Prudential to St James Place

Moneysaver1970

I have an Investment bond with Prudential in a growth fund which has done quite well.
Not a lot of risk with it.
My adviser has joined St James Place wealth and wants me to move it into a similar risk fund.
I will be tying money up for 5 years but she says it should hopefully do better.
If I do not touch it then their is no fees.
Anyone any experience of this company.

xylophone

St James Place wealth

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5869996may be worth a look.

bowlhead99

Moneysaver1970 wrote: »

I will be tying money up for 5 years but she says it should hopefully do better.
If I do not touch it then their is no fees.
Anyone any experience of this company.

I've looked already given lots of threads about dealing with St James's Place or SJP for short, if you search on this board with the search tool near the top of the page.

When you say "if I do not touch it then their is no fees", you mean there is no exit fee if you don't take your money out. But it's unlikely that there is no fees at all, because SJP don't offer their products free of charge.

They charge fees for investment management to the funds in which you're invested, and the funds they put you into will incur running costs, and they also need to get paid for advice. Unfortunately if you later realise you could get better quality of funds or lower all-in costs from an independent advisor, you will come up against the fact that you have an exit penalty so are trapped with the fees and may end up staying several years longer than you want, to avoid that big charge.

If your advisor was previously independent and doing his job properly, the fund you are already in is probably suitable for your needs. Unfortunately it's no longer suitable for the advisor's own needs, as he is supposed to be only telling people to use SJP products if he wants to join the SJP team. So, he has suggested you move, with the threat of later exit costs if you don't like how SJP do things. It doesn't seem like much of a 'win' for you, does it.

A few things to ask him are: if the existing fund is suitable for my needs, why move it? if it is not suitable for my needs why did you recommend I kept it all this time if better things were on the market? why would I believe that SJP products are better than the ones available in the whole of the market? why would I want to sign up to pay you a large penalty fee if I am not satisfied with the product or service you start to offer after your move to the new business model?

If you like the adviser and don't want the hassle of finding a new one, at least agree with him to waive the ludicrous exit fee, as you would only be leaving if the service, fund quality, or cost turned out to be poor.

SonOf

I have an Investment bond with Prudential in a growth fund which has done quite well.

As an IFA, the old 2005 or earlier Pru WP bonds are one of the few that we keep running today and would not switch out of them in most cases (caveats apply). They do exactly what they are meant to.

Of course, you are not getting advice from an IFA. You are getting it from an SJP sales rep who can only sell SJP products. So, you wouldnt expect unbiased advice.

My adviser has joined St James Place wealth and wants me to move it into a similar risk fund.

SJP do not offer anything comparable in method. And he wants you to move it so he can earn 5% of the value.

Anyone any experience of this company.

The choice should either be to DIY or use an IFA. SJP are FAs. Sales reps. And should be avoided unless you like having expensive products with substandard investments.

DrSyn

I only know of SJP from what I read about them.

1. Do a search on this forum for St. James Place and you will find many posts.


2. The following reviews, may be of interest:-

https://www.yodelar.com/insights/st-jamess-place-review

https://www.which.co.uk/news/2017/07/exclusive-wealth-manager-st-jamess-place-misleading-customers-on-charges/

atush

I wouldnt touch SJP with a barge pole.

Find a new IFA

AnotherJoe

AnotherJoe

p.s the name you chose to sign up here is "MoneySaver".
And you are looking at moving to SJP.

Moneysaver1970

Thanks for replies. Give me something to chat with her

Moneysaver1970

Hi i mentioned Yodlear and was told it was set up by an adviser banned by the fca who is a lead generator

Zanderman

Moneysaver1970 wrote: »

Hi i mentioned Yodlear and was told it was set up by an adviser banned by the fca who is a lead generator

I assume you mean yodelar.

Of whom I know nothing - but whoever they are their review of SJP linked above seems reasonably fair to me - as it tallies with what every other critic says about SJP - they're expensive, don't give you unbiased advice, restrict you to certain funds and are, therefore, almost certainly not the best place to move to if you're already doing " quite well" with Prudential.

If your adviser has moved to SJP they are not, simply NOT, going to give you impartial advice anymore. They may have done before. But they won't be now. So "chat with her" by all means, but don't expect her to agree with the points raised in this thread!

You need a new Independent Financial Adviser.