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Operator: Hello, and welcome, everyone, to the St. James's Place 2025 Full Year Results Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand over to Mark Fitzpatrick, Chief Executive Officer, to begin.
Mark FitzPatrick: Thank you, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Unfortunately, Caroline is unable to be with us this morning due to a family bereavement. Instead, I'm joined by Charles Woodd, our Finance Director. Before we open for questions, I'd like to briefly reflect on a year of strong delivery and execution for St. James's Place. We delivered growth in new business, growth in funds under management and growth in underlying cash result, while at the same time, delivering strong returns for our clients. Drawing out some of the results, which are new today, the underlying cash result of GBP 462 million, up 3% year-on-year and 4% ahead of consensus. Underlying cash basic EPS of 87p per share, up 6% year-on-year. We're returning 50% of the underlying cash result to shareholders through ordinary dividends and buybacks and a total of GBP 313 million to be returned to shareholders for 2025. Alongside delivering a strong operational and financial performance, we made good strategic progress. Our simple comparable charging structure implementation went live smoothly in late summer. The new structure puts our investment performance on a fully comparable footing with the wider market and enabled the successful launch of Polaris Multi-Index. This has broadened client choice and grew to over GBP 1 billion of FUM at year-end, just 2 months after launch. Our review of historic ongoing service evidence continues to progress. Based on our experience in the second half of the year, we have released a further GBP 25 million from the provision today, taking total releases to GBP 109.5 million for the year. We are now deep into the operational delivery phase and are on track to complete the program in 2026. Our cost and efficiency program also made good progress. For example, we completed the transition to our new organizational design during the year, and we remain on track to remove around GBP 100 million per annum from our addressable cost base by 2027. These achievements give us the confidence in the strength of our business and our prospects, which has enabled the Board to update our shareholder returns guidance going forward a year earlier than originally anticipated. So from 2026, we intend to increase our payout ratio to 70% of the underlying cash result. We anticipate that this will comprise ordinary dividends, which will make up at least 40% of the total shareholder returns and the buybacks will make up the difference. A different way of thinking about is that dividend is expected to be at least 28% of the underlying cash result and buybacks the remaining 42%. That's how you get to 70%. Our priorities for 2026 are completing our remaining transformation programs, expanding the range of technology tools, including those which are AI-enabled and making those available to our advisers with the goal of helping them to work as efficiently as possible. This will give them more time to do what they do best, which is building trust, deepening client relationships and delivering personalized, high-quality advice. We see technology deepening the human relationships between clients and advisers, not replacing them, accelerating elements of Amplify, where we have the capacity to do so later in the year, and we will focus on refreshing our cash proposition and enhancing our high net worth proposition. We look to the future with confidence. We have already made changes to the business, and we're focused on strengthening and growing SJP over the long term. This means we are well positioned to capture the structural market opportunity ahead and deliver for all our stakeholders in 2026 and beyond. With that, I'm very happy to turn to questions.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Andrew Lowe from Citi.
Andrew Lowe: I wanted to ask on AI and how you see the potential threats from your business. So I'd love to hear a little bit more about what makes you comfortable about the potential threat to growth and pricing power from competitors, including D2C platforms who in time might be able to offer AI-led financial advice. As sort of corollary to that, it would be really helpful to hear a bit more color on the AI tools that are operational today, what we might expect in the next 12 months? And how much this could improve your adviser productivity going forward? And the second question was just on the adviser numbers, which fell by 0.4% in the second half of 2025. Could you please give a little bit more color on the productivity of your departing managers? And just any comments on the outlook for adviser numbers going forward would be really helpful.
