SJP advice needed asap please

flippinmental_2

Hi everyone. Me and my hubby are in a bit of a fix. We are 60 and 64 respectively and we work together in our own small company. Neither of us are savvy in the field of pensions etc, so we needed advice on the most tax efficient way to utilise company funds and draw up pension plans for both of us. Our accountant put us in touch with a local financial advisor at a partner practice of SJP who he himself uses. We have had several meetings over the past few weeks and he has drawn up investment plans which to us all look fine and his proposals & future planning seem like good ideas, so he has put the wheels in motion and contacted providers of some small pensions we have to bring them all under one umbrella etc. End of last week we signed papers with him and we left the meeting with lots of documents to read through, and forms to complete to make the first money transfers before end of this tax year next week. Having looked through all the docs, we were surprised by the high fees and the calculations when shown in projection charts and have asked for clarification from him, and we are having a meeting with him on Thursday. I then found lots of posts on here about SJP (I'm pretty new to here) predominantly advising people to use IFAs (don't know any) or DIY (not ideal for us). I'm now starting to really panic that we have put our trust in the wrong person/place and tied ourselves into it because we've signed papers, are against the clock with the end of the tax year, and we cannot do anything now cus it's literally all just been set up for us. We really don't know what to do now, and have the meeting on Thursday. Any advice or even reassurances would be tremendously appreciated

bjorn_toby_wilde

There should be a cooling off period written in. If you only signed last week then you may well be able to stop the process.

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/savings/investing/key-facts-documents-and-cooling-off-periods-what-you-need-to-know

LHW99

SJP are not independent (ie salespeople) and they do have high charges.

Having said that, they are not scammers, and while their own funds areaverage at best, they won't run off with your money.

They are having to reduce their fees, and (I'm not sure on this one) possibly revise the long tie-in because of their exit fees, which used to run for 6 years after any deposit.

You can certainly do better with an IFA. I think you can use https://adviserbook.co.uk/, but you have to tick a box when searching to ensure the results are "confirmed independent"

dunstonh

 I then found lots of posts on here about SJP (I'm pretty new to here) predominantly advising people to use IFAs (don't know any) or DIY (not ideal for us).

You didn't the SJP sales rep until your accountant put their interests ahead of yours.  (you may wish to ask if the accountant is getting any kickback from the SJP rep for referring them to you.   Any accountant has your interests at heart would not recommend SJP. They would either say to use an IFA or your choosing or have links to an IFA of their own).

 I'm now starting to really panic that we have put our trust in the wrong person/place and tied ourselves into it because we've signed papers, are against the clock with the end of the tax year, and we cannot do anything now cus it's literally all just been set up for us. 

You have nothing to be concerned about.  Excercise your cancellation rights today.   You may also wish to consider making a complaint to SJP as there are several things they should have done  before you signed up.  Most importantly, what the charges are.  SJP as the company will take any breach by one of their sales reps seriously.   SJP has its faults but the company want their sales reps to do things correctly. 

You can also contact the existing providers and ask them not to transfer to SJP.  They can put a block on it before its lef them.

Next stop, go find a local IFA of your choosing. IFAs can range from good value to expensive (typically not as much as SJP but the cost will vary - so ask them their costs first).  Get them to support you in this.    

Albermarle

You didn't the SJP sales rep until your accountant put their interests ahead of yours.  (you may wish to ask if the accountant is getting any kickback from the SJP rep for referring them to you.   Any accountant has your interests at heart would not recommend SJP. They would either say to use an IFA or your choosing or have links to an IFA of their own).

To be fair accountants are  not always best informed about personal finance issues ( as seen many times on this forum), so they could have innocently recommended an SJP person that they had a good experience with/fell for the sales patter themselves.

Or as you say there could be something else going on....