Wealth management firm announces record £181bn worth of funds under its control

Wealth management firm St James’s Place has a record £181bn worth of funds under its control.

The Wiltshire company has released figures for the first six months of the year.

The business, which has been under pressure in recent years, has £8.5bn worth of gross inflows of new funds in the first six months.

The company added there was continued strong retention of client funds at 94.6 per cent.

There was also a small increase in the client base to 988,000.

Chief executive Mark Fitzpatrick said the company has been working hard to address previous challenges.

The firm has been under the spotlight over the size of its charges to its customers and was the subject of an  investigation by the financial authorities.

Mark Fitzpatrick said: “I am encouraged to report robust business performance for the first half of 2024 across each of our key operating and financial metrics, demonstrating the continued resilience of our business model even as we work to address the past challenges that I set out earlier in the year.

“We have seen high levels of activity and engagement between our advisers and our clients, contributing to positive flows.

“Helped by strong investment returns for our clients, we have achieved record funds under management, delivered a good outturn for the cash result, and grown the partnership and our client base. It’s evident that we remain in good shape.”

He said the first half has seen the firm make progress against significant programmes of work to simplify the firm’s charging structure and review historic client servicing records.

He added: “We are on track to deliver our new charging structure in the second half of 2025, in line with previous guidance. The focus of our review of historic client servicing records has been on building and readying the infrastructure that is necessary to analyse significant amounts of servicing records efficiently and accurately.

“We remain comfortable that the provision we have set up to cover the costs of this exercise is appropriate.

“Beyond our operating and financial performance, we have performed a thorough review of the business and the markets in which we operate. Ultimately, this work has reinforced our conviction that SJP continues to be a very strong business, with a fantastic opportunity ahead.

“We must though acknowledge that for all our qualities as a business, we have a lot of hard work ahead of us over the next 24 months to strengthen our core and execute our existing programmes of work, helping us to become a more efficient and effective business. From a strong base, we can capture the structural market opportunities ahead of us and drive growth over the long-term.”

Near-term profit growth is expected to be affected by the impact of transitioning to a new simpler and more comparable charging structure.

Fitzpatrick said:  “We expect to see the underlying cash result accelerate in 2027 and beyond, doubling between 2023 and 2030. Importantly, much of this rapid growth is highly predictable because of those changes that we are making to our charges.

“We are positioning for further success, and I am confident that our refreshed strategic focus leaves us well placed for a very bright future ahead.”