Trying to provide a definitive definition of a multi-family office (MFO) sometimes seems like nailing jelly to a wall.

But this is nothing compared to trying to understand the annual report and accounts of St James’s Place (SJP), one of the UK’s largest wealth management firms, as well as comparing it to its peers.

SJP doesn’t provide just a statutory set of accounts based on international financial reporting standards (IFRS). It supplements these by two other sets: o...