AJ Bell reported a 17 per cent drop in net inflows across both its advised and direct-to-consumer platforms for the year.
In its financial results for the year ended September 30, published today (October 20), AJ Bell said its platform net inflows stood at £5.8bn, down from £7bn in its full year results for 2021.
Of this, advised platform net inflows stood at £3.3bn, down from £3.8bn in the same period last year while D2C was at £2.5bn compared to £3.2bn.
Despite this, the firm said flows remained “resilient against a volatile market backdrop”, with net inflows up 18 per cent from FY20.
Advisers’ clients using the platform increased by around 18,451 (15 per cent) to close at 145,371.
Direct to consumer customers increased by 39,236 to close at 280,281. The total was up 57,687 (16 per cent), closing at 425,652 for the year.
AJ Bell chief executive officer Michael Summersgill, said: "Advised platform inflows were strong throughout the year and customer numbers grew 15 per cent as advisers helped their clients to navigate significant market volatility.
“Net inflows for the final quarter of £0.9bn were in line with the previous two quarters, with advisers continuing to utilise the breadth of our product offering and growing suite of investment solutions to meet a wide range of client needs.”
Meanwhile, assets under administration were down 2 per cent at £64.1bn.
For AJ Bell investment, underlying net inflows in the year were £1.05bn, an increase of 14 per cent from the previous year at £922mn.
AJ Bell said its strong net inflows in the year were offset by adverse market movements of 11 per cent.
Assets under management were up by 27 per cent in the year at £2.8bn.
Summersgill said in the D2C market, its “easy-to-use platform” continued to attract retail investors.
“Net inflows for the year were strong at £2.5bn and remained resilient during the traditionally quieter summer months, with £0.3bon of net inflows in Q4 despite a slowdown in new contributions from customers impacted by the rising cost of living,” he added.
“Dodl, our new investing app, has been well received by customers looking for a simpler way to invest and we have recently launched some new features with the addition of US equities to the investment range and the enabling of account transfers from other providers.”
Summersgill took over as CEO from AJ Bell founder Andy Bell this month.
Bell first announced his departure as CEO in June but in September, he announced he was to also step down from the board of the company he created 27 years ago following talks with the Financial Conduct Authority over the risk of appointing a significant shareholder as a non-executive director.
Summersgill added: “"I am incredibly proud to have succeeded Andy as AJ Bell's CEO and am pleased to update on another very successful year for the company.
“Despite the challenging economic backdrop, our business model continues to perform exceptionally well. We have a talented and experienced management team in place that is focused on achieving our growth ambitions in the investment platform market.
“Together we are extremely excited about the long-term prospects for AJ Bell."
In July, AJ Bell delayed the launch of its new adviser app 'Touch' by up to a year, having changed the go-live date from the backend of last year to a "phased launch" starting later this year.
Once launched, the app will double up as an investment platform, allowing for information to be passed between the IFA and the client, creating audit trails on decisions for portfolios which will form part of their advice process.
A product of AJ Bell's acquisition of Adalpha in March 2021, the new adviser app is being overseen by Fergus Lyons, former managing director of Investcentre.
The app was initially meant to be soft launched amongst a small group of advisers in 2021, before being launched more widely.
sonia.rach@ft.com
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