2023 in review

Chief Executive Officer's message

“I’ve been really struck by the importance of what we do for clients and how passionately the whole community cares: supporting clients with trusted financial advice that provides peace of mind and the confidence to benefit from investing over the long term.”

Mark FitzPatrick,

Chief Executive Officer

Introduction

The economic environment in 2023 was undoubtedly challenging. It is at precisely these times that financial advice can really help clients, acting as a steady hand to keep them on track to meet their long-term financial goals. High inflation and high interest rates have put pressure on UK consumers with rising mortgage rates contributing to rising living costs more generally. This impacted some individuals’ capacity and confidence to invest. Meanwhile, those with capacity to invest may have been attracted to elevated short-term savings rates over long-term investing.

Against this backdrop, we have attracted £15.4 billion of new client investments and client retention rates have remained high at 95.3%, contributing to net inflows of £5.1 billion; these figures highlight the sheer scale of SJP today and the fundamental resilience of our business model in challenging market conditions.

This new business performance, together with the strong investment returns, has seen funds under management close the year at a record £168.2 billion, up 13% compared to the beginning of the year.

Net inflows of funds under management

£ 5.1 bn

(2022: £9.8 billion)

Funds under management

£ 168.2 bn

(2022: £148.4 billion)

Financial performance

Despite the challenging operating environment in 2023, our underlying business performance remained strong.

We delivered a robust Underlying cash result of £392.4 million (£410.1 million). This was driven by:

average mature funds under management being higher during 2023 than it was in 2022;
delivery of controllable expenses in line with our guidance to contain their growth to 8%; and
increased shareholder interest on our working capital and regulatory capital due to Bank of England base rate rises.

Underlying cash result

£ 392.4 m

(2022: £410.1 million)

Shareholder distributions

Our shareholder distribution guidance is to distribute 50% of the Underlying cash result, comprising an 18.00 per share annual dividend and the balance through share repurchases.

Our strategy

Our key aim is to grow our funds under management (FUM) over time. We attract, retain and grow client FUM through offering a high-quality service to the Partnership and clients. We therefore pursue a simple growth and support strategy, built on clear and focussed strategic objectives. More information about our strategy and how we achieve it can be found here.

Our business priorities

We focus our long-term business priorities on six core areas. In each of these, we maintain a consistent and rigorous approach to risk management and governance.

1 - Building community
We’ll help every corner of our growing community contribute to its success.

What we achieved in 2023
We welcomed a net 141 new advisers into the Partnership, increasing the total number to 4,834.
We opened a new office in Dubai, building a presence in attractive markets in the Middle East.
We launched the SJP House app to employees, transforming the way we support learning and development.
2 - Being easier to do business with
We’ll invest in technology and processes that transform the experience we provide people.

What we achieved in 2023
We enhanced Salesforce functionality and embedded it across our corporate functions.
We launched additional functionality within our next-generation client app.
We focused on increasing the speed of administration, and further reduced our administration error rate.

We’ll help every corner of our growing community contribute to its success.

What we achieved in 2023

We welcomed a net 141 new advisers into the Partnership, increasing the total number to 4,834.
We opened a new office in Dubai, building a presence in attractive markets in the Middle East.
We launched the SJP House app to employees, transforming the way we support learning and development.

We’ll invest in technology and processes that transform the experience we provide people.

What we achieved in 2023

We enhanced Salesforce functionality and embedded it across our corporate functions.
We launched additional functionality within our next-generation client app.
We focused on increasing the speed of administration, and further reduced our administration error rate.

3 - Delivering value to advisers and clients through our investment proposition
We’ll put the right people, data and governance in place to drive performance, delivering financial wellbeing in a world worth living in.

What we achieved in 2023
We continued evolving our investment proposition to support great client outcomes.
Polaris, our recently launched fund-of-funds range, performed strongly and attracted over £25 billion of client investments.
We have strengthened our Investment team through new hires, including a new Chief Investment Officer, Investment Research Director and Head of Economic Research.
4 - Building and protecting our brand and reputation
We’ll be clearer about who we are and who we want to be, so when people think financial advice, they think SJP.

