Family linking and combined charges

Family linking is a service from the investment platform AJ Bell that lets you give a family member access to your account, so they can see it or, if you choose, deal on it. AJ Bell offers two levels of access: "View-only", where the family member can only see and monitor your account, and "Dealing" access, which allows them to act on it¹. Only one family member can have access to your account at a time, and that person must have an AJ Bell account of their own¹.

The feature answers a common household need: keeping an eye on a relative's investments without going through formal legal arrangements. It is not the same as a joint account, and it does not merge your money or your ownership. A related but separate idea, combined or linked charging, is where a firm works out fees by looking at several accounts together, and the rules require any charges on linked facilities to be spelled out in the firm's tariff of charges². This page explains what family linking does, who can use it, how to set it up and how to undo it, and where its limits lie.

What AJ Bell Family Linking is

Family linking is AJ Bell's way of letting a relative into your account, in a controlled fashion, without making them a joint owner. When you set up a link you choose between two levels of permission: "View-only" access, which AJ Bell defines as meaning "your family member can only see and monitor your account", or "Dealing" access, which goes further and lets them transact¹. The choice of level is yours, and it is the difference between someone keeping an eye on your investments and someone able to act on them.

The feature is designed for households where one person wants oversight of another's finances: an adult child helping a parent, a spouse who manages the household's investing, or siblings sharing responsibility for a relative's money. Because the linked person logs in to their own AJ Bell account rather than yours, the arrangement keeps your credentials private. AJ Bell says the linked account is viewed "by logging in to your own account and clicking the box below 'View account'", then choosing the linked account from a drop-down list¹.

What family linking is not is equally important. It does not transfer ownership of any asset, it does not create a joint account, and it does not by itself change what either person is charged. Where a firm does operate charges across linked accounts, the rules on tariffs of charges require that "details of the charges on these linked facilities (for example, charges payable on a linked current account) must be included in the tariff of charges"², so anything of that kind has to be visible in the firm's published fees rather than buried in terms.

Who can be linked: both people need an AJ Bell account

The eligibility rules are straightforward. AJ Bell states that "only one family member can have access to your account at a time, and they'll need to have an AJ Bell account of their own"¹. Two practical points follow from that. First, the person you want to link to has to open an AJ Bell account before the link can be created, which means they will have their own account with its own terms. Second, because only one link is allowed at a time, a household cannot have several people peering into the same account simultaneously; the link has to be moved if a different relative takes over.

The link also has to be accepted. AJ Bell says "your family member will be notified by email and will need to accept your request"¹, so the arrangement is consensual on both sides rather than something one person can impose. That acceptance step matters for households where there is any disagreement about who should have access.

It is worth separating this kind of link from the financial links that appear on credit files, which are a different system with different rules. AJ Bell's family linking creates no such credit-file link: it is an access arrangement on an investment platform, not a joint borrowing or lending relationship. The ICO's guidance is repeated for consumers in Wales in the same terms³.

View-only or dealing: what a linked family member can see and do

The two access levels set the boundary of what the other person can do. Under View-only access, AJ Bell states that "your family member can only see and monitor your account"¹: they can see the balance, holdings and transactions, but they cannot buy, sell or move money. Under Dealing access they can act, which makes the choice of level the single most important decision in setting up a link.

This is deliberately narrower than the alternatives a household might consider. A joint bank account, by contrast, "normally allows two or more people to receive payments, pay by debit card, transfer money and manage the account", depending on the bank⁴, and in a joint bank or building society account "each account holder can withdraw money without asking the other person"⁵. Family linking does not give that kind of unilateral control: the account remains yours, and the linked person reaches it only through their own login and only at the level you chose.

If what a household actually needs is for someone to manage money on another person's behalf, because of illness, disability or lost capacity, other routes exist and are likely to fit better. A power of attorney lets a chosen person act for you under a legal document, and each attorney "would be liable to pay any income tax and inheritance tax as well as being jointly liable for any debts" arising from the arrangement⁶. The site's guides to powers of attorney, third-party mandates and letters of authority set out those options and their differences.

