St James's Place under pressure to reduce fees and early withdrawal charges

Albermarle

Maybe we will have to stop criticising them in future !
St James's Place shares slump as investors fret fee structure overhaul | This is Money

artyboy

Albermarle said:

Maybe we will have to stop criticising them in future !
St James's Place shares slump as investors fret fee structure overhaul | This is Money

And maybe bears will stop defecating in the woods 🤣

But if we did need to find the next 'bad boy' to target in the high fee wealth manager list, who would that be? Fisher Investments maybe...? Serve them right for bombarding me with adverts.

El_Torro

One way to potentially reduce their fees is to offer trackers. It’s not like their managed funds perform particularly well anyway. 

Any improvement to their fee structure would help consumers anyway, so hopefully something is done.

I also wasn’t aware that SJP are in the FTSE 100. Goes to show that it’s all in the marketing. 

poppy10_2

They've been under this pressure for years, they will never change. It's too lucrative a business model, milking uninformed boomers of their money

wmb194

Announcement this morning: https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/STJ/sjp-simplifies-client-charging-models/16169182

The key takeaway appears to be no more early exit fees - but is it only for new business? - and it's going to be more transparent about what it's charging for. The included illustration still makes it look expensive, though.

"The changes announced today create a revised charging structure for the vast majority of new investment bonds and pensions. These will operate with an initial charge and ongoing charges applicable from the outset, and without any early withdrawal charges (EWC) or gestation period, as is already the case with our unit trust and ISA business."

dunstonh

So, they are moving to the same model (albeit with different pricing) that everyone else moved to before 2013. No indication that they are teiring for higher values or setting a decency cap.     So, it looks like we will still see similar scenarios where an IFA charge is £2,500 and SJP charge was £25,000 (but now £22,500)

Albermarle

poppy10_2 said:

They've been under this pressure for years, they will never change. It's too lucrative a business model, milking uninformed boomers of their money

Their shareholders do not agree with you. Since it started to become clear they would have to reduce their fees their share price has dropped 40% in less than 3 months.