St. James' Place - a review…
Discussion
A few years ago I worked for a well known UK retailer and they were in the process of removing their final salary pension.
They employed SJP to give everyone who asked for it free financial advice on what to do.
Not entirely sure what happened but a younger and more naive me, with little in the way of savings, found myself with a medium risk Stocks and Shares ISA through them.
I opened with about 2500 (from an overdraft) and then paid in 100 per month for a couple of years, until I left to move abroad - each deposit having 5% removed for fees.
I decided to leave the money where it was and just let it grow - in line with their projections, 5,500gbp would have been 12,000gbp in around 5 years.
My disposable income is much healthier these days, and I've been investing / trading myself on the side. I was minded to review the progress of the SJP account when my dad mentioned a statement had arrived.
In 7 years, that 5,500 has turned into...
5,548.
Less than 1% return in 7 years. Not even coming close to recouping the fees.
I contacted my 'wealth' manager to say I wished to take the money out. I admit - saying how disappointed I was with the performance, particularly given the performance of my own investments.
The response came 'I think you'll find it's in line with the market trend, I have attached a 5 year chart showing 1% market growth on average'
Deeply unimpressed.
They employed SJP to give everyone who asked for it free financial advice on what to do.
Not entirely sure what happened but a younger and more naive me, with little in the way of savings, found myself with a medium risk Stocks and Shares ISA through them.
I opened with about 2500 (from an overdraft) and then paid in 100 per month for a couple of years, until I left to move abroad - each deposit having 5% removed for fees.
I decided to leave the money where it was and just let it grow - in line with their projections, 5,500gbp would have been 12,000gbp in around 5 years.
My disposable income is much healthier these days, and I've been investing / trading myself on the side. I was minded to review the progress of the SJP account when my dad mentioned a statement had arrived.
In 7 years, that 5,500 has turned into...
5,548.
Less than 1% return in 7 years. Not even coming close to recouping the fees.
I contacted my 'wealth' manager to say I wished to take the money out. I admit - saying how disappointed I was with the performance, particularly given the performance of my own investments.
The response came 'I think you'll find it's in line with the market trend, I have attached a 5 year chart showing 1% market growth on average'
Deeply unimpressed.
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