St. James's Place Wealth Management PLC

To enable us to meet the needs of our clients we feel it is essential to have access to a wide range of investment management firms and a comprehensive product range.

Being a member of the St. James's Place Partnership provides this back up allowing us to concentrate on looking after our clients. An additional benefit of this relationship is that the St. James's Place Wealth Management Group guarantees the advice given by its representatives when recommending any of the products & services provided by the companies in the group.

Who are St. James's Place Wealth Management PLC?

St. James's Place Wealth Management plc is highly regarded as one of the UK's leading wealth management organisations. The company was voted Wealth Manager of the Year and Best Wealth Manager in 2009 and 2008 respectively by readers of the Financial Times and Investors Chronicle and was awarded “Best Performing Fund” (2009) by readers of the Daily Telegraph.

The St. James's Place Foundation is the charitable arm of the St. James's Place Wealth Management Group and is aimed at supporting hospices, the armed forces, disadvantaged young people overseas, cancer treatment and children/young people with special needs within the UK.

A Distinctive Approach to Investment Management

The approach at St. James's Place to managing clients' money is built around using the best available external investment professionals.

One of its unique facets is the use of an investment consultancy firm, Stamford Associates Limited.

Who are Stamford Associates Limited?

Established in 1984 and based in London they are a UK incorporated company which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. They concentrate their entire resources to servicing a small number of institutional clients of which St. James's Place is unique, being the only provider of wealth management solutions to private clients.

"You don't need a huge database (to do investment consulting well). All you would need is what Nathan Gelber has at Stamford Associates"

Paul Myners
Financial Times September 2003

How can Stamford Associates enhance long-term Investment Returns?

There are three key elements to their approach:

•  Investment manager research & assessment

•  The monitoring of managers

•  Replacement of a manager if necessary

Manager Research

As Stamford Associates believe that superior investment performance is achieved by individuals rather than any one particular firm, the first step is to identify who those managers are. The next step is to provide St. James's Place with access to these key individuals. At the same time there is a conscious risk control through thoughtful manager combinations by using individuals with different investment approaches.

Monitoring & Reporting

Continuous assessment is crucial to avoid adverse investment results over the long term. The objective is one of prevention not cure, to assess managers' ability to deliver performance going forward with a view to taking remedial action before, not after unfavourable results have been experienced. The process is extremely intensive, including:

•  Close contact is maintained with the managers to understand the rationale behind transactions.

•  Managers' portfolios are reviewed on a monthly basis.

•  An "early warning system" which ensures individual managers share sensitive, yet important, information such as any internal personnel changes.

•  Regular reporting to an Investment Committee chaired by Sir Mark Weinberg.

Manager Replacement

If there is a loss in confidence about a managers' ability to deliver superior investment performance over the long term, Stamford Associates will recommend a replacement manager to the Investment Committee. Since the start of the relationship with St. James's Place in 1999, there have been 36 recommended changes (as at December 2009).