James Hay

James Hay Partnership, a platform for retirement wealth planning, was founded as a financial services provider in 1979. It became a part of Abbey National (which became Santander UK) in 1994; being sold to IFG Group in 2010. James Hay is based in Salisbury, UK. The firm is most commonly associated with the administration of Self Invested Personal Pensions (Sipps). While famous for Sipps, in recent years James Hay has been broadening its focus across the retirement landscape, while maintaining its specialisation.

In March 2017 James Hay announced an overhaul of its pricing structure across a number of product ranges, which favoured larger investors. The firm increased charges for the lowest investment tiers and reduced fees for the higher band by 0.04 percentage points. For its Modular iPlan, the firm amended its tiered structure with platform charges starting at 0.25 per cent on the first £300,000 investment, compared with 0.18 per cent on the first £500,000 previously. Charges then reduced in stages to 0.01 per cent on investments over £1.5m, reduced from 0.5 per cent.

In June 2017, Money Marketing reported that James Hay performed well on value for fees charged in quarterly surveys with advisers. Its modular approach to fees could be complex but the charges themselves were relatively low. Advisers gave it a score of 3.96 – just on the border of ‘very good’. It was attracting the well-heeled, with Money Marketing data suggesting the average account size stood at £410,000. The firm had been particularly successful at winning DB transfer business.

In March 2018, James Hay was adamant that the firm would not be affected by the sale of IFA Saunderson House by its parent company IFG Group, despite the potential loss of clients. James Hay chief executive Alastair Conway said expanding into further retirement options and increasing technological offerings would be the main focus for the firm in 2018, which Conway said was part of an overall strategy to increase ease of client and investor communications.