Investment Approach Management

As we live longer, planning for 100-year lifetimes could become crucial in helping to secure financial wellbeing in a world worth living in. We recognise that everyone’s financial journey is different, that is why our approach to financial and investment planning is based on individual goals.

To understand these goals and help provide peace of mind throughout your life we work with you in three phases:

PLAN: A clear plan is key in helping you meet your longer-term goals e.g. a comfortable retirement.
DESIGN: Designing an investment portfolio that considers your time horizon, your attitude to risk and your capacity for risk.
REVIEW: Helping you stay on track to reaching your goals through changing market and personal conditions.

St. James's Place Wealth Management recognises that no single investment house has a monopoly on investment expertise, and St. James’s Place do not employ in-house investment managers. Instead we carefully select a number of external managers of outstanding ability to manage our range of funds.

This has a number of advantages:

• It gives us the freedom to select first-class managers from the global investment market to manage our funds on behalf of our clients
• It enables us to change any of these managers at short notice if we have lost confidence in them, without any charges, or tax, or inconvenience to our clients
• It offers our clients a real opportunity to diversify their investments by spreading their money across funds managed by different managers with different styles

The value of an investment with St. James's Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds you select and the value can therefore go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested.

The St. James's Place approach to investment management only applies to St. James's Place products.

Members of the Investment Committee

The cornerstone of the St. James's Place approach is our Investment Committee, which ‘manages the fund managers’ on behalf of our clients. The role of the Investment Committee is to:

• Select the best investment managers
• Continually monitor those managers to ensure they maintain the standards for which they were selected
• Change managers if this becomes necessary
• Ensure clients have an appropriate spread of investments by providing a comprehensive range of funds and Growth and Income Portfolios

We believe our investment process provides our clients with the best chance to achieve superior returns over the medium to long term.

To help in carrying out its role, the St. James’s Place Investment Committee is assisted by Stamford Associates, Redington and other independent consultants, each selected for their expertise in particular areas of the investment world. Stamford Associates and Redington play a vital role in the selection and monitoring of the fund managers, as well as assisting the Investment Committee with investment strategy and the development of our fund range.

The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds you select and the value can therefore go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested.

The St. James's Place approach to investment management only applies to St. James's Place products.

A global approach to selecting fund managers

Key to the distinctive St. James's Place approach is the ability to identify and select fund managers from around the world. Contracting out the management of our funds gives us greater freedom and the flexibility to source investment expertise on a global scale, providing our clients with truly diversified portfolio solutions.

* Red lines indicate fund managers from whom all the strategies we offer are exclusive to St. James's Place clients in the UK retail space.

The value of an investment with St. James's Place will be directly linked to the funds selected and may go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested.

Responsible Investing

When you invest your money with St. James’s Place you can make that money a real force for good. Hear from our Investment Director, Robert Gardner, introduce our approach to responsible investing.

We know that many of our clients want their money invested responsibly, even if preserving and growing capital, or generating income, might be their primary aims. We take this priority seriously, not least through integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into our investment process.

We believe that our external fund managers should factor environmental, social and governance issues into their investment decisions. This focus provides not only a risk management tool, but also an alternative lens to identify new opportunities that may contribute to superior long-term investment returns.

Our Journey So Far

We continually develop our responsible investment approach, working closely with our managers to encourage and support the considerations around responsible investing as an integrated part of the investment process.

While the principles of Responsible Investing are embedded throughout our investment approach, some of our solutions place an extra emphasis on ESG factors. For example, the Sustainable & Responsible Equity fund provides a focused solution for investors seeking a strategy that contributes to a more sustainable global economy.

Recognition

More Information

To view the progress we made in 2019 around our approach to Responsible Investing, please click here.

St. James’s Place is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investing (UNPRI). To view further information and see how our Portfolios are managed in accordance with the UNPRI, click here.

St. James’s Place is a signatory to the UK Stewardship Code and is fully supportive of its principles. Read our statement of commitment to the code.

The value of an investment with St. James's Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds selected and may fall as well as rise. You may get back less than the amount invested.

Awards

2020

• Wealth Management Company of the Year – City of London Wealth Management Awards
• Best Advisory Service – Online Personal Wealth Awards

2019

• Best Financial Adviser – Personal Finance Awards
• Best Wealth Manager – Shares Awards
• Wealth Management Company of the Year – City of London Wealth Management Awards
• Best Wealth Planning Team – Wealth Adviser Awards
• Best High Net Worth Team – Wealth Adviser Awards
• Best Wealth Manager Growth Portfolio – Wealth Adviser Awards

2018

• Best Financial Adviser - Personal Finance Awards
• Best Wealth Manager – Shares Awards
• Wealth Management Company of the Year – City of London Wealth Management Awards
• Outstanding Accomplishment – City of London Wealth Management Awards
• Best Private Client Investment Manager – Wealth Adviser Awards
• Best Wealth Planning Team – Wealth Adviser Awards