Mark FitzPatrick: Andy, thank you for those questions. In terms of technology and AI, I think the way that we see technology is really it's an opportunity to strengthen our face-to-face advice led model. So what we've observed over time, I think, is that while a lot has changed in and around the competitive landscape, what has been central, actually, is the [ primacy ] of the adviser client relationship and the longevity of that relationship because research tht we have done and that we talk about in the accounts and research that others have done effectively emphasize that actually people still value human engagement in making financial decisions. They seek personal advice, whether it's around retirement, tax planning and various other things, et cetera. And I think when we also think about AI, I think it's also important to bear in mind that advice in the U.K. is a highly regulated and a high trust service area. And therefore, it requires the personalization, the suitability and the accountability and human judgment is absolutely core to that where we see AI can play a very, very positive role is in enhancing adviser productivity and client experience. You'll have seen in the presentation earlier on this morning that we're really using some AI tools to give advisers back time. And I think that's where the deep vein is going to be for the next few years for our advisers, for us and for the whole profession. I think the more we can give time back to advisers to really focus with their clients is going to be absolutely key. I think by virtue of our size and scale at St. James's Place, we've got the opportunity and the connectivity, and we are talking with some of the very biggest players on their thoughts and on what we are doing and how we can simplify and how we can make what we do even better and even more efficient. And bear in mind as well that of our 5,000 advisers, the vast majority of these folks are phenomenal entrepreneurs, not just in being great advisers, but also in terms of finding solutions in their own businesses and how they make themselves more efficient. So within our 5,000 advisers, we have some of our businesses where they have actually created and built their own technology to improve some of their efficiency on how they do things. And through our oversight and through our listing of data protection and everything around that and security, we're making those and facilitating those to be available to far more partners within St. James's Place. So the great thing is the innovation isn't just happening at the corporate level. It's also happening within the adviser community, where they're eating, sleeping, drinking this 24/7. So some really, really good ideas coming from them. What we're doing is making sure we can protect the data, protect the integration and really make sure it plugs and plays properly with the rest our kit. So at the end of the day, I think AI will enable greater productivity. It will enable advisers to get back to what they really enjoy doing. And it's not the admin they enjoy doing. It's actually being in front of clients. It's finding new clients to serving clients. It's being there for clients when they truly matter. Sorry, I'm repeating on, but I'm conscious that this is a big topic. And therefore, I'm probably going a little bit fuller in the answer just to kind of give everybody a little bit of color. In terms of some of the features that we have today, et cetera, along the way, we have a number of tools that we're using, whether it's advice assistant, which kind of harnesses the data in the sales force and can produce suggestions on planned wrappers, investment amount fund selections and various other things, a rules-based engine based on our Advice framework, which has been trained on thousands of recommendations made previously by SJP clients. And we've seen a very strong take-up from advisers around that. whether it's preparing meetings or whether it's summarizing and listening into meetings with clients, summarizing, converting the meetings into notes that get sent to the client, notes that get sent to the admin actions to be done. Those are things that we have trialed extensively, and we're now in the final stages of looking to roll those out across the partnership as a whole during the course of this year. And then we have something particularly innovatively called ChatSJP, which covers a whole lot of the documents in our Advice framework and business submission guides and the like. And what that does is enables the power planners and the admin teams, et cetera, just to check in on some of the advice that might be given and some of their thinking and some of the plans just to make sure everything is aligned. And what that does is that saves huge amount of time for every query that otherwise might be done through a call center and enables the call center operators to really focus on considerably more complex matters. So we're trying to -- we're not trying. We are introducing technology throughout the organization because I do see that the technology providing us with different hands in terms of what we do, but it's not going to change the face of Advice. And then, Andy, your final question on adviser numbers, yes, adviser numbers declined modestly in the second half of this year. I said back in February last year that we'd be embarking upon an initiative. And what you saw in the second half of last year was the outworkings of some of that activity. I think it's fair to say that the advisers that have left us as a result of that, their productivity was significantly below average productivity on both gross flows and from a FUM perspective, which is why you haven't seen any real shift in productivity. If anything, productivity, and I can get to that later on, but productivity has been significantly stronger during the course of this year. But Andy, thank you for those questions. Sorry, I'll try and be brief for the next few questions.
Operator: Our next question comes from Andrew Crean from Autonomous.
Andrew Crean: Just a couple of 3 questions. Firstly, can you say anything about trading so far in Q1 '26? Secondly, your liquidity -- free liquidity targets. I just wanted to explore this a bit more. Do you have any targets for group liquidity? And the reason I ask is because if I looked at your doubling of profits in 2030, one is talking about somewhere retaining, if you pay out 70%, you're talking about retaining somewhere between GBP 240 million and GBP 270 million of profit, which is in line with the amount of group liquidity you currently have. I suppose that poses the question whether up the line, once the earnings really get going, whether the 70% is too low and you will just build excess liquidity over time? And then a third question is client growth. I think plant growth was about 3% this year or last year. Could you give us a sense as to what you anticipate client growth to be like over the next few years?
Mark FitzPatrick: Okay. Thanks for those questions. So trading -- first off on trading, we put out our Q4 trading update less than a month ago, and I think the team provided a little bit of color about the fact that flows were normalizing. We were seeing flows normalize over that period. So I'm not minded to give necessarily a month-by-month running update. But what I would say is we've seen that continue. And the partnership is in exceptionally good health. They're all working incredibly hard at the moment. This is a very, very busy time and with tax year-end 5 weeks away. So there's a huge amount of activity on the go, which is very encouraging. From a liquidity perspective, so some new disclosure for everyone in the world of liquidity and how we think about liquidity. I think it is important for us to be able to make sure we have an appropriate degree of liquidity at the center to support the capital allocation framework. The liquidity levels that we have, we will be considering them on a regular basis, and we will be making our determinations as regards what we do with that liquidity based on facts and circumstances at the time. And if we see an inappropriate buildup, then we will -- it will get activated through the capital allocation framework along the way. The 70% payout ratio that we've effectively indicated for the time being, bring it forward a year, I think, is dripping with signaling of confidence in the business and how well the business is performing and the great progress that we have made. So we're very pleased to announce that a year really. We're very pleased to have increased the level of the payout. We think the composition, the 2 sectors of it in terms of dividend and buyback are important and are weighted appropriately. And if -- and as and when that number builds in the fullness of time, as I said, facts and circumstances will dictate. We would expect -- you should expect to see the [ GBP 271 billion ] number grow as the business grows. We are a growing business and [ GBP 271 billion ] for a business with 220 billion and 1 million clients under management feels appropriate for this size and the scale. In terms of client growth, really interesting one, Andrew, because client growth is going to become a little more complex as during the course of '27 and onwards, we have a stronger push towards high net worth because with high net worth, it's going to be less about pure client numbers, and it's going to be a real focus on getting clients with larger funds under management and our advisers doing more with them and therefore, needing to spend a bit more time with them. So that's something that we're thinking about internally. But what I can say is the vast majority of our advisers when we did a survey with them at the back end of last year indicated they are expecting client numbers to grow. And as is often the case and has been the case with us for some time, the vast majority of our new clients are word-of-mouth referrals, which I think contributes to a very, very high client retention level and very, very sticky relationships, which is a great business to be in. But thank you for those questions.
