AJ Bell is pleased to launch AJ Bell Touch, a new streamlined platform to help financial advisers implement investment advice for their clients quickly and securely.
AJ Bell Touch allows customers to receive, review and approve actions from their advisers, effortlessly enact payments to their accounts through open banking integration, view their portfolios, and easily contact their adviser through the secure message feature entirely through the Touch mobile app. It is the first fully proprietary digital proposition of its kind in the UK adviser market to provide advised clients with an entirely mobile app-based customer experience.
Advisers can send their recommendations and key documents to their clients digitally through the adviser website for fast and secure approval, with the benefit of a permanent full digital audit trail of all correspondence and secure messages in one place.
AJ Bell Touch will sit alongside AJ Bell’s existing Investcentre advised platform and Custody Solutions institutional offering, allowing advisers to service new clients with smaller portfolios within the streamlined proposition, helping firms broaden their target market and tackling the advice gap.
AJ Bell Touch offers a simple, low-cost solution with an all-inclusive custody charge of 0.25% on pension assets and 0.20% for Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) and General Investment Accounts (GIAs) with no other fees, duties or levies payable.
Mark Rendle, AJ Bell advised platforms product director, says:
“We are delighted to be launching AJ Bell Touch at what is a critical juncture for advisers and the nation’s finances. AJ Bell Touch will provide advisers with a streamlined, scalable mobile app-based proposition that allows them to serve and connect with a wider range of clients more easily, broadening our already award-winning adviser offering. This will result in a more efficient adviser-client trust relationship, while also enhancing family wealth management and supporting advisers in incubating clients of the future.
“With many financial planning uncertainties on the horizon, not least the government’s proposed changes to the way pensions are taxed on death, regulated advice has never been more important. According to the FCA, as few as 9% of Brits received regulated financial advice in the past year, with only 17% turning to government-backed guidance services. We believe Touch will help to address that advice gap by connecting advisers with those clients who might otherwise find themselves below the average asset value threshold by reducing the administrative burden for both parties and augmenting that trust relationship rather than seeking to replace it.”
What investment options will be available?
Advisers and clients will be able to deal immediately in around 70 multi-asset funds, including the full range of AJ Bell funds, with development in progress to expand the fund range available on Touch and the delivery of ETF dealing also planned. Support for model portfolios, including third-party DFM ranges, will also follow.
What products are available on Touch?
AJ Bell Touch will offer the main products required for advised customers to save and invest easily and tax efficiently, namely ISAs and GIAs as well as Retirement Investment Accounts (RIAs) for pension savers.
Initially targeting accumulation-only customers, at-retirement options are currently in development.
How will AJ Bell Touch support advisers?
AJ Bell Touch will provide advisers with secure, automated end-to-end platform processes, including provision and client approval of all instructions and documents, client identification verification and two-way secure messaging through the adviser website and client app. This will ultimately reduce the administrative burden on advisers and those clients who may not wish or be able to attend a series of in-person meetings.
Co-branding of the AJ Bell Touch client app is standard, putting every firm’s brand front-and-centre for their clients in a matter of minutes.
How will AJ Bell Touch address the advice gap?
According the latest FCA Financial Lives survey, 9% of Brits received regulated financial advice in the year to May 2024, with only 17% turning to government-backed guidance services such as Pension Wise and MoneyHelper*. That leaves a huge portion of the population without any advice or guidance around how they make long-term financial decisions.
AJ Bell Touch will help to address this advice gap by allowing advisers to service a wide range of client segments more easily, in particular those with lower value accounts than the typical asset value among advised clients. As an app-based platform, AJ Bell Touch will also suit clients who wish to manage their finances digitally, meaning advisers will be able to reach more early accumulators with future value, enhancing the way they both build new long-term client relationships and manage family wealth.
Source: FCA Financial Lives survey 2024
