Wealth manager St James’s Place has launched a training initiative to help its nearly 5,000 advisers and partners provide best practice advice on responsible investing to clients.

The company says the four-part training covers the basics of responsible investment, its proposition and solutions available to partners.

It will cover how to tackle client conversations and SJP’s approach to engagement with companies on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors.

The company says the initiative is part a programme across the business to better position SJP to respond to emerging risks and opportunities on ESG.

Further modules will be launched covering areas such as climate change, attitudes to sustainability and the FCA’s sustainability labelling regime. The training programme will count towards CPD.

According to SJP’s Future of Financial Planning report, advisers across the sector believe it is part of their professional remit to discuss non-financial investment motivations including sustainability goals and preferences.

The majority of clients (59%) say that it is important to discuss ESG with their adviser, SJP said.

Petra Lee, responsible investment consultant at SJP, said: “The training programme will help our advisers and partners better understand how to integrate responsible investment into conversations with clients. The training has been designed to not only assist with conversations but also embed processes into their businesses.”

As part of the wider programme, SJP’s investment team and analysts took part in a climate training course in conjunction with fund manager Ninety-One and Imperial College London.

Sam Turner, head of responsible investing at SJP, said: “Expanding our knowledge on best practice across our partnership and investment team is crucial if we are to be a leading responsible business delivering great client outcomes.”

• Research was conducted by Ad Lucem in February among consumers and advisers from across the industry. 1,000 advised clients with a minimum of £50,000 investable assets were surveyed, 200 advisers interviewed by telephone, and 200 unique advisory firms interviewed. The research was geographically representative.