Due diligence reporting tool
We know that platform due diligence is no easy task. It's been recognised by the FCA that there's an inconsistency of approach across providers and adviser firms in the approach and depth of relevant information to show the suitability of platforms.
To help you complete due diligence on Nucleus, we've developed an interactive tool which lets you select the areas most relevant to your business and generate our responses. You can download your tailored report as evidence of your due diligence research.
Using the reporting tool is simple…
- Find the questions you'd like answers to in the sections below.
- Click the add button next to each of the questions you’d like added to your report.
- Once you’ve added all the questions you need, simply fill in your details for your report to be created.
A platform’s business model, financial position and culture are important considerations when carrying out due diligence.
Taking a closer look at a platform's balance sheet helps form a picture of their commitment to the market in the longer term, and their future aspirations for investment in the platform and growth of the business.
As a platform will be intrinsic to your strategic proposition, it should integrate seamlessly into your business which is where culture is an equally important consideration alongside profitability and financial strength.
Who owns Nucleus Wrap and how stable is the ownership structure?
The Nucleus Wrap platform is owned by Nucleus Financial Platforms. Nucleus Financial Platforms was formed in August 2021 by bringing together James Hay Partnership with Nucleus Financial plc. We later acquired the Curtis Banks Group in 2023 and Third Financial in 2024.
Nucleus Financial Platforms’ main shareholder is global investment firm HPS Investment Partners. Find out more about HPS at hpspartners.com.
UK-based independent private equity manager Epiris, is our minority shareholder. Find out more about Epiris at epiris.co.uk.
For more information about the ownership and credentials of our group, please refer to our 'Choosing the right platform' guide.
We’re currently upgrading our technology. This means that over time, we intend to operate one strategic platform for all Nucleus clients with our strategic partner, FNZ. We’ll move across James Hay Online users to the new platform first, and then move the Nucleus Wrap users across in due course.
We’ll only begin this transition when we’re confident that the new platform is operationally robust and ready. Above all else, our intention is to make the migration experience safe for you and your clients.
What was the profit/loss of Nucleus Financial Services Limited (Nucleus Wrap) over the past three years?
As a result of the transition into the Nucleus Financial Platforms Group, profit reporting has changed. Nucleus Financial Services Limited (Nucleus Wrap) is now incorporated into the Nucleus Financial Platforms Limited accounts. The latest annual report and accounts for the group is available at nucleusfinancial.com/annual-report.
When did you reach profitability on Nucleus Wrap and has this position been sustained?
Nucleus Financial Services Limited (Nucleus Wrap) is now incorporated into the Nucleus Financial Platforms Limited accounts. The latest annual report and accounts for the Group is available at nucleusfinancial.com/annual-report.
Once in profit, how long will it take to repay all previous costs and losses the platform has sustained?
We are already profitable.
Is the Nucleus Financial Platforms Group profitable?
Please view the latest Nucleus Financial Platforms Group annual report at nucleusfinancial.com/annual-report.
What are the capital adequacy requirements, regulatory capital structure and capital surpluses of the Nucleus Financial Platforms Group?
For details of our capital adequacy position, please see our regulatory disclosure on our website at nucleusfinancial.com/regulatory-information-disclosures.
Is your platform subject to a cross-subsidy from your wider group of businesses?
No, we're a standalone, profitable business and don’t rely on cross-subsidy from the wider group.
To what extent does your business modelling make allowance for any future downward pressure on pricing?
In July 2022 we introduced a price cut for all new and existing clients for portfolios of up to £500,000. The cut was made from a profitable position and it’s our strategy to ensure we continue to be one of the most cost-effective platforms in the UK, for all portfolio sizes and types.
In December 2023 we made a further price cut for all new and existing portfolios of holdings between £200,000 and £500,000.
Can you provide a breakdown of your board of directors and executive team?
Yes, these can all be found on nucleusfinancial.com/our-people.
Does the firm have any material exposure to current unresolved litigation or regulatory action?
To our knowledge and as at the latest signing date of the Annual Report and Financial Statements, Nucleus has no material exposure to unresolved litigation or regulatory action.
How much is invested on Nucleus Wrap?
Nucleus Wrap is now part of the Nucleus Financial Platforms group that has AUA of £107bn as at September 2025.
What percentage of your clients are direct?
We have no direct clients, and 5% are clients who previously had an adviser but are now non-advised.
Do you retain any income received from fund managers?
No, all fund manager rebates are returned to the client.
Do you sell advertising space on your platform or marketing / sponsorship opportunities to third parties including access to your adviser and client database?
No, there’s no advertising of third parties on our platform, website or marketing material.
Do you retain any interest from client cash held on the platform?
We actively manage the cash clients hold in product bank accounts to ensure they benefit from competitive interest rates. We credit some to their accounts whilst retaining a portion to continually invest in improving the products we offer and our service. Our aim is to deliver excellent financial outcomes, to help make retirement more rewarding.
The amount of interest we share with clients is determined by the annualised rate of interest we earn as a group. The breakdown of interest earned over time, along with what we've applied to client accounts can be found here. We update this rate quarterly.
Several low-risk alternatives are available, in some instances by locking into longer-term options. These include Bondsmith, an FCA approved third party provider that offers a range of term deposit accounts across several banks, NS&I assets, money market funds, lower risk rate model portfolios and/or gilts and bonds purchased through an investment manager/stockbroker.
How much revenue is generated from in-house fund solutions?
We don’t generate revenue as we don’t offer our own funds.
What percentage of the platform’s assets are held in in-house funds?
We don't offer in-house funds.
Can you evidence everything you do is in line with my values as an adviser?
Nucleus is an adviser-led business meaning everything we do is guided by our users. The platform has been designed with a high level of adviser input to offer a robust wrap which enables users to define and administer a diverse range of propositions to different client segments. This approach means our functionality is aligned with what quality advice firms require to ensure their chosen platform continues to keep pace with their own evolving client requirements. Our developments are designed in conjunction with, and the approval of, our adviser platform development group.
We’ve also run the Nucleus Advisory Board for over 16 years. For many years the Advisory Board has played a crucial role in helping the Nucleus executive team make key strategic and propositional decisions. It’s also a valuable forum for airing and debating the many issues affecting advice firms today, from regulatory and technological, to general practice management.
Our ethos is to help improve the administration efficiency of our users to enable them to focus their time and energy on providing additional ‘value added’ services to their clients.
How many advisers and customers does Nucleus Wrap serve?
Nucleus Wrap is now part of the Nucleus Financial Platforms group which serves over 5,500 advisers and 235,000 customers.
Is your CEO and senior leadership team available for a telephone call or face-to-face meeting at relatively short notice (within reason)?
Yes, it’s our philosophy to make sure all member firms have access to our senior management team.
Given how intrinsic your platform would be to my business model, please explain what channels I have to influence the direction of your platform?
As a user of our platform, we’d invite you to join our adviser community and to share resource and information with other like-minded advisers supported by our events team and various industry experts. We hold a range of ‘community’ events each year to allow users to share feedback and best practice, helping to shape our platform proposition and the service and support we provide to users.
These include:
Adviser strategy groups:
- Quarterly advisory board
- Quarterly practice management group
- Quarterly platform development group
In addition to regular meetings of the groups mentioned above, our annual programme includes:
- Illuminate live training events
- Illuminate masterclasses
Our diary of events is driven by advisers and is based on what they tell us adds most value to their business and for their clients. These events act as an opportunity for advisers to make contact, share practices, learn from industry experts and each other.
What’s your environmental or green policy?
As a responsible corporate citizen, we have a responsibility to help address climate change and minimise our environmental impact in a sustainable manner. Sustainability is at the heart of our strategy
and vision of ‘making retirement more rewarding in a commercial, ethical, and sustainable way’.
For more information, please refer to our sustainability policy and our climate-related disclosure document, available on our website here: https://nucleusfinancial.com/responsible-business
Do you have any plans to enhance your sustainability?
Sustainability is a quickly evolving area and we’re on a journey to progress our environmental and
societal impact. We’ve set a number of sustainability linked ambitions and will be flexible in our
approach to adopt best practice so that their delivery is not an end point for our sustainability at Nucleus.
We have developed and implemented a B-Corp inspired Sustainability Framework. We use the
framework to measure, track, and target our impact. We’ve formed the Nucleus Sustainability Steering
and Working Groups, with three executive level sponsors, to implement the framework with the purpose
of delivering our business strategy across our six sustainability pillars:
• Governance
• Environment
• Our People
• Community
• Customers
• Sustainable Investing
They also combine and support already established sustainability linked groups, such as our Diversity & Inclusion and our charity committee.
The working group are responsible for setting and working toward long-term sustainability ambitions, which include net zero emissions ambitions, reducing the gender pay gap, employee volunteering
targets, and making enhancements to build on the platform’s ESG capabilities.
The working group regularly reports to our Executives and Board on our progress in achieving our longer-term sustainability ambitions as well as monitoring key sustainability metrics.
What CSR activities do you take part in?
We aim to have a positive impact on the environmental and social sustainability of the communities in which our people live and work. We do this through a combination of giving, volunteering and creating opportunities for our people to have a lasting impact on our communities.
The Nucleus Charity Committee identifies, promotes and co-ordinates charitable activities across the business. It matches funding on charity donations raised by our people and provides sponsorship to charitable and sustainable events in our local communities. We also launched a charitable foundation, entirely funded by the business and governed by a committee of independent and staff trustees. It exists to share some of the benefits of scale for the good of our stakeholders and the communities in which we operate.
More details are available here: https://nucleusfinancial.com/media/press/nucleus-launches-charitable-foundation
What is the process for gaining an agency to use the platform? What do you consider in a potential firm and why do you have these processes?
Our key focus is to work with like-minded, progressive firms who share our ambitions and values. We therefore seek relationships based on long-term mutual commitment and respect. Our business development teams cover geographical areas across the UK. Firstly, they would get to know your goals and requirements, who would need access to our platform and the degree of support and training needed during the on-boarding process. Once this has been established, we should be able to have your agency set up within 3-5 working days. Simply visit our Contact us page to find the business development team in your area: https://nucleusfinancial.com/wrap/advisers/contact-us
Do your terms and conditions respect the relationship I have with my client?
Yes, our terms and conditions are written to fully acknowledge and respect the valuable relationship advisers have with their clients. For example:
- You and your adviser section – We will deal with you if you have a relationship with an adviser firm, and as such you should be aware if you choose to change your adviser to someone working for a firm that does not have access to the Nucleus Wrap, or you decide not to use an adviser, we will not be able to offer you full access to the accounts and services.
