James Hay is reviewing its older products, following its well-publicised issues with the Elysian Fuels biofuel investment scheme.
James Hay revealed last May it is involved in a legal dispute with HM Revenue & Customs around unpaid tax on biofuel scheme investments.
Speaking to Money Marketing, James Hay chief executive Alastair Conway says it is investigating its problem areas with a total product review.
Conway says: “We are doing a complete review of all our older products to make sure we look at anything we might want to run a different way, if we need to modernise a product, or if we need to remediate something that’s not quite right.”
He says: “Some of our older products were very much what the market demanded 10 years ago, but the danger of not going back and looking over them at some point is something then emerges that you can’t resolve.”
Conway adds: “Once you’ve looked at the whole portfolio it’s evident what needs more work, then we have gone case by case after that and set up a timeline for executing it.”
Conway says the two major costs for James Hay in 2017 were the additional resources needed to do the product reviews as well as redundancy costs.
However, it was not confirmed how many people or what roles were made redundant.
National advice firm scores ex-James Hay hire to bolster board
James Hay parent IFG Group reported its 2017 results yesterday, including exceptional costs of £8.8m, which it said “increased materially” because of legacy issues relating to “administration and documentation of advice”.
It said those costs are a combination of remediation and legal costs and provisions for paying clients redress.
According to the results statement, assets under administration for James Hay grew 14 per cent to £25.5bn last year. However, operating profit at James Hay decreased from £5.2m to a loss of £2.3m.
No update was given in the results on the impending sale of IFG Group-owned advice firm Saunderson House. The £5.1bn IFA was put up for sale two months ago.
Money was taken from my father who is close to not being with us anymore. A large contribution to his current health is due to the stress he has inured over the last 5 years. He has worked his whole life to ensure a better future for his children. He sacrificed time and his health and it was taken, money which was made from sacrifices was taken by people that sacrificed what exactly. . . . .
One day the children of those that suffered, not with money but with losing a family member who spent his last years with this mess. They will turn to getting that money back from the offspring of those that conned, who are left with the cursed pound you created.
So to those that have conned and deceived people just know that you might leave this world leaving people you love in a world that will most likely be more dangerous. A result of your investment, a result of how you decided to spend your life. Make this world a better place and once you have decided that the satisfaction you have been chasing can never be found, return what is not yours.