St James Place Investment

stu20001

thanks dunstonh - that explains it nicely. cheers

bigbloke45

If the Halifax adviser had moved from St. James' Place to Halifax, I expect he would have advised a move to Halifax. Do you think that commission might have something to do with this?. If your investments were OK when he was at Halifax, why should they not be now?

See some IFA's.

earlgrey_3

jem16 wrote: »

Being independent means they are not working for any one company - they are working for the client.

I think you are being a little naive. (No doubt an IFA will come along and pat you on the head with a 'thankyou' for your post as usual. )

A company adviser is paid commission by his company. A so-called "Independent Financial Adviser", unless there is an an arrangement to rebate all of the commission, is paid by the fund management companies to flog the punters their products. Some investments pay more handsomely than others and you can guess which the advisers like best.

Most independent advisers are former company salesmen who found they were very good at selling and decided to go it alone.

It's like buying a computer from PC World rather than directly from Dell. The PC World salemen will have a wider range to offer than the Dell salesman but don't kid yourself that both aren't salesmen hoping to maximise their commission.

jem16

earlgrey wrote: »

I think you are being a little naive. (No doubt an IFA will come along and pat you on the head with a 'thankyou' for your post as usual. )

Not again - your usual IFA bashing. :rolleyes:

Yet you never answer the actual question - how many, if any, IFAs have you actually used? Each time you ignore it.

A company adviser is paid commission by his company. A so-called "Independent Financial Adviser", unless there is an an arrangement to rebate all of the commission, is paid by the fund management companies to flog the punters their products. Some investments pay more handsomely than others and you can guess which the advisers like best.

That's why an IFA can offer a fee based transaction where company "advisers" (aka slaesmen) cannot.

Most independent advisers are former company salesmen who found they were very good at selling and decided to go it alone.

Or in a lot of cases got fed up being in a sales-orientated environment and went alone so they could do better for their clients than the poor quality products they were expected to flog to unsuspecting punters.

It's like buying a computer from PC World rather than directly from Dell. The PC World salemen will have a wider range to offer than the Dell salesman but don't kid yourself that both aren't salesmen hoping to maximise their commission.

I wouldn't buy a computer from PC World if you paid me! They are definitely full of salesmen who know absolutely nothing about computers. At least Dell salesmen know their own computers and I'd buy from there first before PC World anyday.

However as I always do I don't buy from either of them. I always go to my small local computer shop whom I have dealt with for at least 10 years and who I know will build me a computer that contains the best of all the available components and does what I want it to do at a price that I want to pay. They work for me although I'm quite sure they also get their products at good prices and make money out of me too.

Blowsy

jem16 wrote: »

Being independent means they are not working for any one company - they are working for the client.

Not necessarily, there are plenty of poor, unethical IFAs out there who will seek the highest paying providers to place clients with and churn frequently. That said there are plenty of excellent IFAs out there.

Independant does not necessary mean whiter than white.

jem16 wrote: »

Fine if you like a company where some of their advisers have tried to say that they are IFAs. Now why would they do that?

I would be very surprised if this was the case. Alot of SJP advisors used to be IFAs and they are comfortable no longer being independent, where did you hear this from?

jem16 wrote: »

Of course if an IFA places your investments with a funds supermarket your investments will be spread around lots of different providers thus reducing the risk.

Sure there's more choice but if you knew anything about the SJP funds you would realise that adequte diversification is easily possible. The fund managers that operate their funds work for other firms and are not employed by SJP.

jem16 wrote: »

if you need advice on investments see an IFA and not a bank's sales rep or a tied employee.

I agree if they are employed by the bank and given sales targets. SJP advisors are self-employed and are not given sales targets other than those they set their for themselves - no different from IFAs in that respect.

dunstonh wrote: »

St James Place is a sales force. A very slick and professional one (at presentation) . However, it has a limited product range and there are heavy sales targets. If you use a St James place rep then they are employed by St James Place. If you use an IFA they are employed by you.

SJP advisors are self employed and are not given sales targets.

dunstonh wrote: »

Personality is not something that is regulated so there is no reason why an SJP sales rep (as they will be known after the FSA RDR proposals come in) will be any better or worse than anyone else. However, purely from a product and range point of view, they cannot come close to what an IFA can offer.

I wouldn't count on the "sales rep" thing sticking but I take your point on product choice. Although I do believe having to monitor whole of market creates almost as many challenges as positives.

earlgrey wrote: »

I think you are being a little naive. (No doubt an IFA will come along and pat you on the head with a 'thankyou' for your post as usual. )

...

It's like buying a computer from PC World rather than directly from Dell. The PC World salemen will have a wider range to offer than the Dell salesman but don't kid yourself that both aren't salesmen hoping to maximise their commission.

Praise the lord... some sense at last! Clearly someone who's not looking through "independant"-tinted spectacles.

jem16 wrote: »

That's why an IFA can offer a fee based transaction where company "advisers" (aka slaesmen) cannot.

Regardless of whether they choose to take commission or a fee an IFA is still in the business of making money and is keen to convince a prospect to use them over someone else... they're still selling for Christ sake!

I am not IFA bashing, I know plenty of superb IFAs but the point I am trying to make is that there are decent SJP advisors as well and despite comments here they are not a salesforce but self-employed individuals and in that respect no different from IFAs other than they cannot offer a fee option.

Thinking that an IFA isn't in the selling business is totally naive.

(end of rant!)

payless

I'm guessing that the guy could find himself in big trouble if he approached you after leaving the Halifax's employment! ( regardless to whatever connection HBOS / SJP have)

justpaper

its all a guessing game untill mon123 replies,

EdInvestor

mon123 wrote: »

yes , as this is money we have never had , hence why we need the advise .

I would suggst that at this stage you Just Say No.

What you shoiuld do is move half the money to another high interest bank account , as at the moment not all of it is protected under the Govt scheme.

Then I suggest you devote some time to reading about investment (in this forum will be a good start) so that at least you have a vague idea of what you might be getting into.

Later on you can decide what type of advisor you need.

bigbloke45

Blowsy. I'm guessing you have a connection with SJP somehow. Would this be correct?

jem16

Blowsy wrote: »

I am not IFA bashing, I know plenty of superb IFAs but the point I am trying to make is that there are decent SJP advisors as well and despite comments here they are not a salesforce but self-employed individuals and in that respect no different from IFAs other than they cannot offer a fee option.

I am sure there are decent SJP advisers but they are still a tied salesforce no matter how they dress it up.

This post will answer most of the points you made above so people can make their own mind up.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=241739

Regardless of whether they choose to take commission or a fee an IFA is still in the business of making money and is keen to convince a prospect to use them over someone else... they're still selling for Christ sake!

Then we shall need to include solicitors, accountants, doctors etc as "salesmen" too as they all sell their services to people. Where do you stop?

Thinking that an IFA isn't in the selling business is totally naive.

Thinking that SJP is not a salesforce after all posts to the contrary is totally naive.