- Opening an account section – If you wish to have access to your account online, this can be done as part of the application or once your Nucleus Wrap has been opened, by contacting your adviser.
In what circumstances would you market directly to my clients or reserve the right to market directly to my clients?
We have no clauses in our terms and conditions allowing us to market directly to clients and have no intention of doing so. We value and absolutely respect the adviser / client relationship.
What routes do you provide for clients to move direct to you?
We’ll only accept new clients who have a relationship with an authorised and regulated advice firm.
What is your policy on orphan clients?
Our terms and conditions state: “Where you do not have an Adviser you will be deemed a ‘non-advised’ client which means Nucleus will not be able to offer you full access to the Accounts and Services.” We regularly communicate with our orphan clients to remind them of the restrictions applying. We always encourage orphans to seek the services of an adviser.
Do you have a formal risk management framework in place?
Yes, it’s operated at a Group level and is available as part of our ICAAP disclosures. You can find a summary in our 'Choosing the right platform' guide here: https://nucleusfinancial.com/choosing-right-platform
Can you facilitate my adviser charges?
Yes, we can facilitate payment of the charges you have agreed with your client, up to the maximum percentage stated on the adviser charges form. This can be a combination of initial, ongoing and one-off charges.
What flexibility do you offer in terms of how my charges can work?
We can facilitate payments of initial and ongoing charges as a fixed monetary amount or as a percentage and, for ongoing payments, set them up to be paid automatically to you monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or annually. We also facilitate one-off charges as a fixed monetary amount.
Choosing a platform that can support you in delivering a tailored investment solution for your clients is vital. A comprehensive suite of tax wrappers and wide range of investment options is important to offer the right amount of flexibility, to help you manage your clients' portfolios without compromise. While pricing is important, adviser firms should look for 'value' when it comes to a platform.
Do you offer access to a wide range of wrappers on your platform?
Yes, we offer access to a SIPP, Isa, Junior Isa (Jisa), general investment account (GIA), onshore bond and offshore bond.
Are there any restrictions on how wrappers can be combined?
There are no restrictions on combining wrappers.
What types of ISA do you offer?
We offer a stocks and shares flexible Isa and a Jisa.
Who can hold a SIPP on your platform?
UK residents of all ages.
Do you offer access to third-party wrappers?
Yes, we’ve developed relationships with a number of third-party providers to allow them to invest in the Nucleus general investment account (GIA) via their SIPP, SSAS and bond products. This allows clients to benefit from the investment range and functionality of Nucleus, while using a specialist product wrapper.
Our third-party providers include, but are not limited to:
@SIPP
AXA IOM
Canada Life
Dentons
Hornbuckle
Ioma
IPM
James Hay
Liberty
Royal Skandia
Curtis Banks
Westerby
*Please note, we don’t recommend or endorse any particular product provider.
Do you offer a fully supported range of trusts?
Yes, we offer a range of trusts specifically designed for platforms which can be found under the trust suite on the platform library. Our Technical Support team have produced a range of trust resources to help you better support your clients including handy factsheets, in depth white papers and webinars. Visit Illuminate Tech for more information.
Do you offer a range of wrappers designed to provide income?
We offer flexi-access, phased, UFPLS, and capped drawdown options which offer a range of income options for clients. We do not offer annuities.
Are all wrappers and new business processes fully embedded on the platform?
All investment wrappers and new business processes are fully embedded on the platform. For new business, features include the ability to apply for more than one wrapper within the same application and instruct re-registrations.
Can I carry out inter-account transfers?
Yes, inter-account transfers are available between GIAs and Isas for individual investors and between investors.
An inter-account transfer can be completed from a GIA to a pension by using the inter-account transfer form available on the platform library.
We can also facilitate an inter-account transfer to redirect tax-free cash to an ISA or GIA held by the same investor. The inter-account transfer feature can move assets or cash in-specie betweens ISAs, GIAs and pension accounts. In these scenarios, a transaction history is recorded on both accounts.
Do you accept in-specie instructions; both in and out?
Yes, at no additional charge.
Do you subscribe to any e-transfer gateways?
Yes, we’re members of Origo Options for pensions which allows electronic transfer processing without the need for completing transfer paperwork.
Do you provide Bed and Isa functionality?
Yes. This functionality gives the option to sell assets from a client’s GIA and buy into their Isa in one transaction. Our trade-on-trade capability allows two Bed and Isa transactions to be keyed at the same time on a joint general account which helps speed up the process.
Can I apply a model portfolio across all wrappers?
Yes, each client wrapper account can be aligned to a model portfolio at any time.
Can I rebalance investments proportionately online across all wrappers?
Yes, proportionate rebalancing can be scheduled to run on a specified date and period, or on an ad-hoc basis, by selecting the 'rebalance today' option. This can be applied across selected or all client accounts using our bulk rebalancing tool.
Can I run multiple model investment portfolios within one wrapper?
Only one model investment portfolio can be held within each account. However, you can create multiple accounts within a wrapper, and apply a different model investment portfolio to each account.
Please note, if you would like to split or merge a drawdown account, an exception will be required from Nucleus. Please get in touch with your usual Nucleus contact to discuss this.
Is it possible to obtain a report both on an individual and consolidated basis for model investment portfolios?
Client reporting can be done either at the individual account level or aggregated at client level via our Narrate client reporting tool which you can find on your client’s account.
Do clients pay any additional charges to the wrapper providers?
The Nucleus offshore bond is subject to an account opening charge of £100 and an additional charge of 0.15%.
The Nucleus onshore bond account is subject to an additional annual charge of 0.10%
No other wrapper fees apply.
Can you add a new product or service offering upon request?
Our platform has been designed from day one based on adviser requirements, and we focus on user demand, therefore we will be happy to consider all requests received. For any new requests, please speak to your account or client relations manager.
Does your platform offer access to a wide range of funds?
Yes, we offer over 6,000 investment funds on the platform including OEICs and unit trusts along with a wide range of investment trusts, ETFs, VCTs, corporate bonds and gilts, structured products, equities, offshore funds (denominated in sterling) and interest paying cash products.
Do you offer ‘superclean’ or discounted share classes?
Where we can, we negotiate with fund managers to make sure you have access to the lowest cost share class. Some funds offer rebates, and we show this in our fund list, which can be downloaded from the ‘report’ tab on the platform.
Do you check whether clients could be in lower cost share classes?
For in-specie transfers in, we’ll communicate with the transferring scheme or platform before any transfer takes place to determine which investments can be transferred in without needing to be sold. We’ll identify the unit class with the lowest ongoing charges figure (OCF) that is jointly available from both providers and, if necessary, request the transferring scheme converts the current unit class to a different unit class to enable the transfer. Once the in-specie transfer has been completed, you can request that we convert your client’s units to a different share class, if you wish.
If you instruct us to transfer your client’s investments in-specie to another provider, we’ll collaborate with that provider to ensure their investments are transferred in the most effective way.
If you wish to view alternative share classes and compare charges, you can do so through the platform.
Are there any investments you don’t offer on the platform?
We don’t provide access to the following:
- UCIS
- Derivatives
- Non-GBP
- Complex/sophisticated investor funds
- Unquoted shares
- CDIs
- Shares not listed on the LSE
We’ll review and consider adding assets to the platform on request. This is covered under a separate question.
What stockbroker do you use?
Our nominated stockbroker is Winterflood Securities.
What model portfolio functionality is available?
We provide access to a model portfolio self-service tool to allow advisers and DFMs to create and maintain model portfolios. There’s no minimum investment amount or other restrictions on accessing the portfolios or limit to how often they can be rebalanced. Users have a range of options to manage portfolios, either across an entire book of business, segments of clients, or individual clients. Our bulk rebalance and switch functionality can run thousands of transactions in minutes. Our investment analysis tool also allows deeper analysis of funds and model portfolios.
Can I request new assets to be added to the platform? If yes, what is the turnaround time for assets being added?
Yes, you can, but this is subject to UK regulation and our own internal policies.
Our service standard to add an exchange-listed asset is five business days. Please note, the asset range is restricted to GBP priced and traded assets only, and in the case of exchange-listed assets, these must be tradable on the London Stock Exchange Main or AIM markets. Adding OEICs or unit trusts will depend on any rules and restrictions from the relevant fund manager.
Can the model portfolios be applied across all client wrapper accounts?
Yes – if the chosen assets are allowed in all wrappers, the model portfolio can be applied across all client accounts. When adding funds to a model portfolio, the system will display product permissions. If the fund lacks the necessary permissions, it can't be included in the model.
Can model portfolios be rebalanced automatically at pre-determined intervals?
Yes, automatic rebalancing can be set up to occur monthly, quarterly, half yearly or annually.
Do you offer tolerance-based rebalancing?
No, this is not an option on the platform.
Can I hold investment trusts, ETFs, or equities in my models?
Yes, but these are subject to dealing costs. Please note that minimum trade sizes can have an impact upon rebalancing.
Do you provide any investment analysis tools?
Yes, you can analyse each model portfolio through the integrated analytics tool. The research tool also allows you to check detailed fund information for assets on the platform. You’ll find easy-to-use digital factsheets showing you the latest price and one-year performance, as well as the asset’s charging structure.
Can model portfolios be managed on a bulk basis across a group of clients?
Yes, either you or your chosen DFM can reallocate or rebalance model portfolios across all or a selection of your clients with just a few clicks. We also have a bulk switch tool, which allows you to switch cash and assets across accounts in bulk.
Do you offer an in-house range of packaged solutions such as central investment propositions (CIPs), centralised retirement propositions (CRPs), multi-asset funds, or multi manager funds etc?
No, we don’t offer any in-house investment options at this time.
What due diligence do you carry out on assets you make available on your platform?
We carry out due diligence to make sure the asset has the necessary regulatory permissions, can be serviced and meet its trading, settlement, corporate action obligations, and complies with our asset manager agreement. We also validate the asset is permissible for specific product wrappers, such as ISA eligibility, and we have an asset acceptance policy in place which defines our target market.
Can my clients hold commercial property within their SIPP?
No, commercial property can’t be held within a client’s SIPP.
What is the average turnaround time for a re-registration on and off your platform?
Where both parties have adopted electronic re-registration via Origo Options and offer the same share classes, the re-registration request will be made within one business day. Where the request is submitted manually, it will be made in two working days. We follow a strict follow-up process to accelerate the transaction and users can check the progress via the ‘in transit asset report’ available on our platform. Our experience shows Origo processes typically happen in two to three weeks (subject to accurate details), while manual processes may take four to six weeks for completion.
