Welcome to ST. JAMES S PLACE 1 PARTNERS IN MANAGING YOUR WEALTH PARTNERS IN MANAGING YOUR WEALTH

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1 Welcome to ST. JAMES S PLACE 1

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3 Welcome to St. James s Place Wealth Management. We are a FTSE 250 company with over 27bn of client funds under management, specialising in the provision of face-to-face financial advice to individuals, trustees and businesses. We believe we are uniquely positioned in the wealth management market because of the strength, depth and experience of our dedicated adviser team the St. James s Place Partnership and our distinctive approach to investment management. The following pages expand a little more on both of these aspects of our business and explain what you can expect if you become a client of St. James s Place. I hope the content is of interest and look forward to welcoming you as a client in due course. In the meantime, if you would like to know more about us, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me, or with one of our Partners; or visit our website at Thank you for your interest. David Bellamy Chief Executive david.c.bellamy@sjp.co.uk 3

4 The St. James s Place Partnership T he St. James s Place Partnership plays the leading role in delivering our wealth management service. The Partners, so called because of the way they work in partnership with you, have, on average, over 17 years experience in their field and include some of the most experienced and able professionals working in wealth management today. Whilst all of our Partners are experienced advisers, some have expertise in specific and highly technical areas. If your circumstances require additional expertise, your Partner will consult with, and if necessary introduce, a specialist colleague. Partners often work alongside your other professional advisers, providing a complementary service and a fresh perspective. We have chosen to promote our services exclusively through the Partnership. This reflects the confidence we have in a Partner s ability to provide clients with sound financial advice and to build and maintain longterm working relationships with them. Relationships are important. Being able to call upon the services of an adviser who understands your personal circumstances enables you to benefit from a source of trusted advice as your financial needs evolve over the years. We are committed to supporting our Partners ongoing professional development to ensure that they remain appropriately qualified and technically able. As a result, we are happy to guarantee the advice that they give when recommending any of the investments and other services provided by companies in the St. James s Place Wealth Management Group. 4

5 The St. James s Place Partnership includes some of the most experienced and able professionals working in wealth management today 5

6 Knowing how to take advantage of the opportunities available to you is key, making our advice essential 6

7 A How we can help you t St. James s Place we offer wealth management advice to individuals, trustees and businesses, which is specifically designed around their individual circumstances. Our services include: Investments The right investments can offer real opportunities to enhance your wealth and protect it against inflation. St. James s Place has a broad range of funds to choose from and can provide you with expert advice to help you build an appropriate portfolio. We can also help to ensure that your investments are arranged as tax efficiently as possible, whether you are investing for your own benefit, for your family, or for other beneficiaries. Retirement planning For many, retirement will last as long as, if not longer than, their working lives. While making plans for a long and prosperous retirement is likely to involve investment in pensions, the range of strategies has never been wider. Knowing how to take advantage of the opportunities available to you is key, making our advice essential to both private individuals and business owners. Protecting wealth Protecting the wealth and financial future of our clients families is a key element of our service. We are specialists in providing solutions to meet exceptional insurance needs, such as unusually high levels of life cover needed to protect estates from Inheritance Tax, or to protect companies and the people who own and manage them. Other services In order to complement and enhance our own range of services, Partners also have access to carefully selected external providers. We believe these providers represent the best of breed in their respective fields and are capable of delivering the high standards of service you would expect. More information on these products and services is available from your Partner. 7

8 O St. James s Place and you ur relationship-based advice service means that we are committed to helping you to manage your wealth in a way which reflects your personal circumstances. Putting you firmly at the centre of everything we do is core to our culture and enables us to run a genuinely client-focused business. If we do this well, we believe that not only will you remain a client, but that you may also become an advocate for the company. We aim to deliver on our commitment to you by: Providing personal face-to-face financial advice from an experienced St. James s Place Partner Giving you the opportunity to review your financial affairs regularly Ensuring that your investments are managed effectively Ensuring that our correspondence and literature is clear and easy to understand Listening to your feedback Ensuring that our dealings with you are sensitive to your needs We want your experience of St. James s Place to be positive in every sense and for all of your dealings with our organisation to meet with your complete satisfaction. 8

9 Putting you firmly at the centre of everything we do is core to our culture 9

10 Getting to know each other builds trust and establishes a long-term relationship 10

11 H Becoming a client owever you come into contact with St. James s Place, our first priority will be for us to get to know each other. This will involve you meeting with one of our Partners, so that they can spend time understanding your personal circumstances and your future financial objectives. It may take several conversations before we know enough about you to advise on the appropriate course of action and before you know enough about us to want to become a client. Taking time to get to know each other in this way builds trust and helps us to establish a long-term relationship with you. When your Partner fully understands your requirements, they will recommend options that will help you to achieve your goals. They will also consider whether additional planning, for example tax planning or the use of Trusts, could help you to arrange your investments more efficiently. Our approach is to be open in all of our dealings with clients. Therefore, your Partner will explain our charges, your statutory rights, any protections that apply and will also confirm all of their advice in writing. When you invest, we will confirm back to you the full details of the investment you have made. Should you wish to, you can then monitor the performance of your investment daily via our internet site, or by using the price updates provided in the Daily Telegraph. We all prefer to do business with someone we both like and trust. We hope that your St. James s Place Partner can be that person for all of your financial planning needs. 11

