Louise first met with a St James’s Place adviser in 2012 to discuss her retirement planning arrangements. She met with the adviser again in 2019 and was advised to invest further into her pension. However, the rules regarding how advisers were paid changed in 2013. This meant that when Louise was given fresh advice in 2019, part of the agreement between the adviser and Louise was that in return for an Ongoing Advice Charge, she would receive a review of her personal and financial circumstances each year.

Louise saw our ad on the internet and contacted us asking if we could assist her regarding the charges she had been paying to St James’s Place. We reviewed the service she had been given and it was clear that since 2019 she was paying for a service she had simply not received.

We sent our claim to St James’s Place explaining why Louise should receive a refund. After investigating the case St James’s Place agreed with our findings and refunded the fees paid from 2019 until now, plus interest and Louise received the amount of £297.