Can I re-register assets to and from every type of share class through your platform?
Yes, we operate re-registrations to and from all available share classes a fund manager will permit Nucleus access to. Where a specific share class is not listed on the platform a request can be made to enable re-registration, and if the asset manager permits access, we will add it. We will register any share class off the platform where it can be received by the acquiring party.
Where we can’t list a share class, we also support share class conversions as part of a re-registration. This allows us to support a simpler transfer of assets where there are differing classes available on each platform. If we don’t host the share class the client holds with another provider, we can request the other platform converts to a share class that we can accept.
Do share class conversions have any tax implications for GIA accounts?
Any switch or conversion between share classes should not trigger a CGT event however, you should refer to the transferring scheme or provider to check.
Can I use (insert chosen DFM) through your platform?
There’s a selection of over 70 DFMs available on the platform. If there’s a DFM you work with who isn’t currently on the platform, we’ll look at adding them, subject to agreement between both parties. For a list of the DFMs currently available, please visit nucleusfinancial.com/wrap/advisers/our-platform/investment.
How do I start using a DFM on your panel?
You’ll first need to get in touch with your chosen DFM to set up the relationship and sign an agreement. Once completed, the DFM will ensure their portfolios will become visible to you and available to use with your clients on Nucleus Wrap . Your usual Nucleus Wrap contact can help with more details. For a list of the DFMs currently available, please visit nucleusfinancial.com/wrap/advisers/our-platform/investment
Are there any additional charges for using a DFM?
Not from us. Your clients will pay any charges applied by the DFM plus the underlying fund costs.
Can the DFM manage discretionary investment portfolios directly on the platform?
DFMs are provided with access to allow them to manage their discretionary portfolios directly on the platform. We retain custody of the client assets and cash.
If client money isn’t within the DFM’s custodianship, how is client reporting and valuation done through the platform?
DFMs are provided with access to allow them to manage their discretionary portfolios on the platform, and we retain custody of the client's assets and cash. Therefore, reports and valuations are available on the platform using Narrate, our award-winning client reporting tool, or our investment analysis tool.
How do I set up a DFM through the platform and how does this respect the relationship I have with my client?
These are the steps for adding a DFM:
- Adviser makes a request to add a new DFM to Nucleus.
- Detailed discussions between Nucleus and the DFM to ensure propositional compatability.
- Agreement is completed between Nucleus and the selected DFM.
- Nucleus initiates the onboarding and training process to allow the DFM to manage their portfolios on our platform.
- Access to the platform is provided to the selected DFM to manage their portfolios.
- The adviser will be granted access to allocate clients to their selected DFM's model portfolios and set up DFM fee arrangements.
- The relationship with the client is retained at all times by the adviser.
Are there any platform charges for using a DFM (over and above the DFM charge)?
There’s no additional platform charge when using a DFM.
What due diligence do you carry out on the DFMs you make available on the platform?
We make sure all DFMs have the relevant permissions to manage money and assets on a discretionary basis.
In addition, we review the DFM's target audience, business strategy, and type of assets which will make up the model portfolios.
How are the investment charges in relation to using a DFM presented and in what format?
A full breakdown of both the DFM charges for managing the models, and charges in relation to the assets within the models are provided on the annual costs and charges statement, and in client illustrations provided. The charges are presented in line with MiFID requirements.
Are there any exit penalties charged by your platform or the DFM?
No, we don’t charge any exit penalties on platform and DFMs do not charge a fee for exiting the DFM service, however there may be costs incurred if you chose to sell the underlying assets that were held within the model.
What access will my clients have to the platform?
Clients don’t have access to the platform, but you can grant them access to Nucleus Go, our fully mobile responsive client portal. It allows clients to view their portfolio, valuation charts, transaction history, and important correspondence at any time. It also has an adviser login function that lets advisers see exactly what their clients see.
Clients can also download our Nucleus Go iOS app.
Can my clients trade on the platform (without adviser input)?
No, only advisers, paraplanners or administrators can trade on our platform.
Can I restrict client trading on the platform?
Clients are unable to trade on the platform.
Can the client view be dual branded with my firm’s logo?
Our client portal, Nucleus Go, can be dual branded at no extra charge. This can be arranged via your usual Nucleus contact.
What support do you offer my clients?
We always recommend clients speak to their adviser in the first instance, but telephone support is available. Live chat is also available through our client portal, Nucleus Go.
Do you offer a direct to consumer (D2C) proposition?
We only accept new clients who have a relationship with an authorised and regulated advisory firm, and we don’t have an advertised D2C proposition.
Do you produce client-facing materials in accessible formats?
Yes, we can provide our standard literature suite in braille, large print, audio, or e-text versions. We would work with you and your client to come up with a manageable solution for more complex items such as detailed portfolio data and graphical representations.
What is your core platform charge?
Our charging structure is designed to be transparent and simple for clients.
Charges are applied in tiers depending on the level of client assets. The tiers are:
| Client holding | Charge on tier: |
| Up to £199,999 | 0.33% |
| £200,000 to £499,999 | 0.30% |
| £500,000 to £999,999 | 0.175% |
| £1,000,000 + | 0.05% |
The charge is accrued daily and debited monthly. Please note, we have an auto-sell down function if there isn't enough cash on the account.
The charge applies on a tiered basis, for example, if a client has a portfolio of £800k, the charge on the first £200k will be 0.33%, then 0.30% between £200k to £500k, and finally 0.175% on the remainder.
Please note that we apply the platform charge only on invested cash, not on cash balances held in a client's account. We also have a family discount for husband and wife, civil partnerships and cohabitees.
What additional platform charges apply?
Our transparent and simple charging structure means there are no hidden charges, so you can be clear about what your client pays over the lifetime of their portfolio. We don’t charge fees for set up, drawdown, switching, or administration. The only additional charges are asset charges for onshore and offshore bonds and equity dealing through our trusted partners.
What asset charges apply?
The Nucleus offshore bond is subject to an account opening charge of £100 and an additional annual charge of 0.15%.
The Nucleus onshore bond account is free to open but is subject to an additional annual charge of 0.10%.
Market traded instruments including equities and ETFs are subject to a transaction charge of 0.035% of the value being traded, subject to a minimum of £3.50 per trade. These charges are made by our stockbroker Winterflood.
UK structured products under £10,000 order value will be charged at £5.00 per order.
UK structured products above £10,000 order value will be charged at 0.05% per order (subject to a maximum charge of £150).
If more than one client of Nucleus Wrap is buying or selling the same listed securities at the same time in the same wrapper type, the minimum stockbroker charge will be proportionately split between such clients. Depending on the asset, there may also be an initial and/or annual charge determined by the asset manager.
You can find out more about our charges at nucleusfinancial.com/wrap/advisers/our-platform/accounts-and-charges.
What are your charges for Isa and SIPP portfolios?
Charges depend on how much you have invested in your pensions. However, the table below shows some example charges, based on a 60% / 40% split in SIPP / ISA, with 30 fund trades per year (excluding any assets held in cash):
| Portfolio size | Blended percentage charge (%) | Approximate £ charge |
|---|---|---|
| £25,000 | 0.33% | £82.50 |
| £50,000 | 0.33% | £165.00 |
| £75,000 | 0.33% | £247.50 |
| £100,000 | 0.33% | £330.00 |
| £150,000 | 0.33% | £495.00 |
| £200,000 | 0.33% | £660.00 |
| £250,000 | 0.32% | £810.00 |
| £500,000 | 0.31% | £1,560.00 |
| £1m | 0.24% | £2,435.00 |
| £2m | 0.15% | £2,935.00 |
We believe that clients should be able to move their assets freely without financial penalty - therefore we don't charge for switching between funds, trading funds, rebalancing, or moving your assets onto, or off, the platform. Additionally, we have no model portfolio charges, and no drawdown charges.
What is the total number of different charge types you might apply to clients using your platform?
There is only one platform charge, ranging from 0.05% to 0.33% depending on wrappers used and assets held.
You can find out more about our charges at nucleusfinancial.com/wrap/advisers/our-platform/accounts-and-charges
There are some asset charges to be aware of, as follows:
The Nucleus offshore bond is subject to an account opening charge of £100 and an additional annual charge of 0.15%.
The Nucleus onshore bond account is free to open but is subject to an additional annual charge of 0.10%.
Market traded instruments including equities and ETFs are subject to a transaction charge of 0.035% of the value being traded, subject to a minimum of £3.50 per trade. These charges are made by our stockbroker Winterflood.
Can you please supply copies of all relevant literature containing descriptions of all platform charges you have?
Full details on our charges can be found in our terms and conditions which can be found in the platform library or at nucleusfinancial.com/wrap/advisers/our-platform/accounts-and-charges.
We believe our simple charging structure allows you to predict the cost of using Nucleus regardless of how your client’s financial needs might change in the future.
How are client interests protected?
Protecting client interests is always our priority, you and your clients can take comfort from the fact that:
- Our business is well capitalised and financially strong.
- We’ve structured our pension products within a trust structure so as client money is ringfenced from the company’s own assets. This makes sure your clients’ assets are unlikely to be affected if our business should ever fail.
- We take systems and data security very seriously by using multiple layers of security controls such as network and security monitoring. We have a dedicated security team who are accountable for detecting any security breaches and taking immediate action.
- We have a robust governance framework that ensures all the risks associated with our business are identified, recorded, managed and controlled.
The FSCS investor protection regime is complex and differs for different tax wrappers and asset types. The key features and terms and conditions documents for each product within the wrapper have full details and can be found on the platform library.
You’ll also have support from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) for money deposited with UK authorised banks, building societies and credit unions, for products such as cash ISAs, savings bonds, and savings accounts. The FSCS protects 100% of the first £85,000 you have saved, per UK authorised financial institution (not per account). For specific information about FSCS protection for pensions, visit fscs.org.uk.
What client protection is available under the FSCS?
In the event your clients suffer financial loss because we become insolvent, they can claim under the investment section of the FSCS for deposits in savings products with UK authorised banks, building societies, and credit unions. The FSCS protects 100% of the first £85,000 you have saved, per UK authorised financial institution (not per account). To find out more about the client protection available under the FSCS visit fscs.org.uk.
What level of professional indemnity insurance (PII) do you carry?
We're covered by PII for up to £10m in total.
Prior to FCA PS13/1, the onus of evidencing platform regulatory compliance was on the platform itself. The onus is now on the adviser firm to make sure their platform complies with the relevant FCA policies and Cobs rules. Advisers are faced with an ever-changing regulatory landscape, with Mifid II, GDPR, Prod rules and the senior managers' regime to name but a few changes in the past few years.
