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St James’s Place has been ordered to refund a client thousands of pounds after the Ombudsman found its fees were unfair.
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) instructed the wealth manager to pay back ongoing advice charges and provide compensation to a client who did not receive advice for several years.
St James’s Place, Britain’s biggest wealth manager, has seen a surge in complaints after it admitted to overcharging thousands of clients who had paid 0.5pc for ongoing advice they did not receive. The FOS recorded 485 complaints about the firm in the first half of 2024, up from 126 in the same period in 2023.
Mr G had been advised by St James’s since 2015. He regularly met with his adviser to discuss his Isa and pension plan.
But he found he did not receive the same level of service following a change of adviser in 2019, so Mr G raised a complaint with St James’s Place in 2023 over a lack of advice.
St James’s Place upheld his complaint and found that no reviews had taken place between May 2019 and March 2023. It offered to refund him £1,787 in ongoing advice charges for his Isa and drawdown plan between the years 2020 and 2022, plus 8pc interest.
On top of this, it offered compensation of £350 for its delays in dealing with the complaint and for the adviser’s lack of response in January 2023.
Unhappy with the offer, Mr G escalated his complaint to the FOS. He argued that all charges for the five years should be returned due to the lack of service.
The FOS concluded that St James’s Place had not refunded all the ongoing advice charges it should have done and told the firm to pay back the charges taken between 2019 and 2022 plus interest, with an extra £600 compensation for the stress and inconvenience caused.
In another recent case, the FOS found St James’s Place had “unfairly levied” ongoing advice fees and ordered the firm to pay these back.
Miss W decided to switch her pension away from the firm in 2023 because she was unhappy about the lack of transparency around charges.
The wealth manager offered to waive the early withdrawal charges for her pension, refund the £639 ongoing advice charge for 2023 and pay £150 compensation for the delay in responding to her complaint.
However, the FOS found that “despite Miss W being repeatedly told that the adviser would regularly meet with her and despite her paying for ongoing advice no such meeting took place and no such advice was offered or given”.
It therefore instructed the firm to repay thousands of pounds in ongoing advice fees.