St. James's Place Wealth Management plc (branded as St. James's Place) is a British multinational
wealth management
Wealth management (WM) or wealth management advisory (WMA) is an investment advisory service that provides financial management and wealth advisory services to a wide array of clients ranging from affluent to high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high ...
business primarily based in
Cirencester
Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...
, England but with a network of 23 offices spread across different cities within the UK. It is listed on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
and is a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index. It is the largest
wealth manager
Wealth management (WM) or wealth management advisory (WMA) is an investment advisory service that provides financial management and wealth advisory services to a wide array of clients ranging from affluent to high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high ...
in the UK with £142.3 billion under management in 2022.
History
The business was founded by Mike Wilson CBE, Sir
Mark Weinberg and
Lord Rothschild
Baron Rothschild, of Tring in the County of Hertfordshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1885 for Sir Nathan Rothschild, 2nd Baronet, a member of the Rothschild banking family. He was the first Jewish mem ...
in 1991 as J Rothschild Assurance Group. In 1992, the company began trading and the Directors of J Rothschild Assurance Group established the St. James's Place Charitable Foundation. In 1993, the Foundation became a UK Registered Charity.
The company was first listed on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
in 1997 after J. Rothschild Assurance Group acquired the publicly traded St. James's Place Capital, placing it within the
FTSE 250 Index.
In 2000,
HBOS
HBOS plc was a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland plc, which operated the Ba ...
plc took a 60 per cent shareholding in the business which became St. James's Place Capital in 2001 for £760 million. St. James's Place Capital later became St. James's Place Wealth Management in 2006.
HBOS's stake passed to
Lloyds Banking Group
Lloyds Banking Group is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds Ban ...
, on its acquisition of HBOS in 2009. In March 2013, Lloyds sold 20% of its shareholding in St. James's Place to some institutional investors and sold the remaining holdings in December 2013 for £670m.
In March 2014, St. James's Place joined the
FTSE 100 Index. A few months later, the advisory firm Henley Group, which had offices in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai, was acquired by St. James's Place and rebranded to St. James's Place Asia.
In July 2015, St. James's Place acquired Rowan Dartington for £34.2m, which provided discretionary fund management services.
In April 2016, St. James's place acquired Technical Connection, which provided consulting on taxation, trusts, financial products and product development.
In July 2017 an investigation by
Which?
''Which?'' is a United Kingdom brand name that promotes informed consumer choice in the purchase of goods and services by testing products, highlighting inferior products or services, raising awareness of consumer rights and offering independe ...
accused St James's Place of misleading customers on charges. Tom Wilson, author of the article, writes, “There are legitimate reasons why costs might vary – SJP's recommended funds have different charges, so the actual fees will depend on which funds you end up with.” The findings of the investigation were shared with the
Financial Conduct Authority. The firm continues to have permission to provide regulated products and services.
In February 2017, it was announced that David Bellamy was stepping down as Chief Executive.
In January 2018, Andrew Croft became the Chief Executive of St. James's Place after spending the previous thirteen years as the company's Chief Financial Officer.
In July 2019 the ombudsman raised "serious concerns", after a client had been persuaded to transfer more than £60,000 to the company, over claims that St. James's Place had "doctored" documents with "forged" signatures to hide the advice allegedly given by the company to the client.
In January 2019, Robert Gardner was appointed as the Director of Investments joining from Reddington.
In November 2019, 14 former footballers sued St James's Place for £15m, alleging that they had received poor advice concerning
tax avoidance
Tax avoidance is the legal usage of the tax regime in a single territory to one's own advantage to reduce the amount of tax that is payable by means that are within the law. A tax shelter is one type of tax avoidance, and tax havens are jurisdi ...
regarding film and overseas property investment schemes. A spokesperson for St James's Place said, "the partner who pointed the investors toward the plan did not have its authorisation to do so, and that St James's didn't approve of the proposal".
The spokesperson also said, "the partner had retired by the time many of the investments were made, and that others were placed through a self-invested personal pension by a third party".
According to a court filing, the claim is worth £15 million (€17.5 million). However, St James's says that the statute of limitations on the claims has expired because the investments were made more than 10 years ago.
Prudential's Paul Manduca replaced Iain Cornish as the firm's chairman after its
AGM in May 2021. As of the same month, St. James's Place reportedly has over £135 billion in funds under management.
References
External links
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Companies based in Gloucestershire
Financial services companies established in 1991
Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange
1991 establishments in the United Kingdom