Historic service review - Additional information regarding refunds

At the end of 2012 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) introduced rules relating to the way providers charge their Clients. This was universally known as the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) and was not specific to SJP but affected the Financial Services Industry as a whole.

The RDR changes introduced a clearly defined cost called an Ongoing Advice Charge (OAC) and required financial advisers, such as SJP Partners, to provide annual meetings with their clients. This OAC is included in the overall annual charge paid by SJP Clients. 

We have confirmed during our investigation that you did not receive the appropriate level of ongoing service from SJP.  This is why we are refunding the amount relating to the OAC.   However, this does not mean we refund all charges appearing on your Annual Wealth Report, just the amount relating to the OAC charge.

Changes made to charges by the FCA in 2012 cannot be applied retrospectively to your investment plans that commenced before the end of 2012.  Therefore, the management and fund charges outlined in your original Key Facts documentation continue to be charged on the pre RDR element of your investment plans and appear in the charge quoted on your Annual Wealth Report. 

In addition, whilst you might not have taken out a new plan or invested additional monies in your existing plan since the start of 2013, the OAC might apply to existing investments plans where you have made a change in the allocation of your investment funds from 2013 onwards. If this is the case, we have refunded this portion.

The Ongoing Advice Charge (OAC) is calculated using a percentage of the value of the relevant funds subject to this process.  

• The charge is between 0.25% and 0.5% depending on your plan
• In some cases the OAC is also based on ongoing contributions you might have made to your plans
• OAC is not calculated at a single point in time, we calculate the cost of putting your plan back in the position it would have been in had we switched off the OAC during the period when we did not provide the level of service expected
• Our Finance team have reviewed all your plans, identified the total value of your investments incurring this charge and calculated the amount paid over the period where the review was missed. 

This is the total now being refunded.