Yahoo Finance Former Manchester United star files £750k claim against St. James’s Place representative
Footballer Chris Smalling has launched legal action against a representative of St. James’s Place over investments he made in two bonds with the firm.
While at Manchester United for over 10 years (2010-2020) Smalling made 323 appearances for the team of that 206 were Premier League games. The centre-back player is currently a player at AS Roma in Italy.
He also has 31 caps for England before he was dropped by England manager Gareth Southgate in November 2017.
Earlier this year, his legal team at Thomas Mansfield Solicitors filed a claim to the Financial List of the High Court against London-based Klipp Wealth Management (KWM Wealth).
According to court documents seen by news agency, Citywire, that back in 2015, the footballer invested in two bonds with the financial adviser firm. The first required a monthly contribution of £80,000 and the second involved a £1.2m payment.
KWM Wealth is an appointed representative of St. James’s Place Wealth Management.
The claim alleges that Smalling was told that there would be a 0 per cent initial charge on the investment and that annual management charges would average between 1.5 per cent and 1.6 per cent.
However, the footballer alleges that the firm did not fully disclose the charges he would be paying.
He is now seeking more than £750,000 in damages as he claims this is what he paid in fees over eight years on bonds he invested in through KWM.
The financial adviser firm has called on City-based law firm DAC Beachcroft to defend it in this legal action. According to the High Court claim’s system, the defence document has not yet been filed.
KWM’s website currently does not seem to be working.
This comes as Britain’s biggest wealth manager St. James Place faces fire over its fee structure.
Just last month, a Bolton-based law firm filed more than 15,000 on behalf of St James’s Place clients over the last three months over overcharging fees.
While in February, shares in St James’s Place plunged to the lowest level since December 2012 after the company published its 2023 results. As of Monday, shares in SJP were trading at 416.20, a huge decline on the 1,213.50 it was trading on the same day last year.
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