Operator: Our next question comes from Nasib Ahmed from UBS.
Nasib Ahmed: Three questions from me. Just firstly, following up on AI. You had the charging structure change last year. You had an opportunity to update your tech stack. I know there's different tech solutions that you're using across the piece. But I guess the question is, is your tech stack nimble enough to add on these AI LLM type models? Because, of course, you've got the scale, but with bigger companies, sometimes you've got legacy tech that can't really cope with this. So question number one, are you kind of happy with the way your tech stack can adapt to these new models? Secondly, on complaints, I saw kind of new open complaints first half '25 were still high relative to history, they're kind of stabilizing but to a high level. When do you expect them to come down? And is that putting pressure on kind of your complaints team at the moment? I know you recruited quite a lot of people recently. And then finally, on kind of regulation, D2C simplified advice. What are your thoughts around here, targeted support as well within that? And would you kind of look to acquire a business and move into D2C as a result of that?
Mark FitzPatrick: Nasib, thank you for those questions. AI, the simple comparable charging out of [indiscernible] have tried to weave in all sorts of other changes to what undoubtedly was the largest tech change program that we've had in the history of St. James's Place. So on the tech stack, bear in mind that we have a tech stack that includes Salesforce, that includes Snowflake, that includes some really, really modern tech that gets updated on a regular basis. So it's through that, that we're able to kind of plug and play and interact and indeed with one of our adviser firms who's been working on some great kit and has got some great AI kit that helps facilitate and improve efficiency. We very recently plugged that in and got that working well with Salesforce. So having done that, we'll be able to roll that out to other elements. And that's given us the confidence that we can plug and play modern kit into our stack. So not particularly worried about that component. On complaints, BAU complaints, so business as usual complaint levels are down. What we're seeing is there's still some activity in terms of the historic evidence review, et cetera, from some claims management companies, but much, much lower levels, inordinately lower levels. And dare I say we are doing more checks and balances in terms of whether the complaints that come in are legitimate complaints. We have some complaints that come in when we write out to the client, they say, yes, I spoke to them, but I didn't want to complain. So it's not a legit complaint, and others kind of aren't even our clients. So we've had a -- we've got a lot of noise in the system. But on the substance, we're comfortable that BAU level complaints are coming down and are coming down to a more normalized level. On rates, the government, I think, is -- and both the government and the regulator are comfortable that there's a lot coming down the road in terms of the Mansion House reforms and really want to see how well these land. So my discussions with treasury and with the FCA is they are very focused on ensuring a successful launch of targeted support. In terms of disclosure regimes, they're trying to make things simpler, et cetera. The retail investment campaign, they're really focused on trying to get more people investing. So it seems a lot more joined up than it might have been in the past. Targeted support isn't really going to be for us by virtue of the nature of how that's going to work. I think targeted support is going to be very difficult if a human has to get involved because a human can't unhear what they've heard and a human is likely to pick up something that might throw it out of the decision tree that is effectively so key to targeted support. Simplified advice. We are expecting some consultation papers from the regulator on simplified advice later on this year. We have been in contact with them. That is likely to be a lot more relevant to us. A key component of that is ensuring that if and when simplified advice comes out, it's done in a way that is economically viable for an adviser to be able to engage with somebody without doing a full fact find. So there's still quite a lot of issues that need to be worked through. But the encouraging thing is that the regulator has demonstrated and government has demonstrated a willingness to engage with industry and listen and with trade bodies and take views on. So I'm cautiously optimistic that if this comes through, it should come through in a good guys, but there's lots to do around that particular patch. As against D2C, if you think of what our underlying purpose is, which effectively is to provide invaluable advice. Therefore, I don't think kind of a pure D2C play is something that's on the strategy. When you think that only 9% of the adults in the U.K. take advice today, the market opportunity is so big for all of us in the U.K. I truly believe it is one of the really few growth areas in financial services in the U.K., the element of wealth getting people to invest. So if government, the regulator, we, all the players in the sector, D2C or otherwise, are getting people to invest rather than save, that's going to be fantastic because there are 3 big gaps in the U.K. economy. There's an advice gap, there's effectively investing gap and there's a retirement gap. And we've got too much saved, underinvested. We have too few people taking advice. And we all know we're in a DC world rather than the DB world. And I don't think society has truly understood the risk that they are taking on themselves and their need to prepare for their retirement in a more fulsome fashion than they're doing today. So I think there's lots of opportunity for us all to actually grow very, very successful businesses. And I think we're going to stick to our knitting in terms of the advice piece.
