St James Place Investments

keirasgran

A post appeared recently on Facebook offering to reclaim management fees from St James Place. Apparently you must have contact with a fund manager on a regular basis and if you don't you can reclaim your charges. Does anyone know about this? Is it a scam? The so called legal firm offering to fight this for you take 40% plus vat!! if successful. 

eskbanker

Surely anyone who demonstrably hasn't received what they paid for from SJP can take that up with SJP themselves rather than throwing money at ambulance-chasers?

It sounds like a narrow technicality that might give rise to some sort of partial refund, but if you name the 'so called legal firm' concerned, rather than merely the fact that they promote their 'service' on Facebook (which is rarely a good sign in the context of legal/financial matters), then someone can take a look and offer more specific guidance....

ColdIron

Do SJP have 'management charges' as we know them? AFAIK they do not charge an explicit fee. I thought they made their money and charged for their advice via the ~5% initial fee and high AMC built into their funds, neither of which sound reclaimable to me

Facebook adverts would have to be at the bottom of the pile of places I would trust

Malthusian

Fund managers don't talk to SJP clients by and large. They just run investment funds.
If you pay an SJP adviser for ongoing reviews, and the ongoing reviews don't happen, you might be able to reclaim the fees paid over the period SJP failed to deliver the agreed service. That's a big if. A letter / email once a year with a valuation report could mean that the SJP adviser has done enough. They aren't required to break into your house, strap you into an armchair and force you to have a face-to-face meeting.
Half your reclaimed fees for sending some templated complaint letters is verging on a scam in itself. You would have a higher chance of success if you made the complaint yourself and it would be free. 
Presumably you are an SJP client or you wouldn't be interested in the advert. Terminating your expensive relationship with SJP so you can try to reclaim the ongoing fees and pay half of your reclaimed money for literally less than nothing would be a great example of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. 

dunstonh

Apparently you must have contact with a fund manager on a regular basis and if you don't you can reclaim your charges. Does anyone know about this? Is it a scam?

Nobody has access to a fund manager unless you are institutional level or a research company.  

I wonder if they are mixing up advisers with fund managers.

For business arranged prior to 1st January 2013, there is no requirement for advisers to provide ongoing regular servicing unless a disturbance event has occurred.
For business arranged between 1st January 2013 and 2nd January 2018, if the client was paying for ongoing servicing, then the adviser firm must provide that ongoing servicing as agreed.  The frequency was up to the client/firm (small values could be every 2-3 years for example)
From 3rd January 2018 for investments (but not pensions), the servicing, where it is being paid for, must be "at least annually".  That frequently means at least once per tax year for many firms but others may choose different periods that equate to annual.

If a firm has not carried out its agreed services then you can get a refund for the period in question that the servicing did not take place.  it doesn't need a claims company. You just contact your adviser.

If you are not paying for ongoing servicing then you will not get ongoing servicing and you cannot claim back something you are not paying for.

Pensions did not fall under MiFIDII.  However, most IFAs will treat pensions the same way as ISAs, GIAs and offshore bonds.  SJP are FAs and I don't know if they do or not.

The so called legal firm offering to fight this for you take 40% plus vat!! if successful. 

They are not expecting much success with that then.  (the higher the percentage, the lower the success rate).  I wonder if its a fishing expedition to try and put in scattergun complaints.   That disgraceful level of fee for a template letter hoping for the best is closer to a scam.

bostonerimus

If you have to ask about this then you are just the sort of person that the ad is targeting. You know the right answer, and it starts with "if it's too good to be true...".

Bigwheels1111

Trusting a Facebook ad, let me think about it.
I’ve got it, hit myself on the head with a 3 pound hammer until I can’t remember my own name and sigh up.
All good.

The guy next door to me is building a very big boat because of all the rain, he is selling tickets, should I buy one ?.