St. James's Place reviews

SJP drive a coach & horses through FCA and RDR requirements, using a quasi-commission based "fee" structure. This leads to miss selling and poor practice, which is swept under the carpet as long as the Partner is a profitable business producer. Some Partners earn in excess of £250,000 PA , employ a paraplanner on 30K to do all the hard work, and swan around on the golf course most of the week. Partners often treat any compliance intervention with contempt, and are supported by the business in doing so.

- Offshore colleagues are continually used as a prop to make SJP appear more diverse. The reality is these employees are treated as second class citizens across the business - Refusal to address root causes of abysmal corporate culture - The whole partnership model of advice fails to add any real value for clients (every critique from the FT is entirely justified) - Poor pay for permanent SJP employees and unreasonably large bonuses for senior managers - Cutting corners in every aspect of the business which ultimately incurs SUBSTANTIAL long term costs - Every business decision is built around a hierarchical structure, whether thats in the interest of: senior management; the so called ‘principal’ and ‘senior’ partners, or their ‘private clients’. This is often at the expense of responsible business operations, appropriate corporate strategy, and positive overall client outcomes