Operator: Our next question comes from Ben Bathurst from RBC Capital Markets.
Benjamin Bathurst: I've got questions in 3 areas, if I may, as well. Firstly, Mark, in your prerecorded remarks, you mentioned you'll be looking to improve reporting of financial performance. I think you said before half year 2026 or half year 2026. I just wondered if you could give more details on the scope of that project and if it's going to extend to making changes to the underlying cash disclosure. Then secondly, on flows, you saw fit to comment that outflows have normalized at the end of Q4 and into Q1. Just to clarify, does that mean a return to the levels of outflows as a percentage of AUM that you saw in the first 3 quarters of FY '25? And then sort of related to that, but just on the pensions flows outlook, we're obviously edging towards the 2027 date for pensions to fall into the net for inheritance tax. I wondered if you started to see any differences in the typical advice that you're delivering to older clients around keeping funds in the pension wrapper. And we should really expect withdrawal rates from pensions to tick up over the next year or 2 in light of those changes?
Mark FitzPatrick: Ben, thank you. Three really interesting questions. For the first question, I'm going to hand over to my partner in crime, Charles Woodd. Charles?
Unknown Executive: Ben, very good to chat about this. Yes, this has been an exciting project that we've been doing over the course of the last year. You'll have seen some of the output emerging. So we streamlined our financial review at the half year. We've done that again at the end of the year, and we've introduced new capital and liquidity metrics, a new section on that. And hopefully, that answered a number of the questions that were rising. The implementation of the simple comparable charges, which happened in late summer, that was another important building block. And so building on that, we've been sorting out what the reporting should look like. And we are expecting to share that with you, certainly for the half year and expect to share that with you all probably later in Q2, possibly May might be the right sort of time for doing that.
Mark FitzPatrick: Charles, thank you. Ben, in terms of flows, I don't think I've necessarily changed your models based on what we saw in Q3, Q4. I think I'd look at more the long-term element in terms of flows. And in terms of pensions, I think from memory, about -- historically about 4% of individuals just across the market paid inheritance tax. And I think the ONS in light of the changes the government brought about thought that, that might go up by 1.5%, maybe 2%. So call it 6%. So it's not for everyone, thankfully. But what we are seeing, I think, is that investment bonds becoming a lot more attractive now. Pensions still being an incredibly valuable vehicle for people to invest in up to a certain level and -- while they're working. And what we're seeing is people now starting to utilize their pensions rather than considering them as a pure investment vehicle that they might have had as a generational wealth transfer vehicle. So the advice is shifting. It's a very, very complex area. I know our team are deeply engaged with government and the regulators working through how those changes need to come through and making sure the changes don't cross over with one another. But we do expect actually pensions to continue to be important. But for those older clients, we expect to see them drawing down on pensions probably in a slightly stronger way than they might have originally. But then I would expect them to be leaving some of the other investments alone, and we might start to see some of those withdrawal rates start to improve along the way. So it's going to be fluid. We need to see how it pans out. My big request of government of late is when the next budget comes up, please make sure that you are proactive in saying, we're not looking to change pensions again because we cannot have a third year of further speculation. So get out of the blocks and just try and close that down early as possible, please.
Operator: Our next question comes from Enrico Bolzoni from JPMorgan.
Enrico Bolzoni: So sorry to go back again to the AI topic, but I have one follow-up question, if I may. So I think there is no pushback on the argument that AI can dramatically improve adviser productivity and do wonders internally in terms of reducing costs, so on and so forth. I guess my concern, which I suspect is shared by a portion of the market is more what the impact is going to be on perhaps the future cohort of clients. So maybe those that in theory would pick up advice in 10 years from now, let's make an example. In the U.K., the majority of people pick up financial advice when they are approaching their retirement age. So I suspect people that are in their 50s. So the concern I have is if these people that now are using B2C platforms, which is an area where, by the way, you don't want to go, will be gradually see the benefit of AI in their existing B2C usage. Is there not a risk that these clients when they reach the age where in theory, they should pick up and historically, they would have picked up financial adviser when they're in the late 50s, might decide not to do it because by the time that's going to happen, it's going to be in 10 years' time, they will just have like an amazing AI proposition within their B2C platform. So are you concerned by that? And would you consider be a bit more explicit in guiding your adviser to recruit or to use that additional capacity freed by AI to recruit younger clients or get them when they are very young to avoid this risk of not getting them at all? So that's my first question. And the second question is on the Polaris Index range. I was wondering if you can give us maybe an update, some color in terms of what the appetite has been if you're seeing clients perhaps switching out of their active proposition and into passive or if mainly this is appealing to clients that put fresh money into the passive range and they don't really switch from their existing investments into passive.