2017

• Best Financial Adviser – Personal Finance Awards
• Best Wealth Manager – Shares Awards
• Wealth Management Company of the Year – City of London Wealth Management Awards
• Best Private Client Investment Manager – Wealth Adviser Awards

2016

• Best Financial Adviser – Personal Finance Awards
• Best Wealth Manager – Shares Awards
• Best Wealth Manager – What Investment Readers’ Awards
• Pension Firm of the Year - Financial Directors' Excellence Awards
• Best Private Client Investment Manager - Wealth Adviser Awards
• Wealth Management Company of the Year - City of London Wealth Management Awards

2015

• Pension Firm of the Year - Financial Directors’ Excellence Awards
• Top in Sector - Britain's Most Admired Companies
• Best Wealth Manager for Inheritance Tax and Succession Planning - FT/Investors Chronicle
• Best Wealth Manager for Trusts - FT/Investors Chronicle
• Best Financial Adviser - Personal Finance Awards
• Best Wealth Manager for Tax Efficiency and Advice - FT/Investors Chronicle
• Wealth Adviser Award 2015 - Best Private Client Investment Manager
• Wealth Management Company of the Year - City of London Wealth Management Awards 2015

2014

• Best Wealth Manager for Tax Efficiency and Advice - FT/Investors Chronicle
• Best Financial Adviser - Personal Finance Awards
• Best Pension Providers' Fund, UK Equities - Money Observer Pension Fund Awards
• FTSE 100 Business of the Year - National Business Awards Finalist
• Best Performing Fund - City of London Wealth Management Awards
• Best Private Client Investment Manager - Wealth Adviser Awards
• Best Global Equity Fund - Morningstar UK Fund Awards
• Best Wealth Manager - Online Personal Wealth Awards

2013

• Top in Sector - Britain's Most Admired Companies
• Best Wealth Manager - Shares Awards
• Best Private Client Asset Manager UK - Wealth Adviser Awards
• Best Wealth Manager for Tax Efficient Investments - FT/Investors Chronicle Awards
• Wealth Management Company of the Year - City of London Wealth Management Awards
• Best Financial Adviser - Personal Finance Awards

2012

• Top in Sector - Britain's Most Admired Companies
• UK Wealth Manager of the Year - FT and Investors Chronicle Awards
• Best Financial Adviser - The Personal Finance Awards
• Best Insurance plc - UK Stock Market Award
• Wealth Management Company of the Year - City of London Wealth Management Awards

2011

• Best Financial Adviser - Personal Finance Awards
• Best Wealth Manager for Tax - FT and Investors Chronicle

2010

• Wealth Manager of the Year - The Daily Telegraph
• Best Financial Adviser - Personal Finance Awards

2009

• Wealth Manager of the Year - FT and Investors Chronicle
• Best Wealth Manager for Investments - FT and Investors Chronicle
• Best Wealth Manager for Inheritance Tax and Succession Planning - FT and Investors Chronicle
• Best Performing Fund - The Daily Telegraph

2008

• Wealth Manager of the Year - The Daily Telegraph
• Best Wealth Manager - FT and Investors Chronicle
• Best Income Fund Manager - FT and Investors Chronicle

2007

• Wealth Manager of the Year - The Daily Telegraph

Guarantee

St. James's Place guarantees the suitability of the advice given by members of the St. James's Place Partnership when recommending any of the wealth management products and services available from companies in the group, more details of which are set out on the Group's website.

St. James’s Place Charitable Foundation

The Charitable Foundation at St. James’s Place has reached the £100million mark for monies raised through fundraising and corporate matching, supporting charities to make transformational change to people’s lives in the UK and overseas. 

Established in 1992, the Charitable Foundation is the 6th largest corporate Foundation in the UK. It has four core funding themes: 

1. Helping children and young people who have a physical or learning disability or are disadvantaged 
2. Hospices
3. Cancer support charities 
4. Mental Health 

The Charitable Foundation has a focus on supporting smaller grassroots charities through a range of grant programmes enabling positive and lasting change to the beneficiaries of those organisations it supports. The community of St. James’s Place, including employees and the advisers, undertake a wide range of fundraising activities throughout the year. A key activity is that around 87% of staff and advisers give a regular monthly gift to the Foundation. Every pound raised is matched by St. James’s Place Plc. The community of St. James’s Place are also encouraged to give their time and skills to charities in their local areas, providing over 14,333 hours in 2019. 

The Charitable Foundation’s impact is far reaching and enables long-term positive change for the charities it supports and their beneficiaries: 

• Over the past 28 years it has granted over £96million in grants to charities, - £13.9million was granted in 2019 – the single biggest year in grant-making. 
• It provides funding and support to over 900 charities every year –, with 88% of funding going to charities in the UK. And 12% overseas
• 1.84 million people have been directly supported in ways such as paying for the salary of a youth worker supporting disadvantaged young people – to supporting the build costs of of a specialist hydrotherapy pool for children with severe disabilities, a further 5.3 million substantially impacted indirectly 

For more information on the St. James's Place Charitable Foundation and to find out how to apply for a grant please click here.

Registered Charity Number 1144606