Mark FitzPatrick, the new CEO of national wealth manager St James’s Place, has started work today in his new role after the company received regulatory approval for the appointment.

The former Prudential boss has been chief executive officer designate since 1 October, working on a handover period with former CEO Andrew Croft who stood down as CEO yesterday.

Wealth manager St James’s Place (SJP) announced in September that it had hired former Prudential boss Mark FitzPatrick to be its next CEO.

Mr FitzPatrick was the group CEO of Prudential plc on an interim basis until 24 February.

He was the chief financial officer of Prudential from 2017 to 2022, becoming chief operating officer in July 2019.

In recent years he had been part of a team which shifted Pru towards a business focused on Asia and invested in, “digitally enabled face-to-face advice.” 

Before joining Prudential, he was a managing partner at Deloitte, a member of the executive committee and vice chairman between 2011 and 2015. He previously led Deloitte’s insurance and investment management audit practice and its insurance industry practice.

Mr Croft has been with SJP since 1993. He served as chief financial officer from 2004 to 2017 and has been CEO since 2018.

While Mr Croft has now stepped down today as a director of the company he will continue to help the business into 2024.

Mr Croft steered SJP through one of its most successful periods with numbers of advisers, profits and income all growing strongly in most years.

However, in recent times the company has been criticised for poor share price performance, excessive sales incentives and alleged high charges on some investments.

Recently the company announced a major charges overhaul over the next few years including scrapping much-criticised exit charges.

Despite its challenges it remains one of the UK’s largest wealth managers with nearly £160bn under advice and management and more than 4,000 advisers, many of them Chartered.

SJP was a start-up launched in 1991 and is a regular FTSE100 company.

When his appointment was announced Mr FitzPatrick said: “By continuing to do the right thing for clients and adapting with agility to our fast-changing world, I am confident that St James’s Place will be in a strong position to create value for all stakeholders in the years to come.”