Advised customers increased 10% year-on-year to 159,256 at platform and SIPP provider AJ Bell for the year ending 30 September.

Total customers increased 12% as direct customers increased to 317,276.

Despite the increased customer number, both gross and net inflows fell.

Gross inflows for the year were £9.3bn in comparison to £10.1bn the previous year.

Net inflows fell to £4.2bn (FY22: £5.8bn).

Despite the drop in flows, AJ Bell hit record assets under administration of £70.9bn, a rise of 11% year-on-year, contributed to by favourable market movements of 4%.

AJ Bell’s investment arm reported a 57% increase in net inflows to £1.65bn (FY22: £1.05bn), with assets under management at the end of the year at £4.7bn (FY22: £2.8bn).

Michael Summersgill, CEO at AJ Bell, said the increase in flows and assets for the investment arm was “fuelled by strong demand from advisers” combined with “strong five-year investment performance”.

He added that the platform business is working with the Government on potential ISA reforms.

He said: “At an industry level, we continue to engage with Government on potential ISA reforms, with our focus being on simplifying the existing ISA landscape to make it easier for retail investors to navigate. We believe this will encourage a greater number of people to invest via ISAs which would benefit UK listed firms given the natural home bias exhibited by retail investors.”

For the final quarter of the year (ended 30 September), gross inflows for AJ Bell’s adviser platform were £1.2bn, with net inflows of £0.4bn, the same as reported for the previous quarter.

The advised platform ended the year with 159,256 customers, in comparison to 156,368 seen at the end of the previous quarter (ended 30 June).

The platform expects to announce its full results for the year on 7 December.