Advisers overseeing billions of pounds to leave St James’s Place
Prospera and Wellesley have both left SJP, according to the FCA’s register
Two of St James’s Place’s biggest advisory firms have left the business while another is considering doing so, sending shares in the UK’s largest wealth manager tumbling.
Prospera Wealth Management, based in Sheffield, and Wellesley Investment Management in West Sussex have both left SJP, according to the Financial Conduct Authority’s register.
The departure of the two firms, which collectively oversee just over £2bn of client assets, emerged on Thursday and sent shares in the Gloucestershire-based advisory network down more than 7 per cent.
Their exit comes just a week after reports that Sovereign Wealth, one of SJP’s biggest advisory firms with about £3bn of assets under administration, was also considering leaving the wealth manager’s network. SJP declined to comment.
SJP operates as a partnership, working with about 5,000 individual financial advisers who work at advisory firms across the country. As part of this structure, these advisory firms, also known as appointed representatives, can only sell SJP’s products and services.
SJP has been cutting costs and rebuilding its reputation under chief executive Mark FitzPatrick, who was appointed in 2023. After coming under scrutiny over its complicated and opaque fee structure, the firm restructured its charges last August — leading to lower upfront fees for financial advisers.
The flurry of departures comes as rivals continue to grow rapidly by snapping up advisers. According to Wellesley’s website, the firm is now in partnership with Sweden-based Söderberg. Söderberg declined to comment.
Söderberg, which counts former St James’s Place chief executive David Bellamy as a non-executive, provides wealth management, insurance and employee benefits. It has more than £100bn in assets under advice and is backed by private equity firms KKR and TA Associates.
The wealth management arm, which operates in countries including Sweden, Norway and the UK, has been rapidly snapping up financial advisers in recent months.
The FT revealed earlier last month that Söderberg had struck a deal to acquire Schroders’ financial planning arm Benchmark Capital, which has £37bn of assets, for about £200mn, in another move to expand its footprint in the UK.
SJP is also facing legal action, as some former advisers allege that SJP took their clients and failed to pay them fair compensation.
Julian Roberts, an analyst at Jefferies, said that data from the FCA did not reveal “a big exodus of firms” from SJP and noted that the three firms represent about 2 to 3 per cent of SJP’s total £217bn of assets under management.
Roberts added that “clients would not automatically transfer to the new owner and, as a rule of thumb, about half might stay”, noting that “outflows would probably take two or three years”.
A person close to the situation said that SJP could still potentially retain clients and advisers from the departing firms.