Mark FitzPatrick: Enrico, good to chat to you again. Really interesting point in terms of your scenario in terms of AI. Just a couple of useful facts just to share with you. By -- I think by virtue of the fact that our average advisers considerably younger than the average adviser in the market. Actually, what we're finding is the average age of our new clients is actually coming down. So over 1/3 of our new clients are under 40 years old, which is fantastic. So we are effectively -- the advisers are effectively ahead of this issue and building in a fantastic pipeline of future relationships by engaging with clients at a younger age because it's not just about the -- what do I do when I retire and how do I prepare for decumulation. It's getting them to do the right things and getting the right behaviors in places my 17-year-old son said that, SJP, it sounds like you guys are financial PTs, financial physical trainers. You get people to do what they should do when left on devices, they may not do it. So I think the element of -- we're getting more and more younger clients, our advisers younger, which is helpful and also very helpful in terms of their comfort around using new tech as well. And I think we see that quite a few of our clients actually have business with D2C as well as having business with us. So share of wallet has grown a little bit over the course of the last year. On average, I think we're about 50%, 55% or thereabouts. But it's -- so it's not 100%. People have money in D2C, but they understand what they get from St. James's Place, what they get from the adviser, et cetera. And in time, what we see is actually more and more of that money coming in. The longer somebody is with St. James's Place, the more money tends to come in to St. James's Place and the share of wallet tends to grow rather than stagnate because they just see the value of what's there. And to some extent, I talked to a little bit of Polaris and Polaris Multi-index. Effectively what it is, is providing clients with a broader range of options where there is something that is a little bit different from the conventional Polaris. What we're seeing to date is we're seeing new clients, new money coming into that. We are also seeing a little bit of switching from the existing funds into Polaris Multi-index. And I think the reason a number of folks like that is they like the ongoing asset allocation, the ongoing rebalancing that happens along the way at an incredibly attractive price point for the client. So it's early days in Polaris Multi-index. It's very similar to what we saw on the main Polaris when that launched, we saw a lot of switching initially, and then we saw a lot of new money coming in as actually the investment performance kicked in and people just had more and more confidence about it. I am delighted at what the guys have done. I think it's fantastic to -- in the first 2 months, have gathered effectively GBP 1 billion worth of assets into Polaris Multi-index and really looking forward to seeing the growth of that because we can now offer clients a broader range of product across the way. But thank you for those great questions, Enrico.
Operator: Our next question comes from Gregory Simpson from BNP Paribas.
Gregory Simpson: Two questions on my side. Firstly, wondering if you could share any comments on how you're seeing advisers and clients behave with the new fee structure and if you're seeing any differences versus the old model in terms of inflow, gross inflows and productivity, just aware that Q4 is a bit unusual with the budget in terms of reading anything into the flows. That's the first question. Secondly, can you provide a bit more of an update on the high net worth push? What's the kind of time line? Would you have advisers that are more directly employed by SJP in this model? And what do you need to add on the product and investment proposition side?
Mark FitzPatrick: Greg, thanks for those questions. In terms of the new fee structure, I think speaking to clients, they are candidly wondering what all the big fuss was about. From their side, they're seeing it very much in line with everything else that's out there in the marketplace. So they think it's -- from a client side, they think it's a lot simpler. The advisers, as I mentioned, I think, earlier on, are incredibly busy engaging with clients. So they are absolutely connecting very, very busy. Case count is very strong at the moment. So it's all looking that the fee structure is -- the old fee structure is in the history books. We're now kind of level-pegging with everyone else. In terms of the high net worth push, the high net worth push, I think, is one where I'm really, really excited and really interested for us to spend more time, more energy in. The element of the high net worth aspect is that we -- later on this year, we are looking to make even more impact on it. We've recruited some new talent. We're looking to streamline and improve the service that is available for both our advisers and clients in this area. We have, I think now as at year-end, 10% of our FUM is effectively in the high net worth segment, so a slight increase on last year. It is -- the team are working very closely with some of our advisers who specialize in the high net worth area. We've had some off-sites exploring what do we need to do about product range, what do we need to do about service, what do we need to do about our brand. So we're clear on what we need to do. We're now just getting things done. We're recruiting, as I said, additional people, and we're equipping the people in that regard. And I'm quite excited about what we might do around this space. I think there are a lot of our advisers who are very interested in being more engaged in this space. A lot of them are very engaged in the space. I think if we can provide them with greater support, they'll be able to do even more in and around this space. And they're all looking to grow their businesses. So I think that's probably the route in rather than us trying to kind of think we're going to have our own employed advisers focusing on the high net worth space. So I'm excited about it. In reality, I think it will be the second half of this year that we really start to lean into it even further. It is part of the amplify phase of the strategy, but wherever I have capacity, I'm looking to try and apply it to the high net worth opportunity because I think it is so real. So you've picked on a real topic.