This makes it more important than ever to carry out regular due diligence on platforms to avoid falling short of regulatory requirements, particularly if you work with a single platform for the majority of your client business. Advisory firms should not use a platform unless satisifed it complies with relevant FCA policies and Cobs rules.
Who regulates Nucleus?
Our business is authorised and regulated by the PRA and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). We have a close and continuous relationship with both regulators and engage with them regularly at both a senior and operational level.
How do you prevent conflicts of interest?
We won’t offer, give, solicit, or accept any inducement likely to conflict with any service we offer you and your clients.
Controls we have in place around this include:
- A pay and reward structure that isn’t directly linked to product sales.
- A compliance team that approves reward schemes, ensuring that customer outcomes have been fully considered.
- A company anti-bribery policy and a gifts, hospitality and inducements policy that includes sections on financial integrity, confidentiality and inducements.
- An audit team that reviews adherence to procedures.
What is your best execution policy?
Our order execution policy sets out the steps we take to fulfil our duty to clients to obtain best execution for trade orders. For full details download our order execution policy now.
What is your approach to environmental, social and governance (ESG)?
Beyond the ESG investments that we offer, Nucleus is also working to boost its ESG and sustainability credentials more widely from a company perspective. For more about our ESG stance at Nucleus, please visit nucleusfinancial.com/responsible-business.
What are your modern slavery commitments?
Nucleus has a zero-tolerance policy towards modern slavery and has implemented appropriate controls to mitigate the risks of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our business or supply chain. Our Modern Slavery Statement is set out on nucleusfinancial.com/responsible-business.
What's your ongoing approach to Consumer Duty?
Since the introduction of Consumer Duty in 2023, firms are required to continually demonstrate that they’re acting in the best interests of customers and putting their needs first, to provide good customer outcomes. This presents an opportunity for financial advisers to improve processes, enhance relationships, and build greater trust, when providing advice and recommendations to customers on financial products and services; and it aligns with our own ambitions to help make retirement more rewarding.
Our Consumer Duty hub provides an overview of what we do to ensure Consumer Duty remains a key focus for our business. Additionally, our dedicated Customer Outcomes Committee report into our Executive Committee and are responsible for overseeing customer outcomes.
In terms of Consumer Duty requirements, do you apply any limits to what I can charge clients?
As part of our ongoing approach to Consumer Duty, we monitor adviser charges to look for any outliers which exceed our internal decency limits.
Will you publish a value for money or fair value assessment for Nucleus Wrap?
We completed a product and service and price and value assessment on all of our products against the first two outcome rules. The details and results of which can be found in our Target Market documents on our Consumer Duty hub.
Do you clearly disclose the total platform charge in a durable format including all platform, wrapper and event driven charges that may take place?
Yes, we fully disclose our charges and relevant wrapper charges pre-sale on the terms and conditions, key features and pre-sale illustration. The terms and conditions and key features can be found on the platform library. Post-sale, the charges can be found on quarterly statements, the annual statement of costs and charges and online at any time via your client’s account.
Where are your investment products displayed and selected on your platform and how do they sit within your overall promotional approach?
The selection of investment products on the platform is entirely free choice and sorted alphabetically, numerically, by asset class or rating. We don’t promote any assets, allow fund managers to advertise on our platform, or have any form of commercial involvement with fund managers. We’re entirely agnostic in terms of the assets advisers and their clients use.
Do you cross-subsidise platform charges with fund charges (if you are also the asset manager)?
This doesn’t apply as we don’t manage our own funds.
What assurance can you provide that you haven’t offered better distribution to any asset managers in return for preferential fund pricing?
We can give you absolute assurance we’ve never followed a strategy of offering distribution for lower prices, and there’s no favouritism towards certain assets or asset managers. We provide a list of assets, with prices, via our platform.
Do you accept payments from fund managers for promoting their products?
We don’t promote products on our website, platform, or marketing material.
Do you incentivise your sales staff differently in relation to assets depending on who the provider is?
No, our sales team incentivisation and rewards programme is entirely agnostic of asset type.
Please confirm when your last supervisory visit was by the FCA/ PRA and confirm any key issues arising.
The regulated entities in the Nucleus Group have not been subject to a full supervisory visit to date. We keep open channels of communication with the FCA and PRA and promptly respond to any requests for information.
Please describe any disciplinary proceedings made against you.
We’ve had no proceedings against us since we launched in December 2006. You can validate this independently if you wish via register.fca.org.uk.
Is your platform a suitable vehicle for my clients who are in different life stages, for example those in accumulation and decumulation?
Yes, advisers use our platform to help manage clients in the accumulation and decumulation life stages. For clients in the accumulation stage, we provide access to a range of assets to suit client needs in relation to risk, asset, and fund allocation. Also, we offer a range of savings and investment wrappers, to help advisers achieve the optimal tax treatment for their clients. Our range of portfolio management tools allow users to effectively manage accumulation portfolios.
We provide easy access to suitable assets for clients in the decumulation life stage. Our pension tax wrapper is split into accumulation and decumulation accounts; the latter includes flexi-access, UFPLS, phased, and capped drawdown (only if the client is currently invested in capped drawdown). We make no additional charges for either capped or flexible drawdown. We also provide a pension income report for each client to help advisers establish how much income is currently being paid or is available for an individual client.
We have automated phased drawdown which provides the functionality to allow efficient online management of the frequency, amount, and payment date of income from any active phased drawdown.
Do you provide customers in decumulation stage with easy access to their money across their on-platform wrappers?
Our philosophy is to make taking an income easy and our wrappers allow income to be set-up at the new business stage, or easily at any time subject to the wrapper type (pensions and bonds have specific withdrawal tax-related rules).
Are there any circumstances where it’s easier to contribute than to withdraw money from the platform?
Where regulations allow, we aim to make withdrawing money from a platform account as straightforward as making contributions.
Do you make any charges for withdrawals?
No, we don’t, and have never made any charges for withdrawals.
Does your charging structure disproportionately favour any particular size of portfolio?
No, we operate a tiered charging structure to balance the needs of different portfolio sizes and carry out regular market reviews of pricing trends to maintain a cost-effective position.
Are the planning tools you offer designed more specifically for some life stages than others?
No, we don’t offer planning tools and feedback from our users shows a preference to use independent tools before placing business on the platform. We monitor the demand for advice planning tools and are open to adding them to the platform.
If you offer managed investment strategies, do they cover different life stages as well as attitudes to risk?
We don't offer managed investment strategies.
How can I identify and manage my different client segments on your platform catering for their different needs?
You can use our platform to execute and manage different client risk profiles segments into appropriate model portfolios, and you can also easily designate to a DFM. Additionally, you can implement and manage different segments of charging structures, and our rich reporting suite supports this.
What upfront, ongoing, and summarised costs and charges information do you provide to help my clients?
We provide an annual statement of costs and charges to all clients, showing the breakdown and total cost of their investment . Charges will be displayed in both percentage and monetary terms and the report can be shared directly with clients.
Can the costs and charges information be produced by the adviser on an ad hoc basis?
The cost and charges statement is produced annually and is available in the client's correspondence tab on their account or under documents on Nucleus Go.
What information do you provide regarding a fund’s target market?
Fund target markets are provided by the asset manager and are included in the fund factsheets on the platform. Our platform library also shows MiFID II target market information for assets.
How do you identify a product’s target market?
Our target market statements identify who a product is designed for, their characteristics, and how their needs and objectives are met, as well as the distribution strategy, to help you ensure you’re offering suitable products and services to your customers. These documents also include a summary of our fair value assessments outcome to ensure the price a consumer pays for a product or service is reasonable compared to the overall benefits received. .
We monitor this position via an annual product review to establish if clients investing in products are outside the target market. You can find a copy of our target market statement on our Consumer Duty hub.
How does your platform help advisers with their discretionary transaction reporting requirements?
For any advice firms with discretionary permissions, we offer a service to put in place a transmission agreement taking on the transaction reporting obligation.
How frequently are client statements produced?
Client statements are produced on a quarterly basis and distributed around two weeks after the end of the reporting period. The reporting periods are:
- 6 April – 5 July
- 6 July – 5 October
- 6 October – 5 January
- 6 January – 5 April
How does your platform help me ensure the products and service is suitable for my target market and client segments?
We’re a retail platform and only add assets we’re satisfied meet our strategy for our target audience. Since launch, advisers have been using our platform to help clients in both accumulation and decumulation life stages.
For clients in the accumulation stage, we provide access to a range of assets to suit different risk appetites and asset allocation strategies. We offer a range of wrappers, so advisers can achieve the most advantageous tax treatment for their clients. Our range of portfolio management tools allow users to effectively manage accumulation portfolios.
Our pension wrapper is split into accumulation and decumulation accounts, the latter includes flexi-access, UFPLS, phased, and capped drawdown (only available for clients with an existing capped drawdown account). We provide a pension income report for each client to help advisers establish how much income is being paid or is available.
Our automated phased drawdown functionality allows efficient online management of the frequency, amount, and payment date of income from any active phased drawdown.
What clients do you consider particularly suitable for Nucleus Wrap?
We design products for retail customers who are financially secure and looking to aggregate their investments in one place.
We have a range of products to suit a variety of financial needs. Please visit our Consumer Duty hub for our individual target market statements to find out more about each product and who it's designed for.
Our customers typically have the following attributes:
- Retail customers (as defined by the FCA under “retail clients”) aged between 18-80.
- UK resident only.
- Advised by an FCA regulated financial adviser.
- Confident with a basic level of financial capability that will enable the customer to understand and provide informed consent to the advice provided.
- Sufficient funds for investment that could require the services of a financial adviser.
- The aim to invest for the medium to long term and a willingness to accept a level of market risk to attain potential investment return (noting the actual level of risk an investor is prepared to take/can afford to take will be based on individual factors).
- Able to bear losses to capital without creating significant financial hardship.
- Require assistance with one or more of the following areas:
- Pre-retirement asset accumulation.
- Income generation.
- Post-retirement asset decumulation.
- Capital preservation.
- Or inter-generational wealth planning.
- Require access to a range of investments and product wrappers with flexibility to amend their portfolio to cater for their evolving financial needs over time.
Are there any clients who you think are not suitable for Nucleus Wrap?
In general, we don’t think Nucleus Wrap is a good fit for clients who are looking to guarantee their investment value or their income, invest in non-standard investments (e.g. unquoted shares) or who are looking to invest for the short term. It’s also not a good fit for non-UK residents.
