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An excellent video, you were able to allude to how poor this company actually is without slagging them off, well done, thanks for the insight.

Great video. My folks invested with SJP (as they didn't know any better and didn't ask the right questions) I used this video as part of my expose of this white collar robbery! Even after paying the criminal 5% exit fee by using the graphs link you provided they literally could save a 6 figure sum over a 10 year horizon.

Thanks for this video - I met with a financial adviser from St James Place last week but shall not be progressing any further with them. High up-front fees and even higher exit fees (though they call it something else!) = over 10% of your investment - that's a shocking amount of your hard earned money which they help themselves to.

At first I thought that this was an SJP advert but I was very wrong. Yet another excellent clip. I really enjoy your content.

An excellent, well delivered, well researched and balanced assessment. Really valuable, thank you

I went to school with a guy who is now an sjp partner. Started his own “franchise” under the sjp name (I don’t know if that’s the right term, but his website affiliates him with sjp). I was about to message him for financial advice as he’s an old mate and I have some money I want to invest; and his Facebook is filled with pictures of him with new Ferraris and a fabulous house (and the obligatory trophy wife). I thought “he’s doing well, he probably knows something I don’t”. Might not send that message now

I use SJP and I also use Vanguard. In fact my friend works at SJP, and so far I’ve seen some pretty decent returns on both platforms.

My brother in law works for SJP. I am invested in Vanguard

Great topic for a video Ramin. Investors need to know about this. I can only assume that SJP's client base consists mainly of high net worth individuals who really don't understand investment or personal finance, and think their returns are good because they compare them to returns on cash and because they don't even follow the returns of the market as a whole. It's amazing how many wealthy people I come in to contact with actually use these guys, especially when you consider how easy it is to learn about this stuff. It amazes me how people will spend a couple of hours every week or two mowing their own grass or cleaning their own windows when they could pay about £9 for someone to do it for them, but they won't spend a one off 2-3 hours learning enough to sort out an ISA and SIPP with a low cost platform and invest into a passive multi-asset fund! Even though this could save them hundreds of thousands of pounds!

Great video. Almost nine years ago I invested in one two of their on shore and offshore bonds as I didn’t have much knowledge of the markets at the time, and also my own portfolio with fidelity. I have been asking all the questions you mentioned and now caught up in and awaiting for transparency regarding fees. It has taken a long time and the situation has yet to be resolved.

Yodelar Review of St James Place 10th March 2023 80% of St James’s Place unit trust funds rated as poor performing High charges and poor performance across their entire range of funds 80% of SJP funds performed worse than half of same sector over 10 years. 15% of all St. James’s Place funds returned losses over 10 years 75% of SJP funds yielded returns below the sector average over 5 years St James’s Place initial fee more than twice the industry average £100 billion managed by St James’s Place is held in poor funds Restricted advice with no onus to provide comparative performance. Please explain ?

Great video. Cuts to the point in a clear and considered fashion. You've genuinely helped inform my investing considerations

Very good. You analysed and articulated my own views. When they first arrived on the scene, many IFA's were reluctant to join 'The Club' because financial impartiality went out of the window as their terms of membership were that all business had to be channeled their way, regardless. I am afraid I take 'asset management' with more than a pinch of salt. Me thinks we could be looking at bubble territory.

Fantastic video- after listening to this in depth, I have to say, you’ve sold it to me.... Where can I sign up to St.James’ Place!!

Great video Ramin! VERY expensive fund of funds style of management these guys do. I have a new theory... The fees an investor pays are inversely proportional to their knowledge. Know more pay less, know less pay more. Maybe it applies to all areas of life!

Do they sell bridges as well? I would like to buy one.

Great video, very insightful, I have a few colleagues at work who have transferred high value pension pots to SJP and seem very happy, your view makes me feel otherwise.

As Warren Buffet has repeatedly said......human behaviour won't change. wealthy individuals, pension funds and the like will continue to feel they deserve something extra in Investment advice and have great trouble signing up to financial advice that is available to those only have a few thousand dollars.....so they continually pay fat fees to receive returns that are equal or lower than just following the S & P 500 with a vanguard tracker who charge only 0.05%....

