The Sunday Times devoted a lot of space to St James’s Place this weekend – they report on a secret dossier which reveals how reps with Britain’s biggest financial adviser are able to play down its charges.
A separate article examines how behind the glossy St James’s Place brochure are some grubby fees and charges – none of which are referred to in the firm’s literature, nor at the seminar where it was handed out.
Yet another article tells how a government select committee is challenging SJP to “publish a full list of its charges and details of its incentive programmes, so savers are not ripped off by a lack of knowledge of what they are letting themselves in for.”
Finally, the paper examines the plight of a couple who are so fed up with the service they received from SJP that they are willing to pay more than £11,000 to take their £509,000 pension savings elsewhere.
Elsewhere, the paper speculates that when Woodford Equity Income reopens, probably not before December, the stricken fund will ditch biotech and revert back to “blue-chips and ‘baccy”.
The Sunday Telegraph muses that while Auto Trader has proved a high-octane stock, how much is left in the tank?
It also reports that Austin Forey, for 20 years manager of the £1.3bn JP Morgan Emerging Markets investment trust, has as his rule of thumb “There aren’t any countries we avoid – except Venezuela.”
The Mail on Sunday describes the panic as Nationwide emails 1.3m customers to tell them they have no money.
It also investigates what it calls ‘Plunder in Paradise’ – a Costa Blanca scam that has cost expat pensioners £25 million and led to one attempted suicide.
Its now-regular Neil Woodford section reports that the paper took an early morning trip to the fund chief’s HQ armed with readers’ emails but, surprise surprise, there was no response.