St James's Place

[Simpo Two]

I have been increasingly disappointed with my IFA, who got off to a great start but then lost interest. I have assorted investments accumulated over 10 years and it's messy. Part of me wants to sell the lot and buy a house to let, but housing isn't cheap enough to jump yet.

I know someone who works at Unigestion but they only deal with Russian billionaires, so I fail on both counts! However they have suggested someone at St James's Place: www.sjp.co.uk/portal/internet/

Does anyone have any views good bad or indifferent please?

[scotal]

YHM.

[Beardy10]

I have had more cold calls/letters of solicitation from SJP over the years than I care to count.....I know nothing about them other than I feel a good IFA shouldn't need to do that to get business. Of course I am sure there are good people working there....make sure you know the fees upfront and ask them about their asset allocation strategy/what there favourite sectors are and why. Most IFA's are not very good at the latter.....

Have a look at consolidating all your savings on one of the wrap platforms....I have, it's great being able to see everything in one place.

[Simpo Two]

Thanks, you've confirmed my own opinions.

A 'wrap platform' is that where you have a fund of funds and pay double fees? You see I'm tired of all the middle-men happily chipping bits off my investments and not caring whether the actual sum goes up or down.

[Dave9]

I think they are Multi Tied not IFA's but I could be wrong

[NoelWatson]

Beardy10 said:

I have had more cold calls/letters of solicitation from SJP over the years than I care to count.....I know nothing about them other than I feel a good IFA shouldn't need to do that to get business.

Doesn't the I in IFA stand for Independent?

[scotal]

NoelWatson said:

Doesn't the I in IFA stand for Independent?

A multi tied advisor can qualify as independent, provided their panel is large enough to be "representative".

A whole bunch of definitions will get even more confusing come the RDR.

[ukshooter]

I'm with St. James's Place, feel free to check my website or pm me with any questions www.ianmorgan.co.uk

This will get you to some info about the investment approach, asset allocation etc http://www.sjpp.co.uk/special.php?page=extra2&...

Edited by ukshooter on Tuesday 7th December 23:31

[NoelWatson]

ukshooter said:

I'm with St. James's Place, feel free to check my website or pm me with any questions www.ianmorgan.co.uk

This will get you to some info about the investment approach, asset allocation etc http://www.sjpp.co.uk/special.php?page=extra2&...

Edited by ukshooter on Tuesday 7th December 23:31

I know someone that works for SJP and he insists that they are able to pick finds that outperform the market on a risk adjusted basis. How do they manage that?

[anonymous-user]

swerni said:

I've banked with SJP since I left Coutts in 2002.
I can put you in touch with my account manager / IFA if you like.

Out of interest, how do you find their "private banking" compared to Coutts?

[anonymous-user]

swerni said:

MRSNEAK said:

swerni said:

I've banked with SJP since I left Coutts in 2002.
I can put you in touch with my account manager / IFA if you like.

Out of interest, how do you find their "private banking" compared to Coutts?

It's a different proposition.
In essence it's on internet bank with a call centre in Scotland and your own IFA /Account Manager.
You also need a clearing bank or you have to rely on the postal service to bank cheques.

It fits my needs but I'm not an overly sophisticated client.
If I were into more complex and rapid transactions then Coutts would certainly be the better choice.

Which bank do you work for?

Interesting thanks.

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 9th December 09:56

[Simpo Two]

swerni said:

I've banked with SJP since I left Coutts in 2002.

I thought SJP was a firm of IFA selling machines not a bank?

[anonymous-user]

I stand to be corrected:

I am fairly sure the SJP are not an Independent Financial Advisor - I can't remember the new term but I think they are what used to be called a multi-tie agency.

Coutts again are not IFA, but Adam and Co do have IFAs within their business.

No slight or offence intended and will delete ASAP if wrong.

[Simpo Two]

Ah, figured it out - two login names!

Banking is sorted, just need somebody to turn X into 2X

[NoelWatson]

Simpo Two said:

swerni said:

I've banked with SJP since I left Coutts in 2002.

I thought SJP was a firm of IFA selling machines not a bank?

I will debate the "I" until proven otherwise, but agreed on selling machines

http://blogs.thisismoney.co.uk/2010/09/st-jamess-p...

[anonymous-user]

swerni said:

MRSNEAK said:

swerni said:

MRSNEAK said:

swerni said:

I've banked with SJP since I left Coutts in 2002.
I can put you in touch with my account manager / IFA if you like.

Out of interest, how do you find their "private banking" compared to Coutts?

It's a different proposition.
In essence it's on internet bank with a call centre in Scotland and your own IFA /Account Manager.
You also need a clearing bank or you have to rely on the postal service to bank cheques.

It fits my needs but I'm not an overly sophisticated client.
If I were into more complex and rapid transactions then Coutts would certainly be the better choice.

Which bank do you work for?

Interesting thanks.

Adam & Company

Just looked at filling your form in, but I hate rejection

If you're really interested, drop me a PM, I promise to make any rejection as gently as possible .

[Cogcog]

I notice one particular company using Linkedin. I keep on getting their IFAs pop up as potential connections so assume they are either cruising Linkedin and making contact based on profiles or are using it to get new contacts from existing customers. Either way, not my preferred way of choosing an IFA.

[ukshooter]

St. James's Place is NOT an IFA.

I know because I was an IFA for 23 years before joining St.James's Place almost 6 years ago

The banking service is really a sideline that came out of the deal with what became HBOS when Lord Rothschild sold his shareholding. It cannot really be compared to private banking. It does offer a superior service over the majority if not all the telephone banking operations and actually pays (for a bank) high interest.

You can get more info on SJP through my website www.ianmorgan.co.uk

[Beardy10]

Just had a look at the SJP website. Seems like they have their own funds which they select a third party manager for...in some cases you seem to know who those managers are and in some you don't. First thing I have noticed is that the some of the funds are absolutely tiny (admittedly started this year)....now with a small fund you would expect the stock picking to produce really good results as they should have a few very high conviction trades which should deliver good performance and beat the index. It's also a clean sheet of paper so there would be no legacy positions creating a drag on performance. If a fund doesn't do that in it's early days it's never going to....the first six months performance are crucial to the ability to raise money for a fund. The other thing to be wary of is that all funds have fixed costs like legal, audit fees etc are the same whatever size the fund so you need to know whether SJP pay those or the fund does.

It strikes me that with these funds you seem to be paying two sets of management fees ? One to the actual manager and one to SJP to pick managers etc ? You DEFINITELY need to compare fee structures.

Secondly out of 10 to 15 funds I looked at only one beat it's benchmark (this was completely random) which is very poor is that is truly representative.

Maybe their advisory service are very good but certainly from first glance the funds don't look anything special at all.

[NoelWatson]

Beardy10 said:

First thing I have noticed is that the some of the funds are absolutely tiny (admittedly started this year)....now with a small fund you would expect the stock picking to produce really good results as they should have a few very high conviction trades which should deliver good performance and beat the index

I've not seen any evidence to suggest this is the case - that smaller funds, on average, outperform the index