Market volatility increases engagement and inflows at St James’s Place

Volatility in global markets has helped to increase engagement for St James’s Place, resulting in a “another strong quarter for new business”.

The Gloucestershire-based wealth management group received a net inflow of £1.7bn of funds from investors in the first quarter, which has been dominated by market uncertainty responding to the start of President Trump’s second term.

Mark FitzPatrick, chief executive of St James’s Place

Chief executive Mark FitzPatrick said: “Macroeconomic uncertainty and market volatility create a challenging environment for savers and investors, but one which underlines the value that trusted financial advice delivers to clients.”

A decline in global markets during the quarter impacted St James’s Place’s funds under management, which closed the period at £188.6bn.

Fitzpatrick added: “We continue to make substantial progress with our three key programmes of work. We will be implementing our simple, comparable charging structure over the summer, and our work to review historic client servicing records and implement our cost and efficiency programme continues to move forward.”