Exit charges are to be waived for St James’s Place clients in older pension contracts as part of changes set to cost the company £8.2 million.

The business announced the move in its half year results report, published today, as it also confirmed it had been hit with a £17 million FSCS levy.

The report stated: “As part of a review of our legacy business we are voluntarily reviewing charges on two small cohorts of business: waiving exit charges at the minimum retirement age where they existed on some older pension contracts (written before July 1999); and reassessing risk charges on a reviewable protection contract.

“The combined impact of these actions is a negative one-off £8.2 million pre-tax (£6.6 million post tax) on the cash and IFRS results, which rises to £13.6 million pre-tax in the EEV result when the reduction in future charges is also fully capitalised.”

The firm made a profit before shareholder tax of £60.5 million. This had fallen from £67.0 million in 2015.

Recent acquisitions have cost SJP £10million pre-tax (£8.7 million post-tax) - higher than last year's £6.0 million pre-tax (£5.2 million post tax).

Client funds under management stand at £65.6 billion, up 12% since the beginning of the year and £10 billion higher than at the end of June last year.

David Bellamy, chief executive of SJP, said: “I am pleased to be reporting once again a strong first half performance and, importantly, continued positive momentum in our business.

“The underlying strength of the financial performance is once again impacted by a heightened levy charged by the FSCS levy of £17 million. This expense impacts all profit measures, but we remain hopeful that the elevated levy imposed over the last two years will return to a more normalised level in future years.”

On the ramifications of Britain’s vote to leave the EU, he said: “Consequently, without being complacent about the possible consequences of Brexit, the proven strength in our business model and ongoing momentum gives us confidence in our ability to deliver continued growth in line with our objectives. Indeed, I can report that new fund flows since the Referendum remain in line with those medium term objectives.”