SJP Advisers: When the Numbers Stop Working, Who Can You Talk To?

Rising borrowing costs. Falling business valuations. Personal financial exposure. And the fear of speaking out.

By Steve Conley | Founder, Academy of Life Planning

You can be a successful financial adviser on paper and still be frightened about your own financial future.

You may have spent years building a practice. You have clients who trust you. You have recurring income. You have a business valuation that once promised a comfortable retirement.

But the numbers are changing.

Borrowing costs remain substantial. Servicing clients costs money. The value attributed to acquired client relationships can change. And the debt you incurred to buy those relationships does not automatically fall when their value declines.

You may be working harder than ever, yet feeling less financially secure.

The most difficult part may not be the money.

It may be the feeling that you cannot safely talk to anybody about it.

If that sounds familiar, this article is for you.

The financial pressures are real

St. James’s Place (SJP) operates one of Britain’s largest financial advice networks.

Its Business Sale and Purchase (BSP) arrangements allow advisers to acquire practices and client books, often using borrowing facilitated by SJP.

For many advisers, this has created genuine commercial opportunities. Established practitioners can realise value from their businesses, while younger advisers can acquire recurring income and established client relationships.

But leverage carries risks.

SJP’s published financial statements show that business loans to partners increased from £603.3 million in June 2025 to £670.9 million in June 2026.

The company’s provision for expected losses on these loans increased from £8.4 million to £11.7 million over the same period.

At December 2025, £40.8 million of gross partner loans were classified as non-performing, compared with £33.1 million a year earlier.

Importantly, SJP’s definition of non-performing includes certain loans associated with partners who have left, or who are considered at significant risk of leaving, where orderly repayment is in question.

These figures do not prove that SJP advisers generally are in financial difficulty. Many practices remain successful, and SJP continues to report substantial client assets and business activity.

But they establish that acquisition borrowing is a significant part of the network’s economics.

And borrowing changes what happens when circumstances deteriorate.

When the value falls but the debt remains

In May 2025, FT Adviser reported concerns from SJP advisers about changing practice valuations.

According to the report, some advisers had previously expected valuations equivalent to six times annual recurring fee income, plus a goodwill premium equivalent to another 1.5 times.

That produced an expected valuation of 7.5 times recurring income.

The advisers reported that the expected multiple had subsequently fallen to 4.5 times, without the additional goodwill premium.

SJP emphasised that valuations are indicative and that actual transactions depend on negotiation and market conditions.

Nevertheless, the arithmetic illustrates the risk.

Imagine an adviser with £200,000 of annual recurring income.

At 7.5 times, their practice might have an indicative value of £1.5 million.

At 4.5 times, that becomes £900,000.

The recurring income has not changed.

But £600,000 of expected capital value has disappeared.

If the adviser borrowed to acquire or expand the business, the outstanding debt may remain largely unchanged.

The goodwill can disappear from the valuation long before the borrowing disappears from the balance sheet.

That is the danger of leverage.

As Warren Buffett has famously warned, leverage is one of the great destroyers of financial fortunes.

It magnifies gains when expectations are fulfilled.

It magnifies vulnerability when they are not.

What about the cost of borrowing?

SJP has previously advertised acquisition financing at 3.5 percentage points above Bank of England base rate.

At a base rate of 4%, that implies borrowing costs of approximately 7.5% annually, although individual agreements may differ.

For a £500,000 outstanding loan, that represents £37,500 in annual interest before repayment of any capital.

And SJP has acknowledged that purchasing advisers can face affordability challenges.

In 2024, it described introducing a softer initial repayment structure for qualifying first-time buyers, with reduced capital repayments during their first three years.

That can help a new business establish itself.

But it also creates a question about what happens when larger repayments begin.

Has the acquired income grown sufficiently?

Have servicing costs remained manageable?

Are the clients still there?

Is the business worth what the adviser paid?

And if the answer to any of those questions is no, what are the options?

The hidden problem may be the exit

An adviser might believe that if the business is no longer financially attractive, they can simply sell it and move on.

But the contractual position may be more complicated.

Acquisition finance can be secured against future remuneration. Contracts may contain restrictions concerning client relationships and the ability to transfer a business.

Some agreements may also create personal financial obligations that survive termination of the adviser relationship.

The precise consequences depend on the documents.

A person may therefore face two very different realities.

They no longer have the income they expected from the business.

But they may still have the debt incurred to acquire it.

That is what I call the Uncrystallised Valuation Gap: the difference between the value originally attributed to a business and the amount ultimately realisable, particularly where borrowing remains outstanding.

It does not necessarily appear as an immediate loss.

It can remain hidden until the owner needs to refinance, sell or leave.

And that is when the pressure can become overwhelming.

The silence surrounding financial difficulty

Financial advisers are expected to be financially knowledgeable.

Their clients trust them to understand risk, borrowing, investments and retirement planning.

So what happens when the adviser is the person experiencing financial difficulty?

Who do they tell?

Their colleagues may be competitors.

Their network may also be their lender.

Their business relationships may be governed by confidentiality agreements.

They may worry about their reputation, their clients, their income or the consequences of asking questions.

Some may fear that acknowledging a problem could make their commercial position worse.

I cannot know how many advisers feel this way. Nor should we assume that every confidentiality agreement prevents them from seeking help.

But I suspect there are practitioners carrying considerable anxiety in private.

If you are one of them, I want you to know something.

You are not your balance sheet.

A financial problem is something you are experiencing. It is not your identity.

And asking for help is not an admission of professional failure.

You have AI too

At the Academy of Life Planning, we have spent years exploring how artificial intelligence can restore human agency.