Operator: Our next question comes from Larissa Van Deventer from Barclays.
Larissa van Deventer: Three questions from my side as well. The first one, Vanguard announced yesterday that they are launching a new model portfolio solutions product in conjunction with Wellington. How do you see St. James's Place product range as differentiated relative to the other model portfolio solutions available in the market and perhaps specifically referencing the Polaris Multi-Index that you mentioned in your presentation? Second question, on the historic ongoing service evidence review, you mentioned that you will complete that in 2026. Does that mean that we can completely put it to bed in '27? Or is there a set of limitations that needs to run before you will be able to finalize how much of the provision is needed? And then the last one, AI, a very topical sort of questions this morning. But with Polaris Multi-index being a lower cost offering and with AI potentially lowering costs, do you see future growth coming from maintaining margins? Or do you believe that margins may be compressed? And would you be looking to grow mainly from increased customer volumes?
Mark FitzPatrick: Okay. All right. NPS products that are out there. There are a number of NPS products that are out there. So Polaris and Polaris Multi-Index are fund of funds, so not really the same as a model portfolio service. So rebalancing in an NPS will effectively crystallize capital gains tax, and that wouldn't happen in a fund of funds, hence, less frequent rebalancing in the NPS as against the rebalancing that we can do in the Polaris and Polaris Multi-index range. So we're more dynamic. And therefore, we believe in a world that is changing as rapidly as it is, we think that is an advantage for Polaris and PMI. It looks like the latest NPS is out there has kind of got a mixture of kind of active and passive, et cetera, along the way. And effectively, at the moment, Polaris is kind of -- we have Polaris where there is some kind of systematic activities in normal Polaris and Polaris Multi-index works through 14 index funds. So as a blend is probably at a more attractive price point. Ultimately, I think in terms of product innovation, what our team have been able to demonstrate is a great ability to innovate, come up with solutions that work well for clients. So there's a real client adviser demand and pull. It's been great to hear some advisers saying, Mark, my clients have been at me for ages to have something like Polaris Multi-index. It's great that we have it now, and it's great that I can talk to them about it. In terms of the ongoing service evidence review, you'd recall one of the reasons we put a limit on our time period of going back to 2018 was effectively linked to statute limitations. And that has stood up from challenge from all sorts. So I think at the end of 2026, we should be done now. There may be somebody who wants to take it to false and complain about XYZ, et cetera, and that might draw the process out. But for all intents and purposes, I expect us to be done. The team know my ambitions to have it done this year. And I'm certainly not on this call going to let them off the hook on that front. In terms of AI and in terms of future growth and margins and the like, candidly, when I look at margins, I think there are 3 elements to our margin. There's a margin for advice, there's a margin for the platform and there's a margin for the fund manager piece. The fund manager piece is all as you know on the phone, [indiscernible] the pressure that's under. In terms of platforms, we see the fixed -- the cost base from that tends to be a little bit more fixed. And therefore, as we grow in size and scale, and I think we've mentioned this before, we would expect to give back some of that increased profitability and share that with clients at a later stage. In terms of the advice, advice is really interesting because there are so few advisers in the U.K. The regulation is very high in the U.K. vis-a-vis advice. And therefore, we don't see there being a huge amount of downward pressure on that component. So I think our growth is going to come through growth in terms of both clients and in terms of funds under management because as I mentioned earlier, as we do more in the high net worth space, that might give rise to slightly fewer new clients but larger FUM with that more sophisticated, more challenging needs and therefore, a bigger role for the adviser to play rather than speaking to a client maybe once a year, it's speaking to the client maybe once a quarter or more regularly than that. So I think I'm looking, especially in this market where there's 9% of U.K. adults take advice. We have so few advisers in the U.K. An interesting stat I saw is that SJP contributes 52% of all new advisers in the marketplace through the academy. So it's really, really important that we have a thriving advice profession. And we need to make sure like other professionals, they are appropriately paid and rewarded for the fantastic work they do.
Operator: Our next question comes from Fahad Changazi from Kepler Cheuvreux.
Fahad Changazi: Only got just 2 left. Could you give an update on your target of doubling the 2023 underlying cash results by 2030? I know it's only 2 years in, but in terms of underlying assumptions on costs, AUM, et cetera, where you are standing now versus the target? And finally, just a follow-up on AI. We have controllable costs increasing by 5% in 2026. Could you remind us again what these are and if AI will help this underlying growth rate in the long term?