12 S Our approach to investment management uccessful investment is critical to your future financial wellbeing, but it is a field which presents a unique problem: future performance is unpredictable. As a result, when you choose an investment manager, no matter how successful, you can never be sure that you have made the right choice. And even if you have, it may not continue to be the right choice over the years to come. We believe that our approach to investment management addresses these challenges. We do not place your money in the hands of our own team of investment managers: indeed, we have no investment managers of our own. Instead, we are free to choose any investment manager from any fund management firm anywhere in the world. The responsibility of selecting the range of funds and fund managers that are made available to St. James s Place clients at any one time falls upon our Investment Committee, advised by the respected independent investment research consultancy, Stamford Associates. Stamford Associates share their extensive research of the global investment markets with a small number of companies. We are particularly proud to have them on our team, as St. James s Place is the only company they work with that provides wealth management advice to private individuals. The Committee meets regularly to review performance and consider detailed reports from each investment manager. If a change in the marketplace calls for the addition of another manager, the Committee will select one. Equally, if the Committee loses confidence in the ability of an existing manager it will replace them. This process is described in more detail in the next section. By selecting a number of leading investment managers and investment houses with their own distinctive styles, we are able to offer our clients the opportunity of aiming to obtain consistent, superior investment performance over the long term. 12

13 We believe that our approach addresses the challenge of investment manager selection 13

14 Whatever the level of your investment, it is as important to us as it is to you 14

15 T Our ongoing relationship hroughout this document we have talked about our desire to build long-term relationships with our clients. While we will keep in touch with you directly, your primary relationship will be with your St. James s Place Partner. From the moment that you decide to become a client, we aim to demonstrate the value of this relationship through the service that we deliver to you. Whatever the level of your investment, it is as important to us as it is to you. We will keep you informed of the way in which we are looking after your wealth by giving you access to on-line valuation services, as well as an annual valuation report. We recognise that your satisfaction as a client will depend on how well we look after your investments and how well we keep you informed. Deciding where to invest your money is only the first step in building and protecting your wealth. It is what happens after you invest that will determine whether the outcome meets your expectations. This is where your relationship with St. James s Place really is different. The Investment Committee, aided by Stamford Associates, continually monitors the fund managers who are charged with the responsibility of managing your money. This process begins with a detailed analysis of the manager s investment style and approach, supported by a stock-by-stock analysis of each underlying portfolio. As part of this process, they hold regular meetings throughout the year with the managers to assess the impact and quality of their underlying investment decision making. If at any time the Investment Committee loses confidence in a manager, we will replace them. This happens quickly and efficiently, at no cost and with no tax implications for you. 15

16 The Investment Committee produces a written report twice a year, which is made available to clients and explains the steps taken and the changes made in the previous six months. In addition, our investment specialists produce regular investment and economic bulletins throughout the year, along with a weekly market report, all of which are available to you. This information, together with interviews with the investment managers, recorded exclusively for our clients, and our Investor magazine, ensures you are kept fully informed of how your money is being managed. Your Partner will also discuss the level of ongoing service you would like. Primarily this will involve holding regular review meetings, either faceto-face or via the telephone, to discuss your investments and personal circumstances, thus ensuring that whatever decisions you have made remain appropriate and continue to meet your objectives. Whatever your ongoing requirements, your St. James s Place Partner will do their best to satisfy them and will agree with you at outset what you can expect and when. In order to help your Partner to keep up to date with our ever-changing financial world, we give them access to a team of specialists who help them to interpret government policy, tax legislation and changes to economic factors and investment markets. This means that your Partner is ideally placed to provide you with regular information and advice on how to make the most of the financial landscape in which we live. Whatever the frequency of the regular contact with your Partner, you should feel free to contact them at any time to discuss any aspect of your investment. As we said earlier, putting you firmly at the centre of everything we do is core to our culture. At St. James s Place, your relationship with us starts, rather than ends, at the point you decide to invest. 16

17 At St. James s Place, your relationship with us starts, rather than ends, at the point you decide to invest 17

18 A Your views s you will be in regular contact with your Partner, we would encourage you to discuss any feedback that you have with them in the first instance, whether this is positive or negative. We make sure that we give Partners plenty of opportunity to pass on your views to us. For example, we make the personal contact details of the entire senior management team available to Partners in a spirit of openness. This means that at any time, even outside of normal business hours, a Partner can swiftly and easily contact any member of the management team from the Chairman downward if they need to. We encourage Partners to solicit client feedback, as it helps us to monitor how we are doing and lets us know what we may need to change in order to provide a better service. We also consult with clients directly through satisfaction surveys, focused research and client events. Outside of these processes, you should feel free to contact us directly at any time, which you can do by phoning our main Head Office switchboard on or by leaving your comments on our internet site at under contact us. We believe that focusing on the strength of the relationship between Partners and clients, and building on the success of our approach to investment management, has made St. James s Place the company it is today. We are committed to developing these two principles further, as they create an environment which makes St. James s Place a great company with which to do business. Now that you have a greater understanding of what you can expect should you become a client, we hope that you will see St. James s Place as a company you would trust with your investments and all of your financial planning needs. We look forward to welcoming you as a client. 18

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20 UK members of the St. James s Place Wealth Management Group are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. The St. James s Place Partnership and the titles Partner and Partner Practice are marketing terms used to describe St. James s Place representatives. St. James s Place Wealth Management Group plc Registered Office: St. James s Place House, 1 Tetbury Road, Cirencester, Gloucestershire, GL7 1FP, United Kingdom. Registered in England Number SJP570-VR18 (07/11)