Much of the financial services industry is asking how AI can make advisers more productive.

I think there is another question.

How can AI help advisers become more capable of understanding and protecting their own financial futures?

You do not need to begin by confronting an institution, instructing a litigation team or making a major career decision.

You can begin by thinking.

A general-purpose AI assistant such as ChatGPT can help you:

Understand publicly available financial information.
Explore how interest rates and loan repayments affect cash flow.
Model alternative business valuations.
Identify questions to ask about contractual obligations.
Understand unfamiliar terminology.
Develop a practical list of options.
Prepare questions for a solicitor or accountant.
Separate established facts from assumptions and fears.

It can also help you think about your life beyond the business.

What would you do if you were no longer an investment intermediary?

What skills, relationships and experience could you continue using?

How much income would you actually need?

What alternatives might be available?

These are financial planning questions.

But they are also human questions.

And they deserve attention before a crisis forces a decision.

A word of caution: do not upload confidential documents without understanding the consequences

There is an important warning here.

A conversation with ChatGPT is not the same as a confidential conversation with your solicitor.

In 2026, the Upper Tribunal raised serious concerns about lawyers uploading confidential client documents into publicly accessible AI tools.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority and Law Society have also warned about confidentiality, data protection and legal professional privilege.

Using an AI service may involve disclosing information to a third-party technology provider. That can have legal consequences, particularly where confidential, privileged or disclosure-restricted material is involved.

If you have signed an NDA, confidentiality undertaking, settlement agreement or other restriction, do not assume that uploading protected information to an AI service is permitted.

Some practical precautions:

Start with public information. You can explore published SJP financial statements, publicly reported valuation changes and general financial scenarios without revealing confidential business records.
Use hypothetical figures. You can model your financial position without naming clients, colleagues or counterparties.
Do not upload client lists, personal information, confidential contracts or privileged correspondence without appropriate clearance. Removing names alone may not be sufficient to protect confidential commercial information.
Understand your AI provider’s privacy settings. Training opt-outs and temporary chats may reduce certain data-use risks, but they do not themselves establish confidentiality or legal professional privilege.
Seek legal advice before disclosing restricted material. A solicitor can help you understand what your agreements permit and what protections may apply.
Check AI-generated legal and financial information against authoritative sources. AI can make mistakes, invent authorities or misunderstand contractual provisions.

An NDA does not necessarily prevent someone from obtaining legal advice or making a legally protected disclosure.

But the rules depend on the circumstances, and whistleblowing protections are not automatic for every self-employed business owner or commercial dispute.

Please do not risk your position by assuming that a chatbot is a legally protected confidant.

For further reading, see our Get SAFE article:

AI can help you fight for justice. But be careful what you upload.

Where to begin

If you want to start exploring your position using ChatGPT, here is a question you can use without disclosing confidential information.

Suggested AI prompt:

I am a financial adviser concerned about the long-term financial sustainability of my business.

I have acquisition borrowing, recurring income and contractual obligations to a financial services network.

I want to understand my options before making any decisions.

Please help me develop a structured financial review covering:

My current income and expenditure.

Debt-servicing affordability.

The sensitivity of my business valuation to changes in recurring income and goodwill multiples.

Potential risks associated with business succession or departure.

Questions I should ask an independent solicitor and accountant.

Alternative ways I might use my professional skills in the future.

Do not assume that I am in financial distress or that my network has acted improperly. Distinguish facts from assumptions, identify missing information and help me think through the available choices.

Please begin by asking me questions that I can answer without disclosing client information, confidential contractual terms or legally privileged material.

The purpose is not to obtain an instant answer.

It is to begin restoring clarity.

And sometimes clarity is the first thing a person loses when financial pressure becomes overwhelming.

This is what we have learned at Get SAFE

Through Get SAFE — Support After Financial Exploitation — we help people who feel overwhelmed by disputes with powerful institutions.

Some are dealing with missing records.

Others are facing unexpected liabilities, institutional delays or contractual restrictions.

Some believe they cannot speak openly about what has happened.

A familiar pattern emerges.

The institution has resources, processes, lawyers and experience.

The individual has a problem that feels too complicated to understand and too expensive to challenge.

We help people recover their ability to think, organise evidence, understand their circumstances and make informed decisions.

AI can play a valuable role.

But we do not encourage people to breach confidentiality restrictions, surrender their judgement to AI or treat its responses as legal advice.

Our developing approach is simple:

Private by design. Evidence by reference. Decisions remain human.

The aim is not to make people dependent on another expert or another technology provider.

It is to help them regain agency.

That principle applies just as much to financial advisers as it does to their clients.

You still have choices

If you are an SJP adviser worried about your financial future, please do not interpret this article as a prediction that your business will fail.

Many SJP businesses remain successful.

Your circumstances may be entirely different from those described here.

But if you are struggling, I would encourage you not to wait until your options have narrowed further.

Understand your numbers.

Understand your obligations.

Understand what you own, what you owe and what happens if circumstances change.

Take confidential professional advice where necessary.

And use the growing capabilities of AI to help you ask better questions about publicly available information and safely generalised scenarios.

You have spent your professional life helping other people plan for uncertainty.

You deserve the same opportunity.

Financial planning should never begin with the assumption that someone must remain dependent on a system they no longer believe is working for them.

Not the client.

And not the adviser.

At the Academy of Life Planning, our mission is to restore human agency.

That includes yours.

Self-directed by default. Supported when it matters.

Sources and further reading

This article provides general information and encourages informed, independent decision-making. It is not legal advice, regulated financial advice or an assessment of any particular person’s contractual rights or financial position.