Mark FitzPatrick: Fahad, very interesting question. So firstly, on the ambitions that we set out as part of our strategy, we remain very comfortable with the doubling of the underlying cash between 2023 and 2030. I'm not minded to rebroker that this early on because while we have had a much stronger start than I think we all thought and we all expected, I am conscious that markets are not linear, and there's quite a way to go between 2030, et cetera, along the way. From controllable costs, the controllable costs, by and large, cover people, cover property, cover tech. And in time, I would expect as we get smarter in terms of how we use some of our tech that, that may give an impact or provide an impact in terms of what happens with our controllable expenses. The key thing to remember is that our main admin provider, SS&C, that cost base is not in controllable. So a lot of the AI functionality will sit in there or sit in the advisers business. There will be some that will sit in us. But at the moment, our focus is in terms of trying to make our advisers as productive and supported them as possible, one; two, make client interactions and adviser interactions with the corporate and the admin as smooth and as simple and as standardized as possible. And then three, we'll be working out right, how do we use AI within the corporate, et cetera, along that way. But I'm being very deliberate in that sequencing because I think the biggest bang for buck is making the advisers' lives as easy as possible so they can spend more time with their clients. Second is looking after the client interaction and all the admin processing, making that standard as simple as possible. And then third will be the element of how we actually simplify what we do internally here at the corporate and the role that AI can play. I know that folks internally do use AI and AI is part and parcel of kind of what a lot of us use. But at the moment, I think we are all experimenting with it, getting more comfortable with it as against it being necessarily a major drag or reduction in our controllable costs at this stage. Thank you.
Operator: Our next question comes from David McCann from Deutsche Bank.
David McCann: So,,yes, 3 for me, please. So first one on the capital distributions and the new policy there. Can you just give us some color as to what the thinking was with the bias towards the buyback, the 40-60 in favor of the buyback? What was the thinking there rather than a more dividend biased amount? That's the first question. Secondly, thanks for the new disclosures on the liquidity that potentially is quite useful. Just wanted to know that where -- yes, how you're still thinking about the business in terms of the actual capital? Historically, you've sort of focused towards MSP and the surplus around that as being the preferred metric rather than Solvency II. But if we're thinking about the actual capital and the free capital in the business, how should we be thinking about that today? And kind of what is the level? Because I think that disclosure doesn't appear to be in the statement anymore. And then finally, sort of looking forward a bit more, clearly, the business is in much better shape than it was when you came into the business, Mark, and a lot steady and the ship has been done, which is great. Looking at the business going forward, do you -- your predecessors really focused entirely on organic growth in a different environment and with different levels of organic growth to what you're seeing, I guess, now. So are acquisitions still firmly sort of off the table, off the agenda? Or is it something that you might consider more now the business is in better shape again, a lot of things have been clarified and you're kind of moving forward, the cash generation that's coming through and so forth. But just curious as to how you're thinking about that.
Mark FitzPatrick: David, thank you. Good to talk to you. Let's take them in order. In terms of distribution, the 40% cash, so of this kind of 28% of the return is going to be cash dividend. That's a minimum. The balance of 42% is effectively the buyback. We felt at these share prices and the value enhancement to the market to shareholders of having a stronger buyback rather than the cash dividend was important. I think if you look at consensus numbers for 2026 and you model out the new distribution, it shows a healthy uptick in both cash dividends and in the buyback. So we -- the Board was comfortable that, that would respond to people who are very interested in dividend and also people who recognize that actually a buyback has become a much more accepted tool in the U.K. market and can be very powerfully deployed, and we were keen to deploy it on an ongoing basis rather than a discrete basis. On capital, the -- there's a reference to the management capital coverage assessment, which I think is a new fancy word for what was the MSB. And I'll let Charles cover that in a moment. But I think the data is contained within the data book around the capital and where we're at. Charles?
Unknown Executive: Yes, that's right, Mark. Yes. Look, David, I think you're sort of referencing the fact that we are an insurance group, and therefore, we do have reporting requirements under Solvency II and that type of thing. But I think we would suggest that the new disclosure is designed to make clear that really that's not the sort of the limiting factor in terms of how we think about capital and about shareholder distributions, but really the focus is on liquidity. That's what we focus on and what we'd like you to focus on to. As Mark noted, the management solvency buffer, the MSB, which have been replaced by the MCCA, still lives and it features in our capital and liquidity disclosures. So it is part of the bridge from our total liquidity down to the free liquidity. But capital solvency suggests that's not the key thing to focus on. We would encourage you to focus on those new liquidity disclosures.
Mark FitzPatrick: And David, on your third question, you are right that I was very clear that inorganic was not something we were going to consider, especially given the share price of old. I think there is such a strong organic opportunity ahead of us. That's where all our focus and attention is. We have seen when players aggregate up other folks, it creates huge disruption and huge distraction. There's a lot of distracted and disruptive players in the market. We plan on looking at that very carefully and seeing if there's opportunities for us to lift our teams, et cetera, from some of our competition, given that they are potentially somewhat discombobulated over recent events.
