AJ Bell plans to launch a new app within the next 15 months, the group’s chief executive Michael Summersgill revealed alongside the announcement of its full year results this morning.
“Development is underway to launch a new AJ Bell app in FY26 as we aim to deliver a more tailored investing experience for our customers,” Summersgill said.
It appears no further information regarding the new app was included in the results.
The announcement came as the UK’s second largest broking platform reported a record pre-tax profit of £137.8m in the 12 months to the end of March, up 22% from the previous financial year.
The increase in profits was driven by an 18% surge in revenue of £317.8m, aided by a 0.7bps rise in revenue per AUM to 32.3bps.
Client assets pass £100bn on strong D2C inflows
Revenue growth was driven by a 19% rise in assets under administration (AUA) to £108.2bn.
Almost half of the roughly £17bn increase came from strong net inflows of £7.5bn, with the remaining £9.3bn attributed to market movements.
The inflows went primarily into AJ Bell’s D2C platform, which absorbed £5.8bn, or 77% of the total figure.
This came as customer numbers rose by 100,000 to 657,000, with Summersgill emphasising the firm’s investment in its digital marketing capabilities as supporting the growth.
“Over the past five years, we have successfully doubled the size of our platform business, continually investing in our brand, digital marketing capability and product change delivery to drive that growth,” he said.
All in all, the results show that despite its size AJ Bell is clearly in a strong competitive position vis-a-vis the lower cost entrants to the investment platform space that have sprung up in recent years.
Summersgills calls for “Pensions Tax Lock”
When it came to challenges facing the business, Summersgill noted damage from the lack of clarity over whether the UK government would alter the tax status of pensions ahead of its annual Budget, announced in November.
He called for a “Pensions Tax Lock”, a stated commitment by the government not to make such changes.
“While no changes were made to the key incentives in the current pension system – namely, the deferral of income tax on pension contributions and a tax-free entitlement on pension withdrawals – uncertainty in the lead up to the Budget resulted in heightened pension withdrawals as customers approaching retirement responded to the extensive speculation.
“Government must do more to provide pension savers with a clear commitment to tax stability and we will continue to campaign for a ‘Pensions Tax Lock’ to deliver that certainty.”
