There has been a fair amount of schadenfreude amongst many advisers over the high-profile woes of St James Place (SJP in industry vernacular). There’s a radio and TV advertising campaign urging their clients to claim compensation if in any year they haven’t met with their SJP adviser, and a long-running press campaign over their rather labyrinthine and often high charges. This does not, however, do any of us any favours. To many, a financial adviser is a financial adviser, and yet more mud on the wall will continue to deter many who need advice from seeking it. Although, yes, charges should be at least understandable, reducing them will reduce the viability of advising all but the wealthy, or at least the already-prosperous. Perpetuating a trend which might be said, and don’t quote me on this, to have started with the banning of commission ten years ago. It really has been proven time and time again that just making something cheaper (stakeholder pensions, for instance), neither leads new clients to water nor makes them take advice. So let’s learn a few lessons before we start chasing yet more ambulances.
“Natwest and trio of private equity firms vie for Quilter”
In the 80s and 90s, banks and building societies bought life insurance, pension companies and fund managers, took on lots of financial advisers and sold financial products by the bucket-load, by means both fair and foul, to their customers.
