Senior Business Analyst

New partnership announcement: AJ Bell. Firenze signs partnership with award-winning investment platform, AJ Bell Investcentre, adding Lombard lending as a solution for advisers to provide their clients. Advisers using the AJ Bell Investcentre platform can now offer high-net-worth clients fast, flexible, tech-enabled portfolio lending without disrupting investment strategies or triggering capital gains tax. These clients can borrow against the value of their General Investment Account (GIA) or offshore bond, subject to meeting current conditions. This can be achieved without selling assets, disrupting their investment strategy, or triggering capital gains tax. Lombard lending can also service as in intelligent cash flow solution, providing access to capital without sacrificing market exposure. This removes the need to transfer assets to a private bank, and enables clients to continue benefitting from investment returns while their facility is in place. Increasing access to Lombard lending through investment platforms. With the addition of AJ Bell to its growing list of partners, Firenze Group now work with firms representing a combined AUM of £200bn. As one of the UK's largest investment platforms, AJ Bell's decision to allow access to Lombard lending signals how it is extending beyond the realm of private banking and into the mainstream. Previously, barriers to entry - primarily the requirement to hold assets with a private bank - prevented the majority of UK investors from capitalising on the opportunities Lombard lending presents. By allowing clients to secure a facility against their portfolio, advisers can now offer a flexible, tax-efficient route to liquidity. This includes funding a property purchase, supporting the next generation with tuition fees or a deposit, or adding sophistication to a longer-term tax or intergenerational wealth plan. How borrowing against investments works. Advisers using AJ Bell Investcentre can refer eligible clients directly to Firenze Group, to establish a Lombard facility. Key terms include: * Minimum portfolio values of £150,000 (GIA) and £500,000 (offshore bond), subject to its underwriting. * Loans from £65,000, up to 50% of portfolio value. * Facilities set up and live within 48 hours of approval for individual and joint borrowers. * Open-ended loan period with maximum flexibility on repayment. * Interest charged only on drawn balances - variable rates from Bank of England base rate plus 1.95% to 3.25%. * Simple fee structure: a one-off arrangement fee and an annual facility fee, both scaled by facility size. If you have a client who could benefit from access to a Lombard facility or if you just want to find out more, speak to its team here.