One caution applies to any arrangement that lets another person see a account's activity. Guidance for financial services firms supporting customers separating from an abuser warns that account details can reveal information: "using a joint account after they have left could give the abuser access to their location (eg through cash machine locations or on bank statements)"⁷. View-only access to an investment account shows transactions and balances, so anyone in that situation may prefer not to be linked at all, or to use an account that cannot be traced to their identity or location⁸. The guide to keeping your bank account secure from an abuser covers this in more depth.

Linked access and combined charges are not the same thing

Giving someone access to an account and combining charges across accounts are two different things, and households often confuse them. Family linking is access: one person can see, or see and deal on, another person's account. Combined charging is a fee arrangement: a firm looks at several accounts together when it works out what to charge, sometimes called a household fee discount, so that a family's total cost reflects the family's total assets rather than each account separately.

Where a firm does operate charges across linked facilities, the consumer credit rules are clear that this must be disclosed. The requirement is that "details of the charges on these linked facilities (for example, charges payable on a linked current account) must be included in the tariff of charges"². In other words, if linking changes what you pay, the change has to appear in the firm's published tariff, not just in a marketing promise. Anyone comparing platforms on price can check the tariff directly rather than relying on a headline claim.

Whether linking reduces fees in practice depends entirely on the provider's charging structure, and AJ Bell's support information describes family linking as an access service rather than advertising it as a fee discount¹. The general lesson from the rules is that charges which depend on links must be stated, so a household weighing a link for cost reasons should look at the tariff of charges first. For the mechanics of everyday account charges more widely, see other account charges.

Which accounts can be included in a family link

Not every AJ Bell account can be linked online. AJ Bell lists the accounts eligible for online family linking as: a stocks and shares ISA, a Lifetime ISA, a dealing account, a self-invested personal pension (SIPP), and a ready-made pension¹. That covers the platform's main adult investment and pension products, but it leaves some accounts outside the online process.

A Junior SIPP, a pension opened for a child, can be linked, but not online. AJ Bell asks you to "fill out a Junior SIPP family linking form and email it to administration@ajbell.co.uk, or post it to AJ Bell Customer Services Team, 4 Exchange Quay, Salford Quays, Manchester, M5 3EE"¹. The paper route reflects the fact that a child's pension is held for the child rather than by them.

Junior ISAs are a different case again, because the rules that govern them are set in legislation rather than by the platform. A junior ISA application "may be made by a person who is over 16 and who has parental responsibility in relation to the eligible child, or is the eligible child"⁹. The money belongs to the child: account managers must "inform persons proposing to make a subscription to a junior ISA account (other than the named child) that the subscription" is a gift to the child¹⁰, and the legislation is explicit that "any person, not just the child and their parents, will be able to make subscriptions to an account"¹¹. A named child may hold both a cash junior ISA and a stocks and shares junior ISA, but only one of each type during their childhood, though accounts may be transferred to alternative account managers⁹.

Access to children's savings is correspondingly restricted. NS&I, for example, states that for children under 16 "only their parent or legal guardian can open an account", while children aged 16 or 17 can open their own¹², and its brochure confirms that a person with parental responsibility for someone under 18 resident in the UK can open a Junior ISA for them, with the account in the child's name and the opener at least 16¹³. Where a gift is made to someone else's child, "you won't be able to view the child's Premium Bonds account, only the parent/guardian will have access to it"¹⁴. So a grandparent or other relative who pays into a child's savings should not expect a family link to give them a view of it.

How to set up Family Linking

The process runs in a fixed order, and each step has to be completed before the next works.

1. Check the other person has an AJ Bell account. The link cannot be created until they do, since AJ Bell requires the family member to have an account of their own¹.
2. Choose the access level. Decide between View-only and Dealing access, bearing in mind that View-only means the family member "can only see and monitor your account"¹.
3. Send the request. Your family member is notified by email and must accept your request before anything takes effect¹.
4. The family member views the account. Once accepted, they view it "by logging in to your own account and clicking the box below 'View account'", then choosing the linked account from a drop-down list¹.
5. For a Junior SIPP, use the form instead. Fill out the Junior SIPP family linking form and email or post it to AJ Bell's customer services team¹.

Because the link is accepted by email, both people need working access to their own AJ Bell logins before starting. If the email does not arrive, the practical step is to check with AJ Bell's customer services team, whose address is given on the Junior SIPP form route¹.