My parents went with St James for their modest savings. This was before I knew about investing and index funds ect. I was shocked when I saw the fees they were being charged. Just wish I'd been up to scratch with my knowledge so I could have advised them (for 0%) before they payed the up front fees!

You have to look beyond brute return. Risk adjusted return and also many more facets of wealth management: estate planning, tax planning, corporate planning, retirement planning, cash flow Planning et cetera

I evaluated SJP as a potential client and whilst I found the service to be very good, I also compared their funds to low cost S&P 500 trackers and found them to be no better, possibly worse depending on time periods. As such I did not proceed. Also note the New Client Fee’s and exit fees are negotiable to zero if you have a reasonable size pension pot.

I'm keen to leave SJP, 6yrs is up. What would you recommend one to look at instead? I've a few self-employed pals in a similar position that shared the same accountant and SJP was pushed our way by them regrettably.

Very educational. Thank you

Everything is negotiable, I shopped around and I am a very happy SJP client. I felt that they give me peace of mind and also added value because as you say anyone can put their money into a tracker fund and hope for the best, what happens when that tracker fund is investing into carillion and Thomas cook and they go under? Who do you blame then? SJP offer more than investments to me they have helped me with getting my estate into order and knowing everything is structured properly for when I am not here. Can a tracker fund offer that? I also know IFAs that are independent in name only and don’t shop the whole market as you suggest for their clients. Be interested to know your thoughts on this Ramin

on a side issue I think I might become a shareholder They will pay good dividends by the looks of it what do others think

This was a very enlightening and objective view of SJP! Many thanks

thanks for posting... informative and really helpful...

SJP clients cannot all be stupid can they? If it is ONLY about returns then anybody can save some money elsewhere but how much is enough? Why do people bang on about this “door charge” on pensions? You are supposed to be investing for the long term and the fees aren’t doubled up during that time. It is also a holistic service to include estate, tax, drawdown etc which are all included. The relationship and comfort level is also very important to people. SJP definitely aren’t as transparent as they should be on the cash value of charges and the FCA / Financial Ombudsmen should really intervene on that. Outcomes are not just about returns!!!!

Great video, good on you for exposing what a rip off schemes like this actually are. What's comical though is how good some of their clients think SJP is! Just shows you the power of marketing. Give something a prestigious sounding name and people will sign up without even bothering to research if it is any good. Incredible

i dont see why the 6 year early withdrawal is an issue, isnt the normal advice that investments should be 5-10 years minimum ?

I think some high net worth individuals oddly lack the confidence to manage their wealth by choosing and diversifying funds using a platform I suspect its the lack of certainty and the risk of making poor fund choices. Depending on how they have achieved their wealth. Some advice includes tax efficient withdrawals.

Hi Ramin been with them 6 years with a decent ISA, got a fantastic advisor but your right its the fees just can't be justified. It cost me 5% initial setup charge, 2% annual all in and 3% cost to put money in. Its a shame because I've got good relationship with advisor. Last 2 years all I've done is study the markets. Did favour Baillie Gifford at first but their funds have had an incredible run up but are now having huge reversals and still more to bottom back out. I've decided straight forward Vanguard, its between Lifestyle strategy 100 or the new sustainability 85/15. Lifestyle a lot of people saying heavy leaning towards UK but I see that as a good thing as its undervalued and its very defensible as there's alot of commodities in. Sustainability only worry is its huge leaning towards the US around 60%.

