St. James’s Place (SJP) is pleased to confirm that its simplified charges will be introduced in August 2025. The changes will ensure SJP’s charges for each of these services are simpler to understand and easier to compare and will see most clients benefit from a lower total ongoing charge.

As previously announced, there are three key elements to the changes:

  1. Separating SJP’s charges into their component parts – the advice charge, the product charge and the fund charge - making it easy to compare across providers.

  2. Simplifying charges for bonds and pensions to more closely align with the structure for unit trusts and ISAs, meaning the Early Withdrawal Charge (EWC) will no longer apply for new investments.

  3. Realigning the separate charges to more accurately reflect where clients get the most value.

 

James Rainbow, Chief Executive Officer at St. James’s Place Wealth Management, said: “We see the real value in the relationship between our clients and their advisers every day.  These changes will make it much simpler to see just how competitive we are on a like-for-like basis for the fully personalised, trusted advice our advisers provide. It’s a good thing for our advisers, our business and most importantly our clients, the majority of which will benefit from lower overall charges over their relationship with us.”

 

Advice charges

As part of these changes, SJP is introducing tiering of initial advice charges (IAC) based on the amount being invested. Initial advice charges will be tiered at 3% for the first £250,000, 2% for the next £250,000, and 1% on amounts over £500,000. These rates will apply in the majority of cases.

Amount

Initial Advice Charge (IAC)

First £250,000

3%

Next £250,000

2%

Amount over £500,000

1%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 See notes to editors for an example

 

SJP’s ongoing advice charge will be 0.8% p.a. as charges are realigned to more accurately reflect where clients get the most value.

 

Product charges

SJP’s ongoing product charges will be tiered based on the amount invested across a client’s overall portfolio. For investment bonds and pensions this tiering will start at 0.35% p.a. on the first £500k invested, while on ISAs and unit trusts the starting point will be 0.27% p.a.

 

Amount

Ongoing Product Charge

Investment bonds and pensions

ISAs and unit trusts

First £500,000

0.35%

0.27%

Next £500,000

0.32%

0.24%

Next £1m

0.29%

0.21%

Next £1m

0.27%

0.19%

Amounts over £3m

0.25%

0.17%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

James Rainbow continued: “Moving to our new charging structure is a major exercise, and we’re now in the final stages of implementation. This has required an extensive IT infrastructure build to deliver these changes, with a comprehensive testing plan. Alongside this we have equipped our advisers with a suite of tools and materials so they continue to deliver the best possible outcomes to clients as we implement these changes.” 

 

Review of fund pricing

In addition, SJP has reviewed its fund pricing, looking at the costs associated with running each individual fund. Alongside implementing its simple, comparable charging, SJP will be making adjustments that will see overall charges come down for most clients. 

 

These changes, which will happen automatically from 26 August 2025, will enhance SJP’s competitive fund pricing. Almost 95% of SJP funds with a relevant IA peer group comparison will rank below average by cost.

 

On the new fund pricing, SJP’s Group Investment Director, Tom Beal says, “Nearly 95% of SJP funds have lower annual charges than their respective IA sector averages. Some – including those in our flagship Polaris range – are up to 50% less expensive than peers. The new charging structure highlights this competitive comparison more clearly. 

 

“We have spent years building our range, using our reach and size to create economies of scale, negotiating competitive terms for our clients while selecting the best managers from around the world. This will now be more visible to our clients and more readily comparable to our peers when it comes to performance which up until now, included the cost of advice and the product wrapper.

 

“This weighed on our comparative performance against peers who keep such costs separate. Our new structure will enable clearer performance comparisons, making it easier for clients to see value. For example, when looked at on this basis, more than 75% of our funds have outperformed their respective peer group averages over three years to end of June.”

 

SJP has started communicating the changes to clients directly ahead of them coming into effect from 26 August. The new fund charges will apply for all clients from this date. Existing clients will transition to the new ongoing advice and product charges either on the implementation date or once they come to the end of their EWC period for bonds and pensions.

 

 

Notes to Editors

1 Example of how tiered Initial Advice Charge (IAC) works

On an investment value of £400,000, IAC will be 3% on the first £250,000 and 2% on the next £150,000. Therefore, IAC will be £7,500 plus £3,000 which totals £10,500, or 2.63% of the amount invested.