Removing a family member or ending a link

Since only one family member can be linked at a time¹, changing who has access means ending the existing link and starting a new one. The same acceptance process applies to the new arrangement: the incoming family member is notified by email and must accept¹.

Ending an access link of this kind is administratively simple, because nothing is jointly owned. That contrasts sharply with ending financial links of other kinds. With a joint bank account, guidance for firms supporting customers separating from an abuser lists "removing the customer from the account" as one option⁷, but the credit-file link survives the closure: "closing a joint account won't remove the link to the other person from your credit file", and a "notice of disassociation" can be requested from credit reference agencies if there is no other financial connection⁴. National Debtline is blunter about joint debts: "if you still have a joint debt, there will be no way to remove the financial link until the account is closed, repaid in full or the ex-partner's name is removed"¹⁵.

Liability can also outlast the relationship. For energy bills, a person who leaves remains "jointly and severally liable for any money owed but would not be liable for any future bills after informing the energy provider"¹⁵, and sole-name credit debts stay with the person whose name they are in even after divorce¹⁵. None of this applies to AJ Bell family linking, where no debt is shared, but households untangling wider finances after a separation should expect the access link to be the easiest part to undo.

Where family linking does not apply

The online service covers only the five account types listed above: stocks and shares ISA, Lifetime ISA, dealing account, SIPP and ready-made pension¹. Anything else, including a Junior SIPP, needs the paper form¹. There is no suggestion in AJ Bell's support information that the service extends to accounts held with other providers, to bank accounts, or to products the platform does not hold.

Family linking also does not substitute for the legal arrangements that let someone manage another person's money. It is not a power of attorney, not a deputyship, and not a third-party mandate, and it should not be relied on where a person has lost capacity, because the link depends on both people keeping their own logins. The comparison guides to third-party mandate or power of attorney and third-party mandate or joint account set out the alternatives.

There are also situations where any link is the wrong choice. Guidance on supporting customers separating from an abuser warns firms opening a new account for someone who previously held a joint account with an abuser to "be careful not to link the accounts as this may make the customer's details visible to the abuser", and suggests opening an account with a different bank to avoid that risk⁷. A person in that position may need an account that "can't be traced to help protect your identity and location"⁸ rather than one linked to a relative's.

Finally, family linking does not change tax or ownership. Money paid into a child's junior ISA is a gift to the child¹⁰, and the child's account is theirs alone. A link that lets a relative see an account does not make the assets joint, and on death the ordinary rules apply: the government's Tell Us Once process requires families to contact banks, pension providers and other organisations to close or change the details of the person's accounts¹⁶.

Complaints and where to get help

If something goes wrong with a family link, whether an access level was set wrongly, a request was not processed, or money was moved without permission, the first step is to complain to AJ Bell directly. Firms must handle complaints under Financial Conduct Authority rules, and if the firm does not resolve the matter, the Financial Ombudsman Service can look at it for free. The site's guides to writing a complaint, what to do when a firm has not replied and complaining on behalf of a relative cover the process step by step.

Complaint data gives a sense of how often account access and administration go wrong across the market. Which? reported in 2021 that the Financial Ombudsman "estimates around 100 complaints per week are related to account access, termination, closures or some aspect of administration or customer service that relates to account closures"¹⁷. In the first quarter of 2026/27 the ombudsman opened 8,945 complaints about current accounts and 5,783 about credit cards, alongside 2,103 about personal loans¹⁸. Across 2025/26 as a whole there were 32,900 complaints about current accounts and 934 about credit records¹⁹, figures that show access and record problems are a substantial, ongoing category.

Free, impartial help is available at every stage. MoneyHelper, the government-backed money service, publishes guidance on joint accounts and on opening, switching or closing accounts⁴, and it advises considering a joint account "only with someone you trust, as it could damage your credit score if they have poor credit and you could be responsible if they run up debt"²¹. For problems with debt, National Debtline publishes guidance on what happens to debts on separation¹⁵, and Stepchange explains how joint accounts are treated in bankruptcy, where "half of any credit balance is paid to the OR", the official receiver²². The guide to free consumer advice lists where to turn when a dispute with a firm stalls.