What we achieved in 2023
We implemented a Group-wide plan for compliance with the Consumer Duty regulation.
We fully embedded our refreshed brand identity, while continuing to focus on our reputation.

We’ll put the right people, data and governance in place to drive performance, delivering financial wellbeing in a world worth living in.

What we achieved in 2023

We continued evolving our investment proposition to support great client outcomes.
Polaris, our recently launched fund-of-funds range, performed strongly and attracted over £25 billion of client investments.
We have strengthened our Investment team through new hires, including a new Chief Investment Officer, Investment Research Director and Head of Economic Research.

We’ll be clearer about who we are and who we want to be, so when people think financial advice, they think SJP.

What we achieved in 2023

We implemented a Group-wide plan for compliance with the Consumer Duty regulation.
We fully embedded our refreshed brand identity, while continuing to focus on our reputation.

5 - Our culture and being a responsible business
We’ll build a purpose-led business that has a positive impact on society.

What we achieved in 2023
We educated the SJP community on our responsible business strategy, narrative and goals.
Our community raised £9.5 million for the St. James’s Place Charitable Foundation, with Company matching.
We made further progress towards our Inclusion and Diversity goals.
We accelerated work on our climate transition plan and made progress on reducing our environmental impact.
6 - Continued financial strength
We’ll manage our resources carefully so we can continue to grow the investment into our business.

What we achieved in 2023
We attracted £15.4 billion of new client investments.
We retained in excess of 95% of existing client funds under management (FUM).
We contained growth in controllable expenses to 8%.
We increased FUM to £168.2 billion and delivered a robust Underlying cash result, despite significant economic and geopolitical uncertainty.
Maintained financial strength despite recognising significant Ongoing Service Evidence provision.

We’ll build a purpose-led business that has a positive impact on society.

What we achieved in 2023

We educated the SJP community on our responsible business strategy, narrative and goals.
Our community raised £9.5 million for the St. James’s Place Charitable Foundation, with Company matching.
We made further progress towards our Inclusion and Diversity goals.
We accelerated work on our climate transition plan and made progress on reducing our environmental impact.

We’ll manage our resources carefully so we can continue to grow the investment into our business.

What we achieved in 2023

We attracted £15.4 billion of new client investments.
We retained in excess of 95% of existing client funds under management (FUM).
We contained growth in controllable expenses to 8%.
We increased FUM to £168.2 billion and delivered a robust Underlying cash result, despite significant economic and geopolitical uncertainty.
Maintained financial strength despite recognising significant Ongoing Service Evidence provision.

Operating and financial highlights

	2019	2020
Gross inflows (£bn)
2019	15.1	Gross inflows (£bn)
2020	14.3	Gross inflows (£bn)
2021	18.2	Gross inflows (£bn)
2022	17.0	Gross inflows (£bn)
2023	15.4	Gross inflows (£bn)

2019
2020
2021
2022
2023

	2019	2020
Net inflows (£bn)
2019	9.0	Net inflows (£bn)
2020	8.2	Net inflows (£bn)
2021	11.0	Net inflows (£bn)
2022	9.8	Net inflows (£bn)
2023	5.1	Net inflows (£bn)

2019
2020
2021
2022
2023

	2019	2020
Funds under management (£bn)
2019	117.0	Funds under management (£bn)
2020	129.3	Funds under management (£bn)
2021	154.0	Funds under management (£bn)
2022	148.4	Funds under management (£bn)
2023	168.2	Funds under management (£bn)

2019
2020
2021
2022
2023

	2019	2020
Underlying cash result (£m)
2019	273.1	Underlying cash result (£m)
2020	264.7	Underlying cash result (£m)
2021	401.2	Underlying cash result (£m)
2022	410.1	Underlying cash result (£m)
2023	392.4	Underlying cash result (£m)

2019
2020
2021
2022
2023

	2019	2020
Dividend (pence per share)
2019	49.71	Dividend (pence per share)
2020	38.49	Dividend (pence per share)
2021	51.96	Dividend (pence per share)
2022	52.78	Dividend (pence per share)
2023	23.83	Dividend (pence per share)