The company confirmed that Wilson passed away peacefully on Tuesday.
Wilson co-founded SJP with Mark Weinberg in 1991 with the backing of Lord Jacob Rothschild – hence the firm’s original name J Rothchild Assurance Group.
He was chief executive until September 2004 and then chairman until 2011, when he resigned from the board. He was named life president that year. Wilson was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s 2012 birthday honours list for his services to the insurance industry and charity.
The company joined the FTSE 100 in 2014.
During his tenure, Wilson saw the business grow beyond the UK and establish an international presence, with offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore.
Extraordinary legacy
SJP chief executive Andrew Croft said that “everyone at the company is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Mike Wilson”.
“He helped shape and deliver a vision for the wealth management industry by placing the best quality, relationship-based advice at its core. And, in the SJP Charitable Foundation, Mike leaves an extraordinary legacy of giving back to others.
“On behalf of SJP, I would like to pay tribute to Mike’s contribution to our company, our industry and the many causes that have benefited from the Foundation’s work and express our deepest condolences to Mike’s family and friends.”
Ambitious plans
In an interview in 2016, Wilson spoke about “having a vision from day one that we would go public in five years or get a quotation after five years, which I think you would agree was fairly ambitious”.
The company went public in 1997.
“Then, part of our vision was that we wanted to remain independently managed. We weren’t just interested in making the money, hopefully after five years, we wanted our partnership to be regarded as the most trusted financial advisers in the UK.”
Ron Wheatcroft says:
This is such sad news. Mike was a visionary who was involved in setting up so many businesses. He was a thoroughly decent man who was an incredible help to me personally when I was Chairman of the Investment & Life Assurance Group. He will be sadly missed by his many friends and colleagues for whom he has meant so much. RIP Mike.