St James Place Any Good

Malchester

I think the Daily Telegraph use them for their roadshows and wealth management. The quality of their financial journalism says enough!!! They are all about selling their own products, read the Saturday Money Section, most of it is selling their own things. St James are best avoided.

Alexland

There was a recent FT Advisor article saying SJP now have 12% market share. One of the guys at work recently signed away his future into their warm loving embrace. Such a waste of investment potential.

AnotherJoe

MJH87 wrote: »

Hello all,

I have just come from a meeting with someone who works with St James' place. I was impressed with everything he said and am tempted to invest in one of their products. I am completely new to investment

The reason the red is true, is because of the blue.

MJH87 wrote: »

Here is what was advised; I contribute regularly to their "International Investment Plan". The fees would be between 2.2-2.7% per annum with no initial charges. He said that it would not be unreasonable to expect net returns of 6% on this investment.

So you are contemplating using someone that will remove between one third and one half of your investment growth over its lifetime. That is worse than a thief stealing all your possessions, because they are at least honest about being a thief, and that will be much cheaper since you'll lose less even without insurance, and you can insure against it anyway. Read this.

MJH87 wrote: »

I have heard how expensive SJP are and was wondering how much cheaper would similar investments be using an IFA. Also are there any questions I should be asking to make sure I am making the right decision?

"Are my charges less than 1% overall?"

MallyGirl

My mum has done the same - including some complicated single premium life insurance policy that pays out to us beneficiaries, somehow aiming to avoid IHT. She did it without discussing with us so it was a done deal before I found out.
They were very slick.

sjp999

It annoys me greatly that a certain never undersold retailer use them as part of their staff benefits package. Makes me wonder what SJP (I also disapprove of their initials funnily enough) did for the business.

MJH87

Wow! Thank you all for your responses. I think I will politely avoid.

So, why isnt an ISA being recommended? Why aren't unwrapped holdings, which have a CGT and dividend allowance each year being recommended? What about future bed & ISA? What about pension?

This maybe because we are currently based in Hong Kong and can not invest in ISAs

Has anyone any advice on finding a IFA and what sort of things to check before investing with one?

Thanks again!

Aegis

MJH87 wrote: »

Wow! Thank you all for your responses. I think I will politely avoid.



This maybe because we are currently based in Hong Kong and can not invest in ISAs

Has anyone any advice on finding a IFA and what sort of things to check before investing with one?

Thanks again!

In which case, a word of warning: the non-UK landscape is filled with "advisers" who are essentially unregulated, and you can find yourself going into things like offshore savings plans which pay enormous commissions to the person flogging it, always at consumer detriment. It's not uncommon to see single-premium bonds with up to 12% initial charges spread out over a multi-year "establishment period" designed to hide how expensive they are. Exercise extreme caution when seeking advice on investments, and ensure that you understand what you are being charged and why. In the case of single-premium offshore bonds, for example, anything above about 1% product charge is likely being deliberately chosen by the salesman to provide them with commission.


This isn't permissible for a UK-based adviser operating within the post-RDR framework, where charges have to be explicitly stated and commission on regulated investments is banned. that said, most UK-based adviser will not be able to deal with Hong Kong residents unless there is a strong tie to the UK. In many cases, the advice itself will need to be provided while you are physically in the UK, which may be problematic for you due to the distances involved.


In short, ex-pats can get a very raw deal when it comes to obtaining advice.