Operator: Our next question comes from Charles Bendit from Rothschild & Co Redburn.
Charles John Bendit: One on AI and one on cash monetization, please. So I just wanted to take a different tack away from how AI might change the customer experience and focus on the adviser experience. I'm just keen to understand if you think AI might drive adviser head count to shift at an industry level between the restricted and independent channels. So my question would be, how do you assess the risk that third-party AI-driven adviser productivity tools could make it easier for independent advisers to operate outside of the SJP ecosystem? So if IFAs can now run more efficient practices and potentially capture a larger share of the value chain through higher advice fees or by offering clients lower all-in fees at the expense of platform charges, what aspects of the SJP restricted model remain most critical in retaining advisers? Is it primarily brand, the broader support and compliance infrastructure, your succession framework? Or do you just believe that AI solutions in the open market will never really be able to replicate the depth and the integration of your own tech stack? And then my second question is just wondering if there's any update on your plans to further monetize idle client cash via arrangement with Flagstone. It feels like the FCA is no longer scrutinizing retained interest. So just wondering if you see an opportunity to expand margin there.
Mark FitzPatrick: Charles, thank you. Two really, really interesting questions. On the AI piece and adviser experience, et cetera, I think a few things stand out, and this is kind of what advisers who come to us and advisers have been with us a while say stands out. A is the element of the scale, capital, the resources we have to deploy. So bear in mind that we announced 18 months ago that we are deploying approximately GBP 260 million back into our business to improve our technology, use of data, broaden our client offering, focus on client segmentation, all of those kind of components. There's nobody else in the market that's putting that kind of money into the business, into any business. If anybody is putting money in it to buy businesses, it's not necessarily to improve them. And those who are buying are talking about synergies and taking costs out, not putting investment in on that side. Brand and reputation is very, very important. The technical support, just given the complexities of pensions and other things, the technical support that we have. And then also, we provide an advice guarantee for clients and for the advisers effectively saying that we guarantee the advice that they give as a part of St. James's Place. That's before you get to the element of actually the frequency with which rates change and everything else like that for IFAs is becoming incredibly difficult, which is why I think you're seeing more and more getting consolidated up and aggregated up, et cetera, and why you're seeing kind of small boutiques really struggling to kind of grow and cope with the weight. And if you're going to do technology properly, you need a checkbook. And we have a checkbook. And because of our size and scale, the big players come and talk to us. They want to know what we're doing, what we're thinking, how they can help. They're generally not coming around to the local shop. So effectively, our big offering for clients and advisers is that we give them the best of both worlds. We give a client the local long-term relationship from somebody who lives around the corner, who kids might go to the same school as your kids, but that person is backed by the power and strength and the brand and reputation of St. James's Place. And an IFA just can't do that. As for the cash piece, the -- to use your phraseology, the idle cash. The Flagstone level has continued to increase. So we have seen an uptick in terms of the number of Flagstone is GBP 5.7 billion in Flagstone. Just to remind everybody that is not included in our FUM number. We are working with Flagstone, we are pursuing other opportunities as well in terms of what we might do in terms of cash to try and get that money to be more broadly invested. We know from speaking to our advisers that while clients have money at Flagstone, there are a whole bunch of clients who have money elsewhere. So step one for us is to get some of the money elsewhere into something like a Flagstone or a company like Flagstone. And then secondly is to actually get it more easily transferred across into St. James's Place. At the moment, it's a very clunky going from a deposit account to a holding account to your own personal account to an SJP account and then to get invested. Most people give up the world to live during that journey. What we're looking to do is to streamline that so that can be a single click across from savings to investment because there I say, as we all know, I think people are over saved in the U.K. as in the U.S., and we need people to invest more and be less worried about timing the market and more focused about getting the money in the market so we can benefit from the compound effect. So there's quite a lot of time and attention focused on how do we work that better and how do we help our clients be more effective. They've worked hard to make those savings, how do we convert them into sensible investments. Thank you for those questions, Charles.
Operator: We currently have no further questions. So I'll hand back over to Mark for closing remarks.
Mark FitzPatrick: Thank you very much, everyone, for your questions and for your engagement. Really, really good questions today. Three key takeaways, if I could leave you from our results today. Firstly, was that 2025 was a year of strong delivery and execution for St. James's Place. We delivered strong operational and financial results while making significant strategic progress. We're delighted to have updated our shareholder returns guidance going forward a year earlier than originally anticipated, and we move forward with an increased payout ratio of 70% of the underlying cash. And thirdly, we look to the future with confidence. We've already made changes to the business. We're focused on strengthening and growing SJP and the partnership over the long term. This means that we are well positioned to capture the structural market opportunity ahead and deliver for all our stakeholders in '26 and beyond. Thank you very much, everyone, and have a great day. Thank you.
Operator: This concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.