St James's Place

HughThistle

I have some redundancy money which I'm planning to give to a local 'partern' os St James's Place to invest for me. I don't have any other invetments bar a pension and know little of the investment world.

So, I just would like to ask folk what kind of reputation St James's has? Any other happy /unhappy customers who would like to share their thought before i hand over my money (and trust)?

Are there any rivals I should check out before committing?

I'm grateful for any advice you can share.

Thanks

Amanita_2

SJP are NOT independent advisers - please go and find yourself a proper IFA. Preferably one recommended to you.


Thread here

jem16

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1089613&highlight=james+place

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=810179&highlight=st+james%27s+place

As Amanita says go and find yourself a proper IFA who has access to the whole of the market and not just a limited selection.

Ifts

A good site to find an Independent Financial Adviser: unbiased.co.uk

whiteflag_3

HughThistle wrote: »

I have some redundancy money which I'm planning to give to a local 'partern' os St James's Place to invest for me. I don't have any other invetments bar a pension and know little of the investment world.

Why St James Place , I take it you didnt just pluck them out of the air?

HughThistle

whiteflag wrote: »

Why St James Place , I take it you didnt just pluck them out of the air?

No, my friends have had an investment plan with them for a number of years and are quite happy. Thought I should try a slightly bigger sample group first though. To be honest, I like the fact that they say they can tailor the portfolio to suit me rather than picking something from a fund supermarket, which i could get way wrong.


Thanks for the link to the other threads--some quite strong opinion on there! I'm presuming that even though some of these comments are a bit old it is pretty representative of where they stand now? 400,000 customers seems quite a lot to me; if they are just working for the commission they must be getting something right.

Thanks for all the advice--seems I really should see a IFA.

stv1x

HughThistle wrote: »

So, I just would like to ask folk what kind of reputation St James's has? Any other happy /unhappy customers who would like to share their thought before i hand over my money (and trust)?

Very, Very, UNHAPPY with them!

My advice would be to go elsewhere. Advisors wrap their service up in the SJP paraphernalia, including guarantees, but the reality is that their so called 'Partners' fall outside of these guarantees as soon as they offer you something that isn't an SJP product despite it appearing as such. Additionally, the Partner that I used, had NO professional Indemnity Insurance.....far from professional. I'm happy to share my experience as a risk averse investor and the diabolical advice I was given that resulted in major financial loss with anyone who wishes to know....just PM me.

Steve

pizzagirl

This is thinly-veiled spam for St James Place it seems

dunstonh

pizzagirl wrote: »

This is thinly-veiled spam for St James Place it seems

Sort of back fired if it is.

jem16

HughThistle wrote: »

To be honest, I like the fact that they say they can tailor the portfolio to suit me rather than picking something from a fund supermarket, which i could get way wrong.

As can any IFA although they will do it better than any tied agent with limited funds.

whiteflag_3

jem16 wrote: »

As can any IFA although they will do it better than any tied agent with limited funds.

Are you sure ? Id like to agree with you but I dont think there is any hard evidence to back this up.

What an IFA can certainly do is source a cheaper option than SJP/tied agents .