Alpha is real, but 4000 trained monkey mutual fund sales people with no trading background lead by a bunch of corporate shill marketing fuckwads aren't going to find it for you. If you want alpha, you have to make it yourself. How that isn't immediately obvious to people over the age of 10 has consistently baffled me since the age of about 10. I started with Windows 95 and science/tech mutual funds. I had zero expectation of alpha from that fund. I expected the fund manager to do enough research to determine that the companies he put in his fund were real companies. That's it. I was buying a moving average in tech, not some "genius" fund manager. The new world of VGA and internet was going to take care of the rest (and it did). In fact, who even cares about Alpha? I don't care how I perform relative to the SP500! I care how much I make and lose. I care if I'm on it or off of it. I care if I have strong odds on a day to day basis. I care what the Nikkei is doing and what happened the last time silver started leading gold. I'm not looking for alpha, I'm looking for a crystal clear vision of how all the moving parts are going to interact so I can put on my position and get dejavu while my PNL goes up in chunks until I can't stand holding it any more and I ditch my position, probably too early... its always too early.. but I don't care about Alpha. Shit, If I buy something that only goes down 10% when the SP goes down 25% and that happens tomorrow, am I going to pat myself on the back?? Hell no! I'm going to do what I do at the end of every day in whatever business I'm doing - I'm going to evaluate it for future performance and choose how to expand or change and leverage or deleverage my strategies. I don't care if I'm selling gumballs in grade 4, or shoveling snow or scalping NYSE or swing trading futures. I don't even care if I'm up 50% on the year. I care about what the rest of the year is going to look like. Alpha (by definition) is for people who are going to use portfolio insurance... which is fine... but how do you even know it's Alpha unless you make it yourself? Anyway, rant over. Alpha is real but you need to make it yourself. Y'all out there trying to hire someone to fuck your wife for ya. PS - I just found your channel - I love it. Seriously.

Their charges and fees are outrageous! Hopefully not too many hardworking people getting caught in their trap and just the stupid rich who go for the name.

I have a question: I'm based in China and no longer a UK tax resident. I've found some investment platforms that accept expats based in European countries but does anyone know of any which I might be able to use whilst based in China?

amazing analysis as always. it is funny how some clients said fees do not matter to them. well, fees can make or break the returns on your portfolio. I assume SJP's typical customers are high net worth individuals who feel caring about fees is beneath their status. when you have that type of attitude combined to the fact that people fail to recognize that 1% or 2% p.a. eats away a huge amount of your returns you get what you deserve.

Thank god for Jack Bogle.

Ramin please discuss "regulator capture" like government capture.

I like this vid.. Good insight.

I was overcharged fees, sloppy management, I’m out. Do not trust theses scam merchants

Be careful, when I looked (4 years ago) one of the hidden costs was the large (when I looked I estimated 5%) bid-offer spread in buying/selling their funds and the estimate I made that they churn 15% of their investors funds annually. So the arithmetic says that if you have a £100,000 SIPP then £15,0000 would get bought/sold each year, the bid/offer spread (if 5%) adds £750 to costs on top of the fees they charge and the fees in the funds. All these are estimates and involve some guesswork, so please just do your own homework and don't rely on my figures.

SJP is a complete scam. I interviewed with them to manage my money. I quickly determined that SJP was completely non economic. Thanks for the insight.

The Company GPK Financial ltd wich is FCA registered through St. James's place wealth management (Mother company) is scaming people in to buying abnb shares (initially pre IPO shares). St. James's p.w.m. sais they are aware of the scam and they have notified the FCA, but they cant tell me anything else and are not able to do anything. How can that be or happen. The number and webpage with wich GPK is registered under the FCA are the same ones of the scamers. GPK is registered under St. James's place wealth management therefore please take some responsibility and try to help the victims

A Great well considered video. I only wish I had see it 20 years ago. We have all our investments including two pensions with SJP and I have just (semi) retired. With this extra time I spent a few months investigating passive investing in index funds, various investment platforms and various fee structures. As a result we have transferred our remaining ISA to Invest Engine into a 3 fund passive portfolio and the fees are a fraction of SJP ( about 10 times cheaper). We are now deciding what to do with our pensions which has triggered SJP into looking into how they can compare their funds to index funds and try to convince me they have a better solution. A bit late imo. The higher fees SJP charge was always explained away by the fact that they would out perform the other investors by more and therefore be a better option. And 1 or 2% is a very small fraction. No mention of compounding on fees, only on investment growth. I just wish I had asked to see independent proof. Anyway, spilt milk and all that, I am now looking forward to truly independent investments under my control which have shown to outperform most of the so called experts. I know that past performance is not an indication of future returns but past fee charges is definitely an indication of how much money I have lost. Keep up the good work 👍🏻

I think fundsmith is one of the best funds out there, uk or otherwise. In fact I compare my youtube portfolio against fundsmith every month.

