St James Place charges

imperialfin

SJP are a standout amongst the most costly dissemination channels. They are typically exceptionally smooth on expert. Notwithstanding, you are paying for it no doubt. The assets SJP offer have equivalent assets through IFAs.

I appear to review there was discussion of sjp charging heavy starting expenses too, which I haven't paid in a quarter century contributing, make certain you have full subtle elements and breakdown of all expenses and charges before you focus on the venture.

sandsy

thestens wrote: »

I asked about initial fees and was told the percentage fee is the only one. So we would be paying about 1% more with SJP? How do IFA s calculate their fees and how do you work out its 1%? Certainly sounds like a better deal, especially over time.

This is simply a lie.

Have SJP given you an illustration of what you might get back?

Look at it carefully. Towards the back, there will be a description of the initial advice charge (either 4.5% or 5%) and the ongoing advice charge (0.5%). There will also be a description of the product charges. Again, these might be split between initial product charges and ongoing product charges. Fund charges for each investment you choose are on top of this.

Then below that will be a table of how the charges reduce your investment. Then a statement of how all the charges taken together have the effect of reducing the growth you will see on your investment. THIS is the one number which is a genuine way to compare different offerings from different companies.

Absolutely do not invest unless you have seen this document - they are required to give it to you by law.

thestens

This is all so complicated!! Help!! I don't have the document you refer to. But everyone seems to be saying I'm going to waste a lot of money with SJP so I will get a second opinion. The advisor is very keen to sign us up quickly, which is off putting too.

dunstonh

thestens wrote: »

This is all so complicated!! Help!! I don't have the document you refer to. But everyone seems to be saying I'm going to waste a lot of money with SJP so I will get a second opinion. The advisor is very keen to sign us up quickly, which is off putting too.

It is quite straightforward really.

SJP are expensive and only sell their own products. Their fund range can be replicated on the whole of market with comparable alternatives (e.g. Inv Perp managed growth vs SJP managed growth - the former being the much better performer too).

The IFA alternative is whole of market. There may be some IFAs that charge more than SJP but many will charge less. So, a bit of shopping around may be necessary.

DrSyn

thestens wrote: »

This is all so complicated!! Help!! I don't have the document you refer to. But everyone seems to be saying I'm going to waste a lot of money with SJP so I will get a second opinion. The advisor is very keen to sign us up quickly, which is off putting too.

Questions to ask yourself:-

1. Why don't you have the document referred to?
Is it because the company has not been given it to you? If so why have they not given it to you. Is it just an oversight or is there something they prefer you do not see?

2. Why is the advisor keen to sign you up quickly?
Is it just because they are keen to get their commission? Or is it because they think you might findout something? Or do they think you might change your mind?

Personally, if anyone wants me to make a decision quickly where money is concerned, I immediately become suspicious of their motives. I always take my time where money is involved.

thestens

Yes I'm certainly smelling quite a few rats here! Has anybody experience of Candid Financial Advice ? I've seen it recommended in other posts and it's certainly a lot cheaper than SJP.

dunstonh

thestens wrote: »

Yes I'm certainly smelling quite a few rats here! Has anybody experience of Candid Financial Advice ? I've seen it recommended in other posts and it's certainly a lot cheaper than SJP.

Why not try your local IFA firms. Small local businesses relying on local trade and employing local people. Accessible to you easily. Local firms also rely on word of mouth. With your amount being invested, you should get access to a director/partner/owner giving you long term consistency.

Rollinghome

thestens wrote: »

Yes I'm certainly smelling quite a few rats here! Has anybody experience of Candid Financial Advice ? I've seen it recommended in other posts and it's certainly a lot cheaper than SJP.

It's run by Justin Modray and his partner Ian Millward. Both are unusually well qualified compared to most IFAs and Modray, with an LSE degree in Accounting and Finance, set-up and ran the candidmoney.com free advice site some years before starting Candid Financial Advice. He previously worked for BestInvest both as an IFA and handling media relations for them.

I've never used his service but you might get something of an insight by reading the Candidmoney website. You'll find plenty of comments and interviews of him by googling his name.

Finding the right IFA is difficult and you need to check out a few for comparison but if I were looking that's possibly where I'd start.

Mothman

My best friend uses SJP for everything financial i.e Pension, Banking, S&S Isa. He has just taken early retirement and has moved to pension drawdown for which SJP have kindly increased his AMC from 1.5% to 2%. However he says they have agreed to waive the additional 2% that they would normally take from the pot for arranging drawdown (big of them).

He has agreed to my suggestion to set up a very basic dummy portfolio on Trustnet using a one or two VLS funds to give the same equity mix as the SJP fund(s) plus a property fund if needed, SIPP charges based on one of the online providers will then be deducted to give a comparison. Of course it's possible that the SJP porfolio will out perform the dummy one despite their high charges, if so then I'm sure he will feel very smug and delight in telling me so. However I fear the opposite and that he will be significantly poorer before he realises.

bowlhead99

Mothman wrote: »

He has agreed to my suggestion to set up a very basic dummy portfolio on Trustnet using a one or two VLS funds to give the same equity mix as the SJP fund(s) plus a property fund if needed, SIPP charges based on one of the online providers will then be deducted to give a comparison. Of course it's possible that the SJP porfolio will out perform the dummy one despite their high charges, if so then I'm sure he will feel very smug and delight in telling me so. However I fear the opposite and that he will be significantly poorer before he realises.

Clearly if you already know how to allocate your assets to meet your goals and risk tolerances you don't need an IFA at all.

However, to get advice from a FA on how to allocate your assets between (say) equities and bonds and properties and then go and "copy" those allocations to build a DIY portfolio and say the DIY portfolio is cheaper than taking advice, seems like a bit of a cheat, no?

Presumably the FA will be targeting particular asset classes and fund strategies with your objectives in mind, which might be more complex than "have the capital value track the global indexes up and down". So no doubt you may get a better return from the "VLS" index in one case or another but your pal would need to run it for quite a lot of years to conclude he made the wrong choice.

Now he's in draw down its possible/likely that the SJP advisor has re- focused the portfolio, perhaps for example aiming for low volatility with higher income focus or whatever. That's not something that VLS aspires to offer, so the profile of the VLS returns would, necessarily, be very different. It would take quite a long period to work out whether disregarding the specific objectives and simply chancing that a low fee fund with withdrawals from capital, would get a better result than something bespoke.

But with fees of 2% a year for the advised portfolio it sounds like it would have a chance at least. Please do come back to the thread and update us in 15-20 years as he progresses through retirement.

Of course I'm not saying SJP are good or bad at what they do for the money (but we know they have a reputation for being very pricy); just that it is hard to draw meaningful conclusions from picking very different portfolios and charting the values.