St. James's Place - can I do better?

barnstar2077

SeniorSam wrote: »

An interesting Review of St James Place has recently been posted on You Tube. It can be reached with this link for anyone interested
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-UP-XDUPWM

There is an interesting exchange in the comments of the video between the video poster and a St James partner. Worth a look.

peterpork

Oh dear - getting that sinking feeling as I'm reading this excellent thread...
I have 400k in my SJP Pension which I want to move, eventually DIY (as I do with my ISAs) but think I probably need an IFA to untangle it first. 

Splitting with the advisor is going to be emotional BUT I think my main issue is I have a 'Asset Preservation Trust'. I actually don't know what that is, but I have a horrible feeling that's going to cause me problems!

all_tomorrows_parties

Is the 'Asset Preservation Trust' intended to receive the remaining assets in your SJP Pension after your death, or does it already contain any assets?

If it's purely the former, then it is probably easily changed, since all you've done is make an "expression of wishes" about where the Pension trustees should pay the death benefits to (and they should follow your wishes except in exceptional circumstances); and you can always update your expression of wishes.

However, it is first worth asking what is the purpose of this trust, because it might have a valid purpose, you never know! Your SJP advisor should be able to answer that.

SonOf

A lot of the trusts that are put in place are not actually beneficial to the consumer but more to prevent you from leaving them.  I have come across multiple ones which added nothing for the investor other than to make it difficult to get the money out of the company.

xylophone

Asset Preservation Trust 
https://www.sjpp.co.uk/paulbrady/documents/Asset Preservation Trust.pdf

peterpork

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated. The trust actually seems like a good thing, leaving me even more unsure of what to do!

plantpotphil

Oh dear ...I am an SJP client which has not enjoyed reading this thread. Sinking feeling!

Over the past 3 years I have invested £600,000 in various funds at SJP for my pensions, ISAs, unit trusts etc etc. I now want to move the pensions and ISAs to Vanguard. I don't know whether to wait 6 years for the SJP exit fees to expire, or jump ship now and avoid the 2% annual fee for the next 6 years.

Any thoughts?...

ColdIron

Do the exit fees only apply to pensions? I thought they used the initial fee to pay advice fees for non pensions. Might be worth checking

plantpotphil

Ah interesting, looking at <link removed> (I can't post links in this forum yet, google "sjp pension charges"), it seems that withdrawal charge is not added on top of the initial 6% fee already paid on investment. So... that means there isn't an exit fee as such? If I'm reading this correctly

"The effect of the above product and advice charges (excluding the charges for managing and maintaining underlying investments) combined is equivalent in total to a 1.5% annual management charge together with a charge which will apply to any amount withdrawn over the first six years on a reducing scale (6% in year 1 reducing to 1% in year 6). This is equivalent to the Advice and Product charges above and not in addition to them"

ColdIron

Without digging out my previous research, my understanding was that only pension funds had a tiered exit fee. You might be able to stagger your disinvestment with them. As I say, something to check