Hi Ramon, I left a message last year, I notice it's now been delated? A shame, as many seemed to agree with my point, and presented another side to the argument. I appreciate pension craft is a business, relying on patron support - but surely everyones opinion should be be allowed on an open forum? I don't work for SJP, but have in the last in an ancillary role. While it's easy to sit online and smirk at wealth managers, I feel you are missing some vital areas (or missed out). For example, if a gentleman, earning £250,000 per annum approached you - with an inheritance of £1,000,000 - what would be your advice? Stick it in a Vanguard Tracker fund? Trusting a video on youtube could cost potentially £100,000's in IHT. Have you considered their Inheritance Tax position, how about leaving some money to their children? Would trust planning be suitable? How are they planning to fund there income gap once they stopped working? How far would their savings get them? How on earth would a investment platform be able to solve these problems? Scoring points online for patron support is very different, especially when Wealth Managers are liable for the advice we give. Is pension craft? KZfaq really needs to start regulating these videos. I hope the creator of this video is Benchmark qualified, as this is verging on advice, which requires certain qualifications.

Good job. SJP need to be exposed

On your last point Ramin, Shareholder profit increase means you have a profitable business which customers like to pay for and value the service.

If u go again the partner You will see the other side of them it’s not good.cooling off periods don’t count with sjp

also, I cannot believe you have only 7k subscribers. maybe try to create content also targeted at a global audience or even US-based? for now, a lot of what I see here is UK focused (and I have no problem with that as I am UK based). I would just love to see your views and subscribers go through the roof

SJPs charges were complicated and misunderstood. The changes bring them in line with the rest of the market. For example, their fund performance will in future be displayed like for like on spot the dog. As previously the performance was net of advice, product and fund charges whereas most of the other funds analysed were net of only fund charges. The overall cost to their customer will remain similar to the current charging structure but will be clearer to understand for analysts, the media and other financial advisers

Posh people are too good for Vanguard & low fees - St. James that sounds more like it!

Great video

Myself and parents and friends have been using St James Place for many years, what baffles me is people are getting their facts wrong in relation to the costs of this company and also the service they provide. I’ve used IFA’s before who bang on about using all the providers, no they don’t they use a few they know and also they say the fees are lower, actually they are not as St James place essentially has one fee per annum not lots of different fees which from experience means they same damn thing. There service is also impeccable, with regular decent communication, sorry I disagree.

UK market very immature compared to the US. SJP would be out of business in the US.

Thank you for this excellent review

Bet you’re an ifa. From what I see most of their overall costs and charges are normally higher. Sometimes they throw trackers in to reduce but still can be higher. Plus they normally charge higher ongoing fees. Sometimes around 1% on top of the fund charges. Then on top of that when they make a mess with the initial fund choice you have to pay again to move to another fund... and so on... and so on.

I take it SJP is not for the regular joe.

It's incredible how many people think knowledge and advice is worth so little, always moaning about fees for goodness sake nothing is free if you don't want fees learn it yourself spend your time and support invest your own money. You get investment advice because you can't be arsed to do it yourself.

Peasants use vanguard while the upper class use SJP

I think SJP is very similar to Allied Dunbar its from the same stable My IFA has become a Partner and I wont use his services now They are very expensive They are a slick sales orginisation just like Allied Dunbar

well done and explained SJP are for twits who dont get it, Vanguard all the way!!!

How do you look yourself in the eye whilst peddling this. I feel certain that you benefit somehow financially from sjp. Amongst financial advisers sjp are seen as conmen.