AJ Bell has launched a stocks and shares Lifetime ISA for clients of financial advisers via its Investcentre platform. 

The firm believes it is only the second adviser platform to offer a Lifetime ISA (LISA) and it said it was responding to demand from advisers.
 
The AJ Bell Investcentre LISA offers advisers and their clients access to the platforms’ range of investments, which includes more than 4,000 clean share classes, as well as the AJ Bell passive fund range and the platform’s Managed Portfolio Service (MPS), which offers both passive and actively managed portfolios.

AJ Bell’s regular investment service is also available via the new LISA.
 
There is no set up charge for the LISA and there is a tiered annual custody charge based on fund size across all accounts held on the platform including SIPP, other ISAs and general investment accounts:
 
• 0.20% for assets up to £1m
• 0.15% between £1m and £1.5m
• 0.10% between £1.5m and £2m
• 0.00% above £2m
 
Online dealing ranges from no charge for regular investments to £3.95 for one off trades.
 
The LISA offers a 25% Government bonus up to a maximum investment of £4,000, which will be paid monthly via the AJ Bell LISA.
 
A £5,000 LISA investment held in AJ Bell’s Passive Balanced fund would cost £33.50 a year (0.20% for the platform, 0.47% for the fund = 0.67% of £5,000 = £33.50). 

For 2018, AJ Bell is waiving its platform fee for investments into its passive funds, making the cost this year £23.50.
 
Andy Bell, chief executive of AJ Bell, said: “Advisers have indicated to us that there is demand for Lifetime ISAs from some of their clients and so we are adding it to the platform for them. 

“Our aim is to make investing easy for advisers and their clients and having the full range of investment accounts available via our platform enables them to maximise the tax efficiency of their portfolios in one place.”