension tax legislation.
Elsewhere in the update, the firm reported platform customer numbers increasing by 14 per cent to 542,000.
Total advised customers rose to 171,000 while D2C customers also increased by 17 per cent to 371,000.
AJ Bell reached a record high of £86.5bn of assets under administration with gross and net inflows significantly higher this year, up 41 per cent and 45 per cent respectively.
“Our strategy is centred on our dual-channel platform which serves both the advised and D2C platform markets using a single technology platform and single operating model.
“This maximises our growth opportunity within the platform market, whilst being highly efficient to operate.
"Platform net inflows of over £6bn demonstrates the benefit of serving both markets, while our efficient model drives strong profitability, enabling continual reinvestment in the business to support our long-term growth ambitions,” Summergill explained.
AJ Bell’s investment business also performed strongly with net inflows in the year of £1.5bn and assets under management reaching a record £6.8bn.
Summergill said: “In FY24 we have enhanced our propositions, improved our brand awareness and lowered the cost of investing for our customers whilst maintaining our industry-leading service levels.
“This has helped to drive our strong performance this year, but more importantly it provides a strong foundation for our future growth prospects.
"Whilst the upcoming Budget has introduced unhelpful uncertainty, we remain positive about the outlook for AJ Bell and the platform market more broadly.”
alina.khan@ft.com
