Not upheld: failure to provide ongoing advice services and fairness of ongoing charges complaint against St. James's Place Wealth Management Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs B complained that she paid for ongoing personal advice on her unit trust investment over 30 years but never received any advice or contact from an adviser. She sought compensation for the deductions that reduced her investment's growth. SJP argued that prior to the RDR (2013), trail commission payments were bundled into product charges and did not create a contractual obligation to provide ongoing services. The ombudsman found no evidence of any agreement between SJP and Mrs B to provide ongoing advice services, no separate advice charge was recorded, and post-RDR fund switches showed no evidence of advice being given. The complaint was not upheld as SJP had done nothing wrong.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman concluded that Mrs B's investment predated the RDR, when advisory firms were paid through trail commission bundled into product charges. Crucially, trail commission payments did not create a contractual obligation to provide ongoing services unless specifically agreed. There was no evidence of any such agreement with Mrs B. The fund switches post-RDR showed no evidence of advice being given and no separate advice charge was recorded. Therefore, SJP had no obligation to provide ongoing advice services and did nothing wrong.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website