Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Thursday 18 January 2024. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
AJ Bell customer numbers surge
AJ Bell has reported an 8% surge in advised customer numbers in the past year, as they hit 161,000 – up 1% in the latest quarter.
In a trading update for the first quarter, the platform said total D2C customer numbers now stand at 323,000 – up 13% in the last year and 2% in the quarter.
Client growth ‘top priority’
Client growth remains a “top priority” for advisers after nearly half expanded their client bases last year, a new report by SimplyBiz has found.
The survey revealed 46.5% of those surveyed had seen an increase in client numbers over the past twelve months.
Client bank growth was also chosen at the top priority for 2024 by the majority of respondents.
Unleashing the she-wolf investor
In his memoir The Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort brings to life an illegal, reckless and aggressive style of investing, using hard-sell tactics to push questionable stocks to investors.
This bestselling book was later turned into a Hollywood blockbuster and is symptomatic of the prevailing narrative that sees females often taking a backseat when thinking about investors.
After all,says Brooks Macdonald’s Claire Barker, investing is a man’s game and, when it comes to their money, women simply aren’t prepared to take the risks that men are. Or are they?
Quote Of The Day
The benefits of investing in alternatives are many, from diversification of portfolios to returns linked to inflation.
– Hamish Bailey, managing director UK and head of insurance and investment at Ortec Finance, comments on a survey which found insurance asset managers are set to continue to increase their allocation to alternative asset classes over the next three years
Stat Attack
UK inflation increased to 4% in December and, as such, it has never been more important to understand the current financial climate. Despite this, many people still find financial jargon confusing and intimidating.
With this in mind, City Index used Ahrefs, a search analytics tool, to find the top 50 most confusing financial terms based on their annual and monthly search popularity.
| Rank | Finance term | Monthly average searches for the definition (UK) | Annual average searches for the definition (UK) | Average monthly searches for definition (worldwide) | Average annual searches for definition (worldwide) |
| 1 | Equity | 22,700 | 272,400 | 277,000 | 3,324,000 |
| 2 | GDP | 12,100 | 145,200 | 162,000 | 1,944,000 |
| 3 | Acquisition | 2,900 | 34,800 | 106,000 | 1,272,000 |
| 4 | Principal | 2,400 | 28,800 | 104,000 | 1,248,000 |
| 5 | Correlation | 2,100 | 25,200 | 82,000 | 984,000 |
| 6 | Asset | 1,400 | 16,800 | 73,000 | 876,000 |
| 7 | Net Worth | 3,400 | 40,800 | 41,400 | 496,800 |
| 8 | Gross Income | 5,800 | 69,600 | 40,000 | 480,000 |
| 9 | Overdraft | 3,700 | 44,400 | 30,400 | 364,800 |
| 10 | Investment | 3,400 | 40,800 | 30,000 | 360,000 |
Source: City Index
In Other News
Calculus has launched a new HMRC-approved knowledge intensive enterprise investment scheme (EIS) fund 2.
The new offering follows the first successful knowledge intensive EIS fund, which closed in April 2023 and is on track for full investment within the coming weeks.
Closing on 5 April 2024, the fund will aim to return £2 tax free for every £1 invested and focuses on the two fastest growing sectors in the UK – technology and healthcare.
The fund offers a portfolio of at least six companies and has a minimum investment of £25,000. Investors in the fund should be able to take 30% income tax relief in this tax year (or carry back to 22/23).
The offering will once again allow investors to support innovative, purposeful UK companies driving the digital revolution forward and improving healthcare.
Typically, a knowledge intensive company carries out research and development or innovation to create intellectual property (IP).
Knowledge intensive companies tend to be young, innovative businesses employing skilled individuals.
At least 80% of the fund’s capital will be invested into businesses carrying out research and development to create new IP.
From Elsewhere
Bobby Jain’s hedge fund launch falls short of $8bn-$10bn target (Financial Times)
Barclays CEO defends investment bank ahead of investor day (Bloomberg)
‘You feel like you can’t fight back’: How thousands are being targeted by a harsh HMRC tax-collecting scheme linked to 10 suicides (Sky News)
Did You See?
There has been some improvement in workplace culture for women working in financial services since 2018, but “misogynistic mindsets” remain widespread, the Treasury select committee has discovered.
The committee has today (17 January) published a summary of a roundtable discussion with 40 women from 30 firms in the financial services sector, held in November last year.
Attendees said they felt there had, overall, been a reduction in levels of overt sexism in the workplace, such as “office banter”.
But behaviours have instead become more “underhand and pernicious”.
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