We offer a Junior SIPP and Junior ISA (JISA) product for minors to allow generational planning, otherwise under 18’s are not able to access platform products.
Can your platform describe the client monitoring it undertakes to ensure clients are aligned with the identified target market?
We regularly review both new applications and customers on our platform as a whole against our target market criteria.
If there are a significant number of clients outside this target market, what action does your platform take?
Internal investigations into any advice firm with a significant book of ‘non-target’ clients are undertaken, and (if required) the results will be raised directly with the firm. Conduct requirements mean we have a responsibility to monitor activity and recognise taking a ‘that’s not our responsibility’ attitude isn’t satisfactory in the eyes of the regulator, or for end clients.
How can your platform evidence any in-house investment products offered via the platform are designed with a target market in mind?
We don’t offer ready-made in house investment solutions.
Do you have special policies for vulnerable clients?
Yes, spotting signs of vulnerability and dealing with clients appropriately is a key area of focus for us. All operational staff receive vulnerability training. Each team has a dedicated Vulnerable Customer Champion who is specially trained with additional knowledge and skills to help.
We have a vulnerable customer policy, framework, and standalone systems to record potential vulnerability safely and in line with FCA and GDPR rules. Our support includes a single point of contact, large print documents, alternative literature formats, signature stamps, and the ability to take instructions via the best channel for our customers.
Vulnerability is considered at all levels of the business from product reviews to communications and customer service, in line with Consumer Duty rules.
We have a Vulnerable Customer Working Group who help make fast decisions and tailor support for customers who might need bespoke assistance.
Our vulnerable customer outcomes:
- Understand, identify, and record the needs of vulnerable customers within appropriate timescales through well trained and empowered people, with easy access to appropriate resources.
- Safeguard vulnerable customers and their data to prevent creating or exacerbating potential harm, with effective governance, monitoring, and product design, to evidence good outcomes.
- Provide good outcomes for customers experiencing vulnerability through flexible processes, and clear communications.
Our Nucleus Cares page has more information on how we support your clients.
Does your platform charge any exit fees when trying to switch away from the platform?
We don’t charge any exit fees. We remain committed to the free movement of assets onto and off the platform.
What timescales are involved when switching onto your platform?
Where both parties use electronic re-registration via Origo Options and offer the same share classes, the switch or re-registration request will be made within one working day. Where it’s on a manual basis, it will be made in two working days.
The time to complete the full switch process will vary, but we follow a strict follow-up process to accelerate the transaction. Users can check the progress via the ‘in transit asset report’, available on our platform. Our experience shows the Origo process can happen in two to three weeks (subject to accurate details being provided). The manual process may take up to eight weeks for completion.
We have championed the Origo Options electronic re-registration and offered the facility since it was available in mid-2013.
If your platform offers ready-made in-house portfolios, how aligned are the model portfolio names with the volatility ratings?
We don’t offer ready-made in house portfolios.
Does your platform require a minimum cash balance to be held?
A minimum cash balance of 2% should be held to cover adviser fees and other charges. Alerts can be set up if the client’s cash balance falls below this level. The adviser can check with the client if they wish to deposit cash (where the regulations permit) or sell other assets in the account. We also offer an auto-disinvest functionality to help you manage cash balances and the payment of fees and charges.
How does cash work on the platform?
Cash in client accounts is pooled and may be held with one or more banking providers. Each client's individual holding within the pooled accounts is recorded by us, and is referred to as the wrapper cash account.
All payments in, dividends, sale proceeds, and the collection of charges are managed through these accounts.
Is the wrapper cash account suitable for high balances or for use as an investment in its own right?
No – the wrapper cash account isn’t intended for clients to hold large balances of cash for long periods of time. For those looking to include cash as part of their investment portfolio, fixed term cash deposit options are available. You can find out more about our cash panel page.
What interest rate does your wrapper cash account pay?
The interest rate varies over time. You can check the current interest rate at nucleusfinancial.com/wrap/advisers/our-platform/accounts-and-charges.
Are cash holdings in the wrapper cash account subject to the platform charge?
No, we don't apply the platform charge on cash holdings in the wrapper cash account.
Do you offer access to third-party deposit accounts?
Several alternatives are available to clients, so they can obtain investment style returns on their spare cash, in some instances by locking into longer-term cash like products. These include Bondsmith, offering a range of fixed-term deposits at several banks, money market funds, lower risk rate model portfolios, and gilts and bonds through a stockbroker.
Does your platform retain any interest earned on client money? If so, how much?
Yes, we actively manage the cash your clients hold in product bank accounts to make sure they benefit from competitive interest rates. We credit some to your clients' accounts whilst retaining a portion to continually invest in improving the products and service we offer.
Our aim is to deliver excellent financial outcomes, to help make your clients' retirement more rewarding.
Details on our sharing policy are displayed on our cost and charges page, along with the actual rates applied to your clients’ accounts. The level of cash interest rates retained by Nucleus is shown as a charge on client illustrations.
Several alternatives are available to clients, so they can obtain investment style returns on their spare cash, in some instances by locking into longer-term cash like products. These include Bondsmith, offering a range of fixed-term deposits at several banks, money market funds, lower risk rate model portfolios, and gilts and bonds through a stockbroker. Further information can be found on our cost and charges page.
How does your platform ensure the services offered to advisers benefit their clients?
We believe all on and off-platform services offered to advisers directly benefit clients.
For more information on our platform features, visit nucleusfinancial.com/wrap/advisers/our-platform/costs-and-charges.
When considering technology and development, looking at what exists currently isn't enough. It's important to find out the future plans for development of the platform, including how they're being prioritised or whether any major infrastructure maintenance or 're-platforming' is planned.
At Nucleus, we have a multi-skilled team working on a mix of platform enhancements and in-house tools to help meet the changing needs of you and your clients.
What does the Nucleus Wrap system look like? Is it easy to use?
Our online wrap platform was launched in 2006 by a group of seven financial adviser firms who set out to create a platform that puts the adviser and client at the heart of the process. We wanted the platform to reduce complexity for both advisers and their clients, deploying user-centric technology and engaging platform tools to make everything intuitive and easy to use.
Step-by-step guides and hints and tips are available from the platform library under the ‘User guides’ section.
Is the platform accessible 24/7?
Yes, the platform is available online 24/7 and accessible via all types of mobile device.
How has the usability of your platform been independently rated?
Based on the most recent four quarters of adviser ratings on web usability (collated by Platforum, Q1 2023) our rating is as follows:
- Industry average: 3.82 (out of 5)
- Nucleus average: 4.09 (out of 5)
Please describe any unplanned platform downtime over the past three years?
Over the past three years we have achieved our expected tolerance of platform uptime of 99.9% during core business hours, and 99% during extended hours.
Who owns the underlying technology of your platform?
Nucleus Wrap is powered by core platform software from Bravura Solutions.
We develop our own in-house web services which control the adviser and client user experience and draw on the underlying administration, dealing and registry capabilities of Bravura.
Sonata, the Bravura platform we use, has particular strengths in:
- personalisation, real-time data access and 24/7 customer access
- streamlined processes and straight-through processing
- speed to market, configurability and scalability.
Bravura Solutions is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and has over 30 years of experience. Its architecture enables the orderly administration of over £3trn of assets. Find out more about Bravura.
While Bravura’s software controls many of the core elements of workflow, order processing, registry and more, Nucleus’s own web services control many other elements, including:
- a wide range of integrations
- comprehensive reporting suites
- highly flexible adviser remuneration
- paperless application processes
- a full suite of tax wrappers
- and many more.
Is the underlying technology provider fully committed to the UK platform market, and how does your platform evidence this?
Yes, in 2018, Bravura expanded its London presence with a move to new offices. The office relocation reflects strong business growth across the UK and the EMEA region, with rapid growth in Bravura’s flagship product, Sonata, continuing to underpin the business’s performance.
What are the implications If your platform is built on proprietary systems as opposed to outsourcing this to a third party?
Outsourcing to a third party means we benefit from the use of specialist software which can offer performance, cost and scalability advantages. We also benefit from shared development costs with other Bravura clients (that use the Sonata product) and proven scalability. Globally more than 20 companies use and support the development of Sonata (Bravura’s core platform technology). This strategy has allowed us to incur modest development costs in respect of certain propositional enhancements and major regulatory changes, such as Mifid II and GDPR.
Our approach is to use outsourced technology broadly for the back-end and infrastructure areas of our platform, and in-house technology where that technology touches the customer. We believe this blend of in house and outsourced technology balances cost with agility, scalability and resilience. Our aim is to develop technology internally where we can add value, but to use outsourced technology for commodity services where scale is the overriding factor.
If your platform is built on proprietary systems, are there any key person dependencies within the platform?
N/A.
What due diligence have you carried out on the technology provider?
As part of our vendor management framework, initial due diligence is performed on all new vendors with on-going due diligence for existing vendors. All due diligence is done on a risk-based approach based on the risk assessments for each vendor. Due diligence is performed across the following areas in the form of a vendor due diligence questionnaire supported by a range of documentation provided by the vendor to support their response - company information, risk and compliance frameworks, anti-financial crime, recruitment and training, use of third-party suppliers, information security, data privacy, resilience, corporate responsibility and financial strength. The due diligence response is reviewed and signed off by a number of internal stakeholders depending on the nature of the services and risks - these include the outsourcing partner, information security officer, data privacy officer, head of risk, head of compliance and the business owner for the service.
Bravura, our selected technology provider performed strongly through the due diligence process. We have carried out initial due diligence on Bravura and refresh this on an annual basis.
Have you decided to change who provides the underlying technology of your platform?
We’ve taken the strategic decision to partner with FNZ over the medium to long-term. The move will bring a host of benefits and increase the scalability of our platform technology. In the meantime, we’ll continue to use Bravura’s next generation technology which has served our advisers and clients well since 2014.
If so, who have you changed from and to?
We will in time move to FNZ, which is market leading and incorporates the latest platform technology.
FNZ has a 15-year history in the UK of successful strategic partnerships with wealth management platforms, that have helped those platforms to continuously evolve the quality and personalisation of their services, while reducing costs to clients.
Their combination of highly configurable core platform services with state-of-the-art APIs (or interfaces) will enable us to differentiate without constraint.
With over 3,500 technology and investment employees across 16 countries, FNZ combines breadth and depth of expertise, global scale and continuous innovation that is highly regarded in the industry.
Please describe the rationale for this change including the benefits for clients and advisers?
We chose FNZ as we consider their technology and outsource capability to be as good as anything available in the market. The structure of the partnership will enable us to become a sustainably profitable and competitive business capable of investing in product, price and service.
