Wealth management group St James’s Place has terminated its mandate with Woodford Investment Management.

The action followed the suspension of the LF Woodford Equity Income Fund this week.

SJP revealed it was appointing Columbia Threadneedle Asset Management and RWC Partners as managers of its UK High Income Unit Trust, UK Equity (Life and Pension), Income Distribution (Life) and SJPI UK High Income funds.

Richard Colwell of Columbia Threadneedle and Nick Purves of RWC, will be jointly responsible for this mandate.

Nick Purves is St James's Place’s longest-standing fund manager, and co-manages the Equity Income Fund.

Richard Colwell has managed money for St James's Place clients since 2014 as lead manager of the Strategic Managed fund.

While the St James's Place funds managed by WIM were separate mandates and not part of the Equity Income Fund suspended earlier this week, the St James’s Place Investment Committee says it believes these changes will “ensure its clients' investments continue to be managed effectively”.

A statement read: “Under new management, these funds will remain as segregated mandates and St James's Place will retain responsibility for asset custody and security.

“There will be no impact on the investment objective for these funds.

“The funds' investment criteria will retain a strong liquidity profile, and remain focused on income, with a weighting to FTSE 350 stocks.”