Investment platform AJ Bell saw 4,960 net new advised customers for the three months ending 31 December, up 38% compared to the same period in 2020.

The platform now has 131,610 advised customers.

Despite the growth in advised customers net inflows fell from £0.8bn the previous year to £0.6bn.

However gross inflows of £1.6bn to the advised platform were 23% higher than the previous year.

The quarter is the first of the financial year for the platforms business.

Net inflows for the combined consumer and adviser platform business were £1.4bn, down 7% on the prior year (2020: £1.5bn). AJ Bell said this was due to an exceptional bulk annuity purchase, which resulted in a one-off outflow of £241m from both advised platform and AJ Bell Investments.

Excluding the impact of the exceptional outflow, underlying net inflows for the advised platform were £0.9bn, up 13% on the prior year (2020: £0.8bn).

Assets under administration for the advised platform were £47.5bn as at 31 December. They started the quarter at £45.8bn.

Assets under administration for the combined platforms business rose 23% (year on year) to £68.1bn, a rise of 4% over the quarter.

AJ Bell Investments assets under management closed at £2.1bn, up 110% over the last year and down 5% in the quarter due to the £241m exceptional outflow.

Excluding the impact of the one-off outflow, underlying net inflows for AJ Bell Investments in the quarter were £182m (2020: £147m).

Direct to consumer customers for the platforms business rose 4% over the quarter to 251,664, an increase of 35% year on year.

• AJ Bell has this week appointed Rachel Vahey as head of policy development. She was previously senior technical consultant at AJ Bell having joined the business in 2019. Prior to AJ Bell she worked at Nucleus and Aegon.

In her new role she will manage AJ Bell’s public policy strategy, with a focus on government policy and regulatory developments around pensions, investments, taxation and investment platforms. She will also be responsible for co-ordinating AJ Bell’s work with industry bodies and policy groups. 

The platform’s previous head of policy, Gareth James, has taken on a new role at AJ Bell.