Wealth manager St James’s Place to cut 500 jobs as part of £200m cost-cutting drive

St James’s Place is making around 500 staff redundant as part of a £200m savings drive.

The wealth management company plans to cut about a sixth of its 3,200 corporate employees, it revealed in an internal memo first reported by business outlet Citywire.

Earlier this year, St James’s Place said it would make £100m in cost cuts per year over the next two years, and expected to have saved £500m by 2030.

The plans were announced as part of a strategic restructuring under chief executive Mark FitzPatrick, who joined last year.

The redundancies will not affect the London-listed company’s approximately 4,800 financial advisers across the country, who run their own smaller businesses under the St James’s Place umbrella.

Instead, the 3,200 corporate employees will be targeted for cuts, a source familiar with the matter confirmed.

A spokesperson for St James’s Place said: “Based on our half-year results in July, we committed to saving £100 million a year from the addressable cost base by 2027.

Our cost reduction plans focus on simplifying and standardizing processes within the company, but a program of this size and scale will inevitably impact colleagues.

“We have begun consulting with colleagues to share our proposal for how this could impact the roles, the outcome of which will not be known until next year.”