St James’s Place said its advisers attracted £17bn of new client investments, its second-best year on record for new business flows.
In 2021, the firm recorded £18.2bn of new client investments by advisers.
In an update today, SJP said net inflow of funds under management was £9.8bn for 2022, down from £11bn in 2021.
The investment manager saw funds under management drop to £148.4bn in 2022, down from £154bn the previous year.
Craig Gentle, chief financial officer at SJP, said 2022 presented a challenging operating environment, as a variety of macroeconomic and geopolitical factors led to significant investment market falls and eroded consumer confidence.
“Our business performed strongly against this backdrop,” he said.
“With client retention rates remaining very high, net inflows totalled £9.8bn, equivalent to 6.4 per cent of opening funds under management.”
Gentle said in February 2021, SJP set out the planning assumptions that underpin its business plan through to 2025.
These include: long-term new business growth of 10 per cent per annum, consistent retention of client investments above 95 per cent, containing controllable expense growth to 5 per cent per annum; and £200bn of FUM by 2025.
"Our results for 2022 demonstrate further progress towards these goals; however, we recognised at the outset that our performance over this planning period would not be linear," he said.
"2021 was a very strong year across all metrics as investment markets and consumer confidence were buoyed by Covid-19 vaccination programmes, with the environment in 2022 being much more challenging."
SJP said across the partnership, it now has 4,693 qualified advisers.
Andrew Croft, chief executive at SJP, said: "After a year when the external environment proved favourable to many businesses in our industry, 2022 presented a more challenging backdrop as UK consumers faced the reality of sharply rising inflation, macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, and investment market volatility.
“Despite this, we achieved the second-best year for new business flows in our history as our advisers performed admirably in helping clients feel confident in their finances and remain on track for the future.”
sonia.rach@ft.com
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