AJ Bell has reported a 22% annual jump in assets under administration (AUA) to a record £86.5bn in its full-year results.

The investment platform also grew its customer numbers by 66,000 in the year to 30 September, to close at a record 542,000, a figure up 14% in the year.

AJ Bell also revealed that gross and net inflows across the platform were significantly higher than last year, which was driven by continued investment in the group’s brand and propositions, alongside improved retail investor confidence,

CEO at the investment platform, Michael Summersgill, said that the firm’s strategy is centred on its “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,” Summersgill said. “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.”

AJ Bell also announced that its investment solutions continued to attract strong flows in both the advised and D2C markets over the year, with net inflows totalling £1.5bn.

This helped to drive assets under management in this part of the group up to £6.8bn, a total 45% higher than a year ago.

“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,” added Summersgill. 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.”

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