St James’s Place shakes up investment managers amid fees pressure
St James’s Place has dropped Jacob Rees-Mogg-founded Somerset Capital Management and brought in three new investment managers in recent weeks in the latest sign of an overhaul at the firm after pressure over its complex fees.
In a statement today, Britain’s biggest wealth manager said it had changed the manager line-up on its global smaller companies, global emerging markets and emerging markets equity funds, which cumulatively hold over £1.25bn in assets.
Somerset Capital, which was co-founded by Jacob Rees-Mogg, and Australian funds group Paradice have been dropped by the firm as it looks to overhaul its fee structure following pressure from regulators.
“The changes we are making to the Global Emerging Market fund and Global Smaller Companies are designed to specifically add lower cost strategies to our platform and therefore continue a theme of providing investors with more choice,” said Tom Beal, executive director of investments at SJP.
The changes are the latest sign of a shake-up of the firm after it confirmed it would scrap a controversial exit fee today after reportedly coming under pressure from regulators.
The UK’s biggest wealth manager said it had completed an “internal evaluation” of its fees in October and would push through an overhaul for the “vast majority of new investment bonds and pensions.”
Under the changes today, Northern Trust Global Investments Limited will replace Paradice in managing the smaller companies fund. Robeco Institutional Asset Management will take over the global emerging markets fund from Somerset.
St James’s Place said the changes would bring the fund manager charge from 0.60 per cent to 0.06 per cent per year, and 0.30 per cent to 0.15 per cent per year in the two funds, respectively.
Aikya Investment Management has been added to the current line-up of fund managers at the emerging markets equity fund alongside ARGA Investment Management, Lazard Asset Management and Wasatch Global Investors. The move will see the charge increase from 0.37 per cent to 0.39 per cent.