AJ Bell has promoted Ryan Hughes to be its new investments director to lead its range of multi-assets funds and the managed portfolio service for financial advisers.

Advised customers increased 10% year-on-year to 159,256 at platform and SIPP provider AJ Bell for the year ending 30 September.

Retirees are set to receive an 8.5% increase to their State Pension from April next year as CPI inflation held steady at 6.7% for the year ending September.

The UK economy returned to growth in August, with a 0.2% increase in GDP, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this morning.