The remuneration committee at wealth manager St James's Place has proposed increasing the potential bonus for CEO Mark Fitzpatrick from 200% to a maximum of 250% of base salary following a fall in his total remuneration package in 2025.
The bonus is based on financial results, client satisfaction, adviser advocacy, employee engagement, risks and controls.
In 2025 Mr Fitzpatrick saw an £800,000 drop in his overall remuneration package to a total of £2,713,640 (2024: £3,532,979), according to the company's Annual Report out this week.
Much of the drop in his remuneration package this year was due to the value of buyout awards which vested during the year and were lower than in 2024. Buyout awards are generally paid to cover loss of awards and bonuses from a previous employer.
The remuneration committee also proposes to increase his base annual salary for 2026 from £895,000 to £932,000. The base salary for chief financial officer Caroline Waddington will rise to £646,900 in 2026 (2024: £625,000). SJP says the base salary increases of about 3.5% are in line with average staff salary increases.
Overall executive director remuneration fell 21% for SJP in 2025 to £4.5m (2024: £5.7m), partly due to Mr FitzPatrick's lower earnings.
According to SJP’s Annual Report out this week, the increase to CEO bonus maximums would bring the remuneration package for Mr Fitzgerald closer in line with his peers (see chart below).
Source: SJP Annual Report 2025, 11 March 2026
In comparison, the CEO of Quilter, Steven Levin, has a total yearly compensation of approximately £1.87m, which comprises a salary of 31.6% of the total and bonuses of 68.4%.
Fellow wealth manager Brewin Dolphin's CEO Robin Beer's total yearly compensation is around £1.16m, comprised of 39.9% salary and 60.1% bonuses
As part of his annual award in 2025, Mr Fitzpatrick was granted 219,213 shares with a face value of over £2.2m on 25 March 2025, with a vesting date of 25 March 2028. This is less than half of the number of shares he was awarded in 2024 (464,160) which will vest in 2027.
Overall, SJP had a strong year financially in 2025 with a £531.4m IFRS profit after tax (2024: £398.4 million). Client numbers rose to 1,037,000 (2024: 1 million+ reported). Funds under management rose 16% to £220bn at end 2025 (2024 £190.2 billion at 31 December 2024).