How much money will St James’s Place customers actually get?

St James’s Place customers are waiting to see: Will they be able to get money back for the services they were overcharged for?

The firm announced last month it had set aside £426m to cover the cost of refunding customer complaints.

However, there were no specifications about when the money would be doled out or whether it would also cover administrative costs.

Now, the firm representing at least 19,000 St James’s Place clients has been revealed to be taking a 40 per cent cut plus VAT from any successful compensation wins.

AMK Legal, which is based in Bolton, is representing St James’s Place clients who claim that they were not provided an annual review of their finances despite paying for one.

On its website, AMK Legal states that for every £1,000 granted to a claimant, they would take £480, or 48 per cent.

The Financial Conduct Authority’s cap on claims management companies is 30 per cent, but since AMK Legal is a law firm, it is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which does not impose a fee cap.

The FCA’s cap was introduced in 2022 when it began regulating claims management companies. The 30 per cent applies to the first £1,499 of compensation and then reduces to 15 per cent on anything over £50,000.

AMK Legal is aiming to win money for anyone who has paid fees since 2013 and has not had an annual review. At the end of last year, St James’s Place hired 90 extra staff to deal with the complaints.

The £426m number announced by St James’s Place was only meant to cover charges from 2018, meaning that the firm may be paying a lot more than originally thought.

However, after accounting for internal bureaucracy and legal fees, the customers may not get as much as that.