FNZ is a complementary partner for us due to them being:
- A strong strategic fit – their consumer-focused mission is to help people achieve their financial goals, through partnerships with firms like us, and therefore enabling us to lower costs, improve digitisation and personalisation of the service we provide to adviser firms and their clients.
- Having a proven track record – they have a proven, highly scalable global solution and significant migration expertise, having implemented platforms for 150 financial institutions, including at least 40 substantial platform migrations.
- Strong support for financial advisers – a shared desire to enable financial advisers to be the best they can be, through the provision of market leading solutions, tools and customer service.
Advisers and clients will not only continue to benefit from our expertise, but also from the considerable investment FNZ has made over many years in the development of its market-leading technology, people and best-practices administration.
What disruption do you expect as a result of this re-platforming exercise?
There will be no immediate impact for our advisers and clients. In the short to medium-term we will continue to use Bravura’s next generation technology.
In the medium to long-term, we’re confident that there will be minimal disruption when we re-platform. FNZ has a track record of over 40 successful platform migrations, and has industrialised the process of platform transformation, to minimise risk and disruption for clients.
Do you plan on re-platforming or carrying out a significant upgrade over the next two years?
There will be no migration of our platform technology in the next two years. In the meantime, we’ll continue to utilise next generation technology which allows us to leverage the global expertise and the resources of Bravura via non-disruptive routine upgrades. We’ll always communicate upgrades to our users, as we have demonstrated over the years.
What are your best guess timescales for completion?
Once we’ve launched the new platform, we’ll transfer over the assets from James Hay Online. After that, we’ll bring across the assets from Nucleus Wrap. The first transfer of assets will only happen when we have certainty that it will be safe and smooth. The second will be after this, and likely not before 2026.
Are all clients maintained on one platform system or do you run multiple legacy systems alongside the core platform?
Yes, our platform is a single system, described as ‘a platform in a box’. There are no legacy systems that integrate with or sit alongside the platform.
Do you support API links to back-office software and other third parties?
We have extensive API connectivity across financial planning apps and CRM’s systems. This comprises all major providers including - intelliflo, Iress XPlan, Time4Advice, Sprint, Plannr, Adviser Cloud, Dynamic Planner, Twenty7Tec Finplan, Timeline, MoneyInfo, Prestwood Truth and Portfolio Matrix. We also support a number of bespoke integrations for firms inhouse CRM’s and DFM’s, and have a flexible two-way API that can integrated against to provide data services as required. We are constantly seeking to add to this list and welcome any conversations with any back office or third-party provider.
Can your platform cope with a substantial increase in client numbers and transactions? To what level of increase from its current position until the system can no longer cope?
Yes, linear scalability is a key feature of the Sonata system. This creates the ability to deal with many millions of clients before capacity is reached, meaning we could easily cope with a substantial increase in client numbers and transactions.
Do you currently accept digital client signatures, or have any plans to accept these in the future?
Yes, following the successful expansion of our scanned documents capability, we now accept electronic signatures for new business and client instructions. Users can choose from a range of e-signature software providers. More information can be found in our e-signatures guide: https://nucleusnutshell.bethebrand.com/mb/K4brp
What is the headcount of your development team?
The Nucleus wrap is designed to meet the changing needs of financial advisers and their clients, through a blend of in-house and outsourced technology. Our core platform technology (Sonata) is developed by Bravura who employ over 1,500 people in 16 offices across the world. A large proportion of these people are involved in development (including business analysts, developers, testers and project managers). At any one time, the number of people working on tasks for Nucleus varies, depending on the work instructed.
Our approach is to use the outsourced technology broadly for the back-end and infrastructure areas of our platform, and in-house technology where that technology touches the customer. We believe that this blend of in house and outsourced technology balances cost with agility, scalability and resilience. In house, we have multi-skilled team working on a mix of platform enhancements and in house tools. The team is made up of:
- six product managers
- 18 business analysts
- 21 developers
- 8 testers
- 6 programme managers/change analysts
What is it forecast to be in three years’ time?
We expect this area could increase by another 20 people, but this could change depending our growth, the changing needs of customers and the resulting pipeline of work.
Can you provide me with a list of upcoming developments?
We delivered a series of platform enhancements in 2022, including:
- Improved client experience, including paper reduction and robust security through Nucleus Go enhancements.
- Increased flexibility through enhancements like Flexible ISA and drawdown pot splitting.
- Scaling our capacity through new cloud-based infrastructure solutions.
- Delivery of regulatory change.
Our current roadmap includes:
- Updates to our integrations service.
- Phased drawdown enhancements.
- Narrate enhancements.
- Ensuring ongoing regulatory compliance.
What disruption do you expect because of any planned development?
Nucleus uses a blend of in-house development and core platform development with Bravura to minimise disruption to users.
This is separated to focus on where the user has touchpoints with the platform (i.e. digital apps) and core operational activity. In line with our core transformation project, and the timing of the move to FNZ, this is aligned to minimise this disruption seen by users so that those digital touchpoints will be interchangeable.
How often do you update your platform with new developments, functionality or bug fixes?
Each year we have a regular series of propositional software releases on our roadmap, which implement new product features or functionality. In addition, we run a monthly rolling programme of maintenance enhancements and bug fixes, plus internal releases to enhance our platform tabs, in house tools and MI.
How do you take on board user feedback for developments including user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) changes?
Our developments are designed in conjunction with, and the approval of, our platform development group, advisory board and the user feedback we obtain from advisers.
The platform development group meets twice a year and is made up of 15 Nucleus users – advisers, directors, business owners and operations managers. We also run regular platform user sessions giving users the opportunity to comment on developments to help improve user experience and we prioritise our development programme accordingly.
How do you ensure you don’t waste shareholder money on unnecessary developments or ‘bells and whistles’?
Our developments are designed in conjunction with, and the approval of, our adviser platform development group, making sure they support the advice market and drive value for all stakeholders, including end clients.
What is your test process and how do you ensure sufficient testing has been undertaken for every new development?
Our test approach is an integral part of our development process. All changes are managed through a product management workflow where the product and the associated tests are generated. Each change is aligned with one-to-many tests, executed to verify and validate the change meets its goal. This ensures a linkage between the original requirement, the work undertaken for the change, and the test output.
Do you provide an online new business process and top up that caters for all wrappers?
Yes, our new business process allows users to smoothly and efficiently make online applications.
All wrappers are on-platform and more than one wrapper can be included in an application. Re-registrations can be instructed within the new business process and incomplete applications can be saved and revisited later. At the end of the process, a client declaration is auto-populated.
Are new business applications paperless? Are there any elements of new business submissions that require paper?
The new business application process can be submitted online using a mix of tools, including JIRA and digital signatures, so that the process can be as paperless as possible.
How can I certify my client's age?
You should verify your client’s age with official identification documentation such as a passport or driving licence.
Do you provide online illustrations?
Yes, you can generate a range of illustrations on the platform, including pre-sales, post-sales, statutory money purchase illustrations, annual reviews, and statutory annual reviews.
Is this new business application process integrated; for example, can I apply for an ISA and pension in the same application?
Yes, all wrappers are fully on-platform and more than one wrapper can be included in an application.
Do you offer electronic re-registration on and off the platform?
Yes, we’ve championed electronic re-registration and have offered this since mid-2013.
Please describe the electronic re-registration process and average turnaround times
Where both parties are connected for electronic re-registration (either via Origo Options or Equisoft) , the re-registration request will be made within one business day.
Where it's on a manual basis, the request will be made within two business days.
The full transfer process will vary depending on the details provided and we have a strict follow-up process to accelerate the transfer if it has not completed within 10 business days. Users can check the progress via the 'in transit asset report' on the platform.
Our experience shows the electronic process can complete within a few weeks (subject to accurate details), while the manual process may take four to six weeks to finalise.
What client reporting and management information is available?
As well as having an MI tab on the platform for adviser firms, we also have a wide range of reports you can download, including:
- Accounts – account information for your clients
- Client assets - a report of your clients and their assets held on the platform
- Client cash balance - cash balance including details of regular withdrawals and cash required to ensure that both regular withdrawals are paid and the required 2% cash balance is retained
- Client details - a report which provides a list of your clients' details such as mailing addresses, emails, and dates of birth
- Client logins - a report which provides the last login date and status for your clients with Nucleus Go access
- Correspondence - a report of the correspondence provided to your clients
- Discretionary fund manager - a report of accounts using a discretionary manager
- Fees - a report of fees paid to you for each client, by date
- In-transit assets - a list of in-transit assets processed on the platform, including their status amount and ceding information, by date
- ISA / JISA contributions - a report of ISA / JISA allowances that haven’t been used for the current tax year
- Model portfolios and accounts - a report of the accounts using model portfolios
- Model portfolio asset allocation - a report of the asset allocations within existing model portfolios
- Model portfolio valuations - a report providing a current valuation for each asset within the model portfolio
- New business - a report on the new business added to the platform
- Pension contributions - provides the total pension contributions made by your clients within their current pension input period
- Pension income - provides details on the amount of income that can be taken by your clients
- Summary assets - provides the aggregated total value and number of units of individual assets across all of your clients
- Trades outstanding - shows business currently in process
- Withdrawals and contributions - shows withdrawals and contributions to and from the platform
- Holdings: for external systems provides a list of assets (including the cash balance) held on the platform for your clients' accounts formatted for import into external systems.
Our client reporting tool Narrate, allows clients and advisers to analyse over 400 different transaction types, and create interactive reports across single or multiple accounts. Users can carry out both time weighted and money weighted performance analysis while overlaying transactional information to highlight specific events. The tool also compares performance to over 120 benchmarks.
Please describe the range of advice tools you offer, and how these can improve my business and benefit my clients?
To date we've had limited demand for 'on-platform' tools. Our audience prefer to use independent advice tools. Our approach has always been to focus on offering the core functionality at a low cost rather than introducing tools that may not be used.
Please describe the range of portfolio management tools you offer and how these can improve my business and benefit my clients?
Our range of portfolio management tools are designed to assist advisers to compliantly and efficiently execute and manage client’s financial plans.
Here’s a summary of our tools:
- Illustrations - create an illustration of projected investment returns for any of the accounts within a portfolio
- Bulk model portfolio reassign and rebalance tool - moves the investment strategies for multiple clients from one model portfolio to another
- Bulk asset switch - switch all clients between investment assets
- Bulk cash switch - switch all clients from cash to an investment asset
- Alerts - configure and maintain alerts for platform events
- Events history - view a history of transactional-based events
- Model portfolio self-service - create, edit ,and analyse model portfolios
- Bulk summary report - create a bulk summary report across multiple clients and accounts
- Manage favourite assets - create, edit, delete, and convert favourite assets
- Investment analysis – analyse funds and model portfolios
Contact your Nucleus business development representative for more information.
