Over the years, St James’s Place (SJP) has built up a reputation as a distinguished financial services firm, offering wealth management solutions to affluent individuals, families, and businesses.

But it has recently emerged that not all of SJP’s clients have been receiving the level of service they expected or have been paying for.

To set the scene, If we go back to December 31st 2012, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) – now the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – introduced ‘adviser charging’ to abolish anti-competitive commission rates.  The aim of this change was for clients to pay for the advice they received, rather than the products their advisers recommended. These charges are deducted annually from clients’ investment pots to pay for the advice provided.

It is claimed SJP clients received advice from SJP that has led them to make investment choices that may not help them achieve their financial objectives.  Others have incurred higher costs for investments through SJP, despite the availability of nearly identical investment options at lower fees elsewhere.

SJP offered clients a ‘all-inclusive’ fee package, often without informing clients of the individual components the package would cover, including a 0.5% annual adviser charge. This means that for an SJP client with a £500,000 pot with the firm, they would be looking at an annual charge of £2,500.  As well as charging fees for ongoing advice and annual reviews that have never happened.

To make matters even worse, clients who have tried to leave SJP and move their investments elsewhere have found themselves having to pay hefty exit penalties to get their hands on their own money.  Unacceptable!