The Spotify of investing? Interactive Investor boosts its offering for those on 'family' subscription plan. Updated: 02:00 EDT, 27 May 2026 Products featured in this article are independently selected by This is Money's specialist journalists. If you open an account using links which have an asterisk, This is Money will earn an affiliate commission. We do not allow this to affect our editorial independence. Interactive Investor has boosted its offering for those on its family subscription plan, which allows customers to 'gift' subscriptions to relatives. Family members with a gifted subscription were previously limited to opening just a general investment account and stocks and shares Isa. Now, Interactive Investor has given them the ability to open the full range of investing accounts. The flat subscription fee makes the investment platform the Spotify of investing, with its family accounts working in a similar way to Spotify's Premium Family subscription. If you're on the investment platform's £14.99 a month Plus plan, you can gift five free accounts to family members. Then they can open a general investment account, stocks and shares Isa, and self-invested personal pension (Sipp) for themselves, and junior Isas for their children. The addition of junior Isas to family accounts makes this a more valuable deal, because they don't count towards one of your five free subscriptions. Camilla Esmund, senior manager at Interactive Investor, said: 'Family members across generations will have different financial pressures and goals. A family-led investment strategy can be a great way to manage these. 'Plus, it helps encourage open conversations about money and engage the whole family on investing.' How does the family subscription compare with other options? If you want to encourage your family to start investing while keeping fees low, you could do worse than Interactive Investor. Holly Mackay, chief executive of personal finance website Boring Money, said: 'Too many people don't start because they don't know how to begin or where to go. Do other members have to be close family? Interactive Investor says that the plan is 'intended' for your family, but the definition of this is down to you. The platform won't check last names or address details and won't ask you to prove your relationship with other members on the plan. 'Having a family member remove this procrastination point for you is a wonderful boost to get.' Bear in mind that Interactive Investor is a full-fat investing platform, so we're comparing it against the likes of AJ Bell*, Hargreaves Lansdown* and Fidelity*, which all charge account fees. Newer providers like InvestEngine* and Trading 212* don't charge account fees. However they often can't match more established players on features like customer service and investment research. Read more in our guide to the best investment platforms. If you made full use of the deal and gifted accounts to five family members, each one would effectively cost £2.50 a month, as a proportion of the £14.99 monthly cost. This reduces further if those family members then open junior Isas for their children. This is Money says: In our view this is a good way to get family members - who might be starting to invest with smaller amounts - into the investing habit. Holly Mackay of Boring Money references research the website conducted that suggests family influence is an 'important trigger' which gets people to start investing. 'This is more pronounced for women. Twelve per cent of women say they started to invest because of help and encouragement from a family member compared to 6 per cent of men. 'The impact of family increases once someone has taken the first step. 62 per cent of all investors say they would trust information on investing from family members.' As with Spotify, each member has their own account and log in details even though the plans are linked to a primary one. As a simple example here's a parent who gifts accounts to their partner and two children in their twenties, both with modest sized portfolios: How does the family plan compare? | Account | Main account | Partner | Child 1 | Child 2 | Total | Difference | | Isa | £30k | £100k | £10k | £20k | / | / | | Gia | - | £5k | - | - | / | / | | Sipp | £70k | - | - | £25k | / | / | | Cost | / | / | / | / | / | / | | Interactive Investor | £180 | £180 | N/a | N/a | £360 | - | | Hargreaves Lansdown | £350 | £342.50 | £35 | £157.50 | £885 | +£525 | | AJ Bell | £250 | £179.50 | £25 | £112.50 | £567 | +£207 | | Fidelity | £265 | £273.75 | £35 (with regular savings plan) | £157.50 | £731.25 | +£371.25 | | Assumptions: holdings - 50/50 shares/funds. Trades - excluded. Sources: This is Money, based on initial data from Interactive Investor and The Lang Cat | If the two children above have their own kids, they can open junior Isas for them with no further account fees to pay. Keep in mind however that some platforms don't charge account fees for junior Isas anyway, including Fidelity*, Hargreaves Lansdown*, IG* and Freetrade*. These platforms also allow you to open a standalone junior Isa, whereas you can only open a junior Isa with Interactive Investor if you're on the Plus plan. What should you watch out for? If a family member's portfolio grows beyond £100,000 they face a steep fee cliff edge, because they move onto the Plus plan at £14.99 a month. You can see this illustrated in the 'partner' column in the table above. At this point it's likely they'll be more experienced, so they may want to check whether they can save money on fees by choosing a different provider. Calculating charges based on their exact mix of assets is important, because platforms usually cap account fees when holding shares. AJ Bell* caps account fees on shares in an Isa and general investment account at £3.50 a month. The partner's portfolio size in the example above would actually work out cheaper with AJ Bell. But if their fund holdings grow, then Interactive Investor would start to work out better again, so it may not be worth switching. A flat £14.99 a month charge is cost effective especially for growing portfolios when compared with rivals such as Hargreaves Lansdown*. But if they don't need all the bells and whistles that these platforms offer, it's worth considering the likes of Freetrade*, Trading 212* and Prosper*, none of which charge account or dealing fees. Another cost your family members should look out for on the family plan is the £3.99 standard trade cost. It's worth considering setting up a free regular investing plan to avoid this fee. How do we rate Interactive Investor as an investment platform? Interactive Investor* is a good all-round investment platform, but its fee structure is what makes it stand out among major rivals such as AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown. £200 cashback when you open a Sipp. Interactive Investor is currently paying £200 cashback when you open a new pension with at least £20,000. Rather than charging account fees as a percentage of your investments, Interactive Investor charges a set monthly fee. The Core plan is £5.99 a month for portfolios of up to £100,000. Above that investors step up to the Plus plan at £14.99 a month. Flat fees are cost effective for investors with growing portfolios because they don't scale with the value of your investments - you just need to be aware of the £100,000 cliff edge.

AJ Bell reports 19% revenue increase in H1. By Dan McGrath 21/05/2026 AJ Bell has reported revenue growth of 19% in the six months to 31 March, totalling £183m. The investment platform also recorded a 15% year-on-year increase in its profit before tax, reaching £79m in this period. The firm said that this growth reflected increased investment in brand and proposition, which drove record business growth. Across this period, AJ Bell saw strong growth in customer numbers, with a record 79,000 added across the year, marking a 12% increase to 723,000 customers. Furthermore, its platform assets under administration (AUA) jumped by 5% to £108.7bn, driven by net inflows of £4.2bn and favourable market movements of £1.2bn. In its investment business, its assets under management increased by 10% to £9.8bn. The results come after the investment firm sold its platinum SIPP and SSAS business in November, resulting in £3.3bn in non-platform AUA transferring to InvestAcc Group. Chief executive officer at AJ Bell, Michael Summersgill, described the figures as an "excellent set of first-half results". He stated: "This performance clearly demonstrates the delivery of its strategy, as Corporate Finance News reinvest the benefits of its scale and operational gearing into its brand, marketing capabilities and products, driving continued market share gains. "Its strong financial position enables Corporate Finance News to continue investing for growth while also increasing returns to shareholders, demonstrated by an 11% increase in the interim dividend and an additional share buyback programme of up to £15m. "We have continually invested in our hybrid technology model, focused on delivering easy to use products on a scalable platform. As AI becomes increasingly important across the industry, we see it as an enabler to develop our platform, operations and customer interactions." In its outlook, AJ Bell stated that the UK platform market "continues to present significant structural growth opportunities", with an estimated £2.4trn being held off platform. It now expects its full-year revenue margin and profit before tax to be higher than previously guided. It added that its "excellent returns" from its investment in brand and marketing gives it confidence to invest more than originally planned in the second half of the year. It also is anticipating "materially higher profitability". Summersgill concluded: "The Government's ambition to boost retail investing is encouraging, however in both pension and ISA markets Corporate Finance News continue to see complexity and uncertainty. "The platform market presents significant long term growth opportunities, and our continued business investment positions us well to capitalise on these. We remain confident in the outlook, with strong momentum continuing into the second half of the year."