Can the client facing reports be adviser branded?
Yes, outputs from our client reporting tool, Narrate can be branded using a firm’s corporate identity.
Can these provide both time weighted and money weighted returns?
Yes, our client reporting tool Narrate allows users to carry out both time weighted and money weighted performance analysis while overlaying transactional information to highlight specific events.
Can these be presented with performance graphs showing cumulative, discrete and annualised returns?
Yes, all the performance graphs can be included.
How long does it take to generate a client report?
Client reports can be generated in minutes using the Narrate client reporting tool. Templates can be created which save time in producing reports and can quickly provide an updated position.
Do you offer a capital gains tool on your platform?
Yes, Narrate CG (capital gains) can help with your client’s capital gains calculations. The CG tool will calculate and display both realised (historical) and unrealised (potential) capital gains/losses on the general investment account (GIA) for the current and previous tax years.
The tool allows you to download the information to a pdf or csv file giving a detailed breakdown including acquisition details, disposal details, and net gain or loss at both individual asset and portfolio level. The report can run on multiple client accounts at the same time.
The tool allows the price of specific transactions to be overridden by the adviser and stored against an asset. This has the impact of increasing or decreasing that asset’s acquisition cost. The original price is still stored against the transaction so it’s easy to revert where required.
The estimate view within the Narrate CG tool allows you to view the potential gain or loss that may result in the event of a disposal you propose. These reports can be downloaded as pdf or csv files.
Do you have a tool that can analyse the performance and make up of individual investments and model portfolios before a client invests?
Yes, our investment analysis tool can demonstrate how up to five funds or model portfolios have performed when recommending investment options to your clients. The tool generates a report which includes holdings, performance, stock overlap, asset allocation, geographic and sector breakdown.
How quickly and easily can I investigate transactions on a client’s account. Are they all accessible online?
Yes, a full online transaction history report for your clients can be easily accessed. This can be generated by a few clicks on each client’s account.
Can I produce reports directly on the platform that show client information at a bulk level?
Yes, by using the client details report on the platform, you can download a full list of your clients quickly and easily.
Can I trade online?
Yes, you can trade online for all wrappers.
Can I bulk trade or bulk switch online?
Yes, to both.
How can I find if a trade has settled?
Transactions can be monitored through the transaction app within a client’s account.
Can I switch online, or do I have to instruct a separate sell and then buy?
You can switch online with one instruction.
Can the platform tell me when key events are happening such as the completion of a transfer/ fees and income have been paid / trades have settled etc?
Yes, a list of platform alerts is available which covers events such as auto sell down, the payment of advice fees, the creation and settlement of a trade or transfer, and the payment of a withdrawal.
Can clients access the platform via an app?
Our mobile responsive client portal, Nucleus Go is available as a web application. It lets clients view their portfolios, transactions and correspondence at any time using their mobile device’s browser. Clients can also download and use our Nucleus Go iOS app.
Is client access mobile responsive?
Yes, Nucleus Go is fully mobile responsive and available on iOS.
What adviser ratings can you evidence on system usability?
Based on the most recent four quarters of adviser ratings on web usability (collated by Platforum, Q1 2025) our rating is:
- Industry average: 3.93 (out of 5)
- Nucleus average: 4.10 (out of 5)
Can I instruct withdrawals online?
Yes, you can.
Are there any charges for withdrawals?
No additional charges apply.
How would you describe and evidence your service reputation?
The success of our business is demonstrated by our ability to efficiently and cost-effectively administer client assets. With regards to service, we publish a service charter which can be found on the platform library and includes agreed service levels, to support your due diligence.
Please list what adviser ratings you have achieved for service in past five years.
Over the past five years, we have achieved the following:
- Winner - Best Wrap/Platform Investment Life and Pensions Moneyfacts Awards 2025
- Winner - Defaqto Gold Service award 2023
- Winner - Financial Adviser 5-star service awards 2020, 2021
- Winner – CoreData best medium-sized platform 2020
- Gold winner – Medium contact centre of the year UKCCF Awards 2023
Have your adviser ratings improved or declined in this period?
Our overall satisfaction rating from Platforum's UK Adviser Platforms report has improved from 39.42 (out of 50) in Q1 2020 to 39.50 in Q1 2025. These results were based on adviser reviews received.
What's your approach to maintaining or improving adviser ratings?
Our objective is to continuously deliver great service and support for our users, therefore we take adviser feedback very seriously. The best insight we get is from speaking directly with firms, mainly through feedback passed to our client facing teams. Larger requests would be passed to our change team for consideration and smaller ones are added to our internal tracker where we look at what improvements can be made. Any action we take based on user feedback is communicated via our 'You Said, We Did' email or at firm visits.
In May 2025, we launched our new ‘Voice of the Adviser’ survey which helps us understand more about the challenges and issues you are facing as well as your views on what’s happening in the industry. It also allows us to tailor the support we offer you. You can read the report on our findings on our website.
There’s too many improvements to mention, but a couple of examples resulting from user feedback include:
- Dedicated live support team established who are now answering 97% of messages in under 90 seconds.
- Establishing KPIs and embedding processes to improve answer rates across adviser phone lines. We’re now consistently answering 97.5% of calls, with an average waiting time of 21 seconds.
- As detailed in our 2024 Annual Report, our combined group invested £19.5m in product and tech and enabled a price saving for our customer base of £10m. These improvements are possible because of our scale. They’re part of an exciting journey which has the needs of you and your clients at the heart of our planning.
Please detail which ratings companies or publications you have sponsored or paid money to and over which periods.
We don’t sponsor any ratings companies. For organisations which provide our ratings, our subscription approach is:
- We’ll pay required charges to be represented where appropriate so our users can compare our proposition and make compliant client recommendations.
- We purchase some market research publications to benchmark our performance.
Our strategy has always been to rely on user ratings rather than any form of sponsored or purchased ratings. We firmly believe peer ratings are a much truer measure of performance.
Does your platform have a net promoter score (NPS)? If so, what is it?
Yes, our most recent NPS for Nucleus Wrap was +21 (May 2025) demonstrating a clear level of advocacy from many of our users.
How many people work in your servicing team?
Over 168 people are employed in servicing our users (as at 5 March 2026).
Where are your servicing people based?
All colleagues involved in servicing your business are based in the UK, in a range of locations.
Do your servicing people work from home?
Our servicing teams have the ability to work flexibly, including from home, but some front desk telephony-based colleagues are office based.
Will I be allocated dedicated field support?
Yes, each firm that actively engages with us will be allocated a dedicated support team for any queries.
Your main contact will proactively engage with you and support our relationship through regular contact and face-to-face meetings. They’ll make sure you’re aware of all the resources available to you as a user of our platform. They’ll support your business through project planning, training provision, and any technical queries, as required.
We believe in transparency and provide updates to you as your cases are progressing, as this helps you manage your clients. Our secure messaging system, JIRA, allows you to send instructions and queries to us, and view how these are progressing. JIRA will also save you time, as you won’t need to call us for a status update.
Will I be allocated a dedicated member of your client services team for day-to-day queries?
Yes, each firm that actively engages with us will be allocated a small, dedicated team.
You’ll be assigned a main contact for day-to-day platform support, case management and queries. If your specific contact is unavailable, another member of the team will be on hand to help.
We believe in transparency and provide updates to you as your cases are progressing, as this helps you manage your clients. You’ll use our secure messaging system, JIRA, that allows you to send instructions and queries to us, and view how these are progressing. JIRA will also save you time, as you won’t need to call us for a status update.
In addition, we offer a live chat service on the platform. Live chat provides a quick and efficient way to obtain answers to straightforward questions.
Our opening times are 8:30am-5:30pm Monday to Friday for live support and calls.
For firms that do not actively engage, or who sporadically use the platform, you'll still be able to access support through a centralised team who can provide ad hoc guidance on administration and processing as required.
You can find extensive online help through our user guides in the platform library.
How are sales staff incentivised and what procedures do you have in place to mitigate conflicts of interest?
Our incentive schemes are aligned with supporting advisers to deliver good client outcomes, as well as enabling motivation and retention across our sales team. Our incentive schemes ensure risks to customers are adequately controlled to remain compliant with regulatory best practice. We also consider the long-term interests of all stakeholders (including customers and users) to ensure everyone is incentivised to help us build a durable business.
What contact methods are available to advisers?
Telephone: 0131 226 9535. Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5.30pm
Live chat: available Monday to Friday 8.30am-5.30pm
Email us: client.relations@nucleusfinancial.com
Secure JIRA messaging: Available 24/7. Messages will be dealt with during our normal opening hours.
Does your platform offer a more secure online alternative to email?
Yes, our users have access to our secure JIRA messaging system, which provides a clear audit trail of all correspondence and keeps any sensitive data secure, reducing the potential of fraud from email communications.
What phone-based support do you offer?
Our customer support team is available to help you, on the phone or via JIRA messaging, from 8.30am to 5.30pm Monday to Friday. Telephone: 0131 226 9535.
Do you have a ‘live support’ service available as an alternative to telephone or email contact?
Yes, our live chat is available Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5.30pm and can be accessed via our platform. It provides a quick and efficient way to get responses to straight forward questions.
Can clients contact you directly?
Yes they can, but where a client has a financial adviser, we’ll always refer them back to you where appropriate.
Will you accept trade instructions direct from my client?
We don’t accept trading instructions from a client who has a financial adviser – we’ll always refer them back to you.
Can you describe any structured training and onboarding support you would provide?
From day one, you'll be supported through all elements of the implementation, be provided with on-going day-to-day relationship management, and helped with any specific post-sale or client enquiries.
In addition to providing basic platform training, our onboarding program follows a structured approach. This is delivered via a project timeframe and will integrate the platform with your business by minimising disruption to your day-to-day client activities.
Is your administration insourced or outsourced?
As part of our growth strategy and to give us more direct control in our operations, we acquired our back-office service provider, Genpact WM UK Ltd in December 2020. Full responsibility for the servicing of customers sits with our own client relations team, based at our Edinburgh HQ.
If it's outsourced, do I deal with you directly or with the outsourced party?
You’ll always deal directly with our dedicated Nucleus client relations team.
What's your approach to customer satisfaction?
Our aim is to make sure you and your clients are satisfied with our service. We aim to get things right first time, but where something does go wrong our policy is to fix it as soon as humanly possible.
We aim to deal fairly and promptly with any customer or adviser who is dissatisfied with our service. Complaints are all independently reviewed and seen as an opportunity to build better relationships and improve the way we work. As a regulated business we comply fully with the FCA’s complaint handling rules. You can find out more on our 'How to make a complaint' section on our website.
How many customer complaints have there been in the past 12 months?
For the 12 months to 31 December 2024, we received 459 client complaints. This is 3 client complaints per 1,000 accounts.
How many were referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service?
In total, 17 complaints were referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
What percentage were upheld?
Of all complaints received, 65% were upheld.
Do you offer a range of technical support material, including user guides, factsheets, presentations and case studies?
Yes, the Illuminate Tech hub is available on our website. Designed to boost your knowledge and fine-tune your expertise, Illuminate Tech gives you access to factsheets, tech talks, on demand content and the latest insights directly from the minds of our Technical Support Team. Our highly experienced technical experts have a wealth of knowledge across topics such as pensions, tax, trusts, and bonds and their insights can help you resolve planning challenges, learn about upcoming developments in the market, or navigate changes to legislation.
We’ve also teamed up with our colleagues at Dunstan Thomas to create annual allowance and salary sacrifice calculators to help make pensions planning easier for you and your clients. These can be found on our Illuminate Tech page.
You can find extensive online help for any platform service questions through our adviser, user, and client guides which can be found in the platform library.
Do you offer a comprehensive range of trust documents designed in conjunction with the tax wrappers on the platform?
Our trust suite on the platform library contains trust specific literature including adviser and client guides, supporting forms, trust deeds and tools specifically designed to help you choose the right trusts for your clients.
To complement our range of trust literature, you'll be supported by our invaluable technical resources covering expert insight and the latest on pensions, tax and trust legislation. For access to technical webinars, blogs, tech talks and calculators, take a look at Illuminate Tech for more information.
Do you provide technical support on all areas of your business?
Yes, the Illuminate Tech hub is available on our website. Designed to boost your knowledge and fine-tune your expertise, Illuminate Tech gives you access to factsheets, tech talks, on demand content and the latest insights directly from the minds of our Technical Support Team. Our highly experienced technical experts have a wealth of knowledge across topics such as pensions, tax, trusts, and bonds and their insights can help you resolve planning challenges, learn about upcoming developments in the market, or navigate changes to legislation.
We’ve also teamed up with our colleagues at Dunstan Thomas to create annual allowance and salary sacrifice calculators to help make pensions planning easier for you and your clients. These can be found on our Illuminate Tech page.
You can find extensive online help for any service questions through our adviser, user and client guides in the platform library via the platform support tab.
Do you have a capital gains calculator that can export both realised and unrealised gains and also exclude certain assets that have been acquired before a re-registration?
Yes, our Narrate CG tool calculator can show unrealised and realised gains for current and previous tax years. The outputs can be downloaded to a PDF or CSV file giving a detailed breakdown including acquisition details, disposal details, and net gain or loss, at both individual asset and portfolio level.
Can your capital gains tool raise the acquisition cost of an asset to ensure clients don’t pay Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on an asset they’ve already paid income tax on?
Yes, the Narrate CG tool allows the price of specific transactions to be overridden by the adviser and stored against an asset. This has the impact of increasing or decreasing that asset’s acquisition cost. The original price is still stored against the transaction so it’s easy to revert back where required.
Can the capital gains tool produce estimated gains or losses for any proposed disposal amount?
Yes, the estimate view within the Narrate CG tool allows you to view the potential gain or loss that may result in the event of a disposal. These reports can be downloaded into pdf or csv files.
Does your platform facilitate the sharing of best practice among advisers?
Nucleus Wrap was developed by a group of advisers who wanted to create a platform that put customers first, giving advisers greater control over their client outcomes and providing better value.
As an adviser using the Nucleus platform, you’ll have access to a range of CPD accredited live and on demand events through our Illuminate events programme, hosted by our technical experts and covering a wide range of topics from trusts to agricultural relief and pensions tax planning. Our in-person events are an excellent opportunity to network with like-minded peers. Visit Illuminate Live for the latest events online and in your area.
You’ll also have access to Illuminate Tech. Designed to boost your knowledge and fine-tune your expertise, Illuminate Tech gives you access to factsheets, tools, calculators, comprehensive guides and the latest insights directly from the minds of our Technical Support team. These insights cover a range of useful topics and are designed to help you resolve technical challenges, learn about upcoming developments in the market, or navigate changes to legislation. This valuable support enables you to deliver better outcomes for your clients, helping them to have a more rewarding retirement.
Our technical experts are also available to deliver tailored educational events upon request. Please get in touch with your usual Nucleus contact for more information.
In 2025, we launched our first annual Voice of the Adviser survey where we asked financial advisers for their views on what’s happening in the industry. This insight helps us understand the challenges and issues you’re facing. We produce a detailed report based on the findings of our survey.
Does your platform offer adviser representation at board level?
Yes, our advisory board is made up of a representation of advisers using our platform who provide the Nucleus Senior Leadership Team with input into the ongoing strategic development of the platform, the group and the wider market. The advisory board representatives reflect the interests of the Nucleus audience. Their views are collated and fed into relevant areas of the business to inform priorities and decision-making.
Does your platform provide online training and thought leadership support?
Yes, our online Illuminate Tech hub is a resource designed to help advisers build knowledge in areas vital to the successful development of your business, including compliance and regulation, practice development, and technical information.
The hub gives you access to factsheets, tools and calculators, comprehensive guides and the latest insights directly from the minds of our Technical Support team. Our technical experts provide their insight into industry updates, legislative changes, tax planning, and tips and tricks, to help you support clients with a range of complex needs as well as support your own professional development.
With rapid advances in technology and a greater prevalence of cyber crime, it's never been more important to conduct regular reviews of your platform's ability to safeguard your client's assets and data.
A combination of robust technological solutions, watertight security policies and staff training and compliance with regulation are vital to make sure your selected platform offers the protection your clients need.
How do you ensure that client data is protected and your systems are secure?
The protection of client data and systems is our highest priority, that's why we've set high standards for the hosting of our platform. It's hosted in ISO 27001 and ISO 22301 certified data centres and has been designed with security and resilience as a core principle. There are multiple layers of network and application-level security controls, and the hosting provider maintains 24x7 monitoring of security and network operations to promptly address any issues.
As part of our internal security framework, we have a dedicated team who are accountable for detecting any security breaches at Nucleus and taking immediate action, including email and website monitoring. We're confident our security provides robust protection for our users and clients.
How robust is your Information Security Management System (ISMS)?
We have an information security standards framework in place which means we align with best practice and the international standards for the ISMS, ISO 27001 certification.
The data centre selected to host our platform has been awarded the information security standard ISO 27001 certification, as has our hosting partner Bravura.
What controls and risk-assessments do you place on third parties?
Information security is our highest priority, and we expect our partners to have the same high standards.
We manage this through our robust risk-based vendor management framework, whereby security-focused due diligence is performed on all new vendors. Regular ongoing due diligence continues on selected and existing vendors, throughout the lifecycle of the commercial agreement. Due diligence is completed on a risk-based assessment approach for each vendor.
How are your network and servers protected against external threats and attacks?
Our core platform technology, the ‘Sonata’ application is provided by our strategic technology partner, Bravura, and is developed using secure development principles, aligned to OWASP (open web application security project) standards.
This means there is regular application level ethical hacking conducted internally by Bravura throughout development (where we test the security of the platform by simulating attacks to make sure any vulnerabilities are identified and resolved).
In production, the platform is subject to annual penetration tests, conducted by external third parties, to try and access the data or disrupt the service (with and without log-ins and passwords).
Our dedicated security team is accountable for tracking all monitoring and detection systems deployed throughout our internal network and, where appropriate, the response. If a response is required, the Information Security team follow procedures for response actions to limit further exposure and return service to a good position.
How do you respond to a cybersecurity incident?
We maintain an incident response plan for any disruption to business continuity, at both team and organisational levels. This framework uses a risk-based approach to prioritise and manage any incident. Our centralised incident management team manage the response to any incidents including stakeholder communications. We carry out testing on an annual basis and any incidents are fully reviewed, with actions being implemented and incorporated into our incident response plan.
What data recovery, business continuity and disaster recovery plans do you have?
Our business continuity plan is aligned to ISO 22301. Each department has a business continuity action plan and there are overarching incident and crisis management plans. The platform runs across multiple availability zones within the UK hosting environment. This means if the hosting environment ceases to be available, there are others available as back-up. Therefore, the maximum time it should take to recover the platform is four hours, and the platform will be recovered to the same state as 30 minutes prior to the issue.
Should an issue affect all availability zones within the UK, the platform can be restored within another region within 24 hours.
Monitoring is in place to ensure systems are working as expected across these zones. The process of switching operations is formally tested on an annual basis.
Each department’s business continuity action plan lists key roles and deputies to ensure that the right activities are prioritised. There are predefined processes for invoking the plan, and technical staff have documented steps to activate the disaster recovery systems.
If the platform experiences a significant disruption, we’ll communicate with you via a mixture of email and messages through other systems, and other relevant channels.
Nucleus and Bravura both have options for remote working in place that also mitigate disruption. These can be scaled up to support large numbers of people working remotely if needed, and people are also able to access other nearby offices.
Workplace recovery plans include provisions where a physical location is needed (e.g. for mail delivery).
Are staff privileges and data access rights controlled?
Yes, we have a role-based access control framework embedded in our business. This provides staff with the correct level of access to carry out their role and mitigate excessive access to sensitive data.
All access for planned leavers is revoked at 4pm on the day they leave. Unexpected leavers have their access revoked within 24 hours.
What security measures are in place in relation to staff working from home (or remotely) and using removable media?
Remote working is only permitted using company issued devices and secured over a Virtual Private Network with multifactor authentication. Removable media is blocked by default.
How do you make sure staff are not a security risk?
Staff are subject to background checks on joining the company, before they are granted access to company systems. These background checks include:
- Government prescribed identity must be provided
- Address validation
- Right to work validation
- Criminal background
- Employment history
- Education and certification validation
- Financial checks
All staff must complete a range of mandatory computer-based training courses on security and awareness. These courses are refreshed annually throughout employment with an 80% pass benchmark. Information security and data protection training are given to new staff as part of our induction process.
How do you manage the risks associated with fraudulent email instructions?
As well as our data and system security, we’ve implemented processes to help prevent fraud, particularly through email. Many fraud attempts are the result of advisers taking client instructions via email (such as change of bank details and subsequent