Rob Burdett

3 weeks ago | moneymarketing.co.uk | Darius McQuaid |Rob Burdett

AJ Bell’s platform business has seen “record” assets under administration (AUA) of £90.4bn, up 13% over the last year and 1% in the quarter. AJ Bell released a trading update for Q1 of 2025 today. As well as advised customers of 177,000, up 7% in the last year and 2% in the quarter. Direct to consumer customers came in at 416,000, up 23% in the last year and 7% in the quarter. Therefore, total customer numbers increased by 32,000 in Q1 to 593,000, up 18% in the last year and 6% in the quarter.

4 weeks ago | moneymarketing.co.uk | Rob Burdett |Steven D. Levin |Momodou Musa Touray |Darius McQuaid

As another quarter draws to a close, attention turns to the assets that soared and those that stumbled. Among the standout performers was the seemingly weighty and unwieldy gold, which rose 19% in USD terms — its best quarterly gain since 1986. In contrast, Bitcoin, often dubbed ‘digital gold’, fell more than 12%. With headlines dominated by tariffs, conflict zones, DeepSeek’s AI launch and the Magnificent Seven slipping into bear territory, perhaps gold’s tangible solidity offered some comfort.