AJ Bell picks up customers from Hargreaves Lansdown after Woodford fiasco

AJ Bell said it had seen customer numbers rise

Mark Shapland25 July 2019

Investment platform AJ Bell today said it had seen customer numbers rise as it picked up business from under-pressure rival Hargreaves Lansdown, which has suffered from being too close to Neil Woodford.

Hargreaves has been criticised for heavily promoting the Woodford Equity Income Fund on its Wealth 50 buy list up until its suspension on June 3, despite months of continued underperformance and outflows.

AJ Bell removed the LF Woodford Equity Income Fund from its favourite funds list in September, well before other competitors stopped backing the money manager.

A spokesman for AJ Bell said: “We’ve seen some transfers come over from Hargreaves. There are no commercial arrangements or discounts to get on our list, it’s purely what our investment guys think is a good idea.”

AJ Bell said customer numbers increased 5% to 224,644 for the quarter ended June 30.

Assets under administration broke through the £50 billion mark to stand at £50.7 billion, an increase of 6% over the period.

The shares rose 4%, or 19p, to 448p.