Head of Advice Policy

St. James's Place (SJP) works in partnership to plan, grow and protect our clients' financial futures. We deliver personalised, face-to-face financial advice to our clients, who trust us to manage their money to reach their goals. We provide this service via the Partnership, a network of qualified, expert advisors. We put financial wellbeing and responsible business choices at the heart of everything we do. We believe in the value of difference and know that diverse teams can help us problem solve and innovate for clients.

We look for people to join SJP to make an impact and to contribute to our culture which is based around long term relationships, doing the right thing, and being the best version of ourselves.

Location: London - Paddington

Workplace Type: Hybrid

Employment Type: Permanent

Seniority: Director

What you'll be doing:

This role is pivotal in leading, creating and developing a strategic vision for SJP's approach to advice proposition and policy. You will be responsible for managing a team of specialists in this area of expertise whose shared objective is to implement and embed a robust advice framework.

It is fundamental that the team collaborates and engages widely across the SJP Group with key senior stakeholders to ensure that any policy and framework changes are embraced and are sustained for the future.

Key Responsibilities:

• To lead and set the strategic development of St. James's Place Advice Proposition and Advice Policy across the SJP Group
• To lead embedding and maintaining compliance with Consumer Duty
• A champion focused on making it easier to advise whilst ensuring clients understand the initial recommendations they receive and their ongoing advice.
• Champion for advice and advice policy throughout SJP community leading the creation and articulating our Advice Beliefs
• Create, propose and deliver new initiatives around the SJP's advice proposition and influence Directors and colleagues to support them
• Oversee the Root Cause Analysis programme, to ensure advice provided by the SJP's Partnership is within the principles of the Advice Framework, and challenge existing processes and procedure where relevant.
• Closely monitor marketplace trends and competitor activity to identify opportunities and threats to SJP and ensure SJP's advice proposition remains competitive and continues to evolve as necessary.

Who we're looking for:

You will be an experienced Advice Policy professional with a strong background working within the Advice/Wealth Management sector. You will be responsible for raising the profile of Advice Policy and Development Services within SJP at a time of critical change for the organisation.

You will have strong all round communication skills, able to communicate technical subjects in a concise and clear manner to a wide audience. You will have excellent and pro-active problem solving ability, with strong analysis skills. You will have strong interpersonal skills, able to build networks effectively.

Desirable Skills/Experience

• Leadership and communication skills that inspire and engage the team in quality service delivery agenda
• Significant experience of developing advice-focused propositions.
• Having an appetite to develop a rigour around measurement and performance analysis that uncovers the opportunity to innovate and consistently improve our Advice Policy.
• Significant experience in financial advice and planning is required
• Qualified in Level 6 (or above) in Financial Planning

What's in it for you?

• Private Medical paid for by Company.
• Meaningful protection benefits with real value, such as 10X life cover, PHI, and critical illness.
• Non-Contributory Pension - 10% (increasing with length of service up to 15%) with further pension matching.
• Parental leave - 6 months full pay
• 28 days holiday entitlement plus bank holidays (based on full-time equivalent) with the option to buy up to an additional 5 days holiday

Not applicable to Fixed-Term Contracts (standard uplift applies in lieu of the protection benefits)

Flexible Working

We know that everyone works best in different ways, at different times and in different environments. We have introduced a hybrid working policy to provide greater flexibility for part-time work, job-sharing, remote working, and flexibility on hours. Our people are encouraged to work in a flexible way that suits their lifestyle, so please ask the question and start a conversation!

Research tells us that applicants (especially those from underrepresented groups) can be put off from applying for a role if they do not meet all the criteria or have been on an extended career break. If you think you would be a good match for this role and can demonstrate some transferable experience please apply, regardless of whether you tick every box.

Reasonable Adjustments

We're an equal opportunities employer and want to ensure our recruitment process is accessible and inclusive for all, if you require reasonable adjustment(s) at any stage please let us know by emailing us at

What's next?

Our team will be in touch. As a business regulated by the FCA, we would advise you to familiarise yourself with the conduct regulations and in particular consumer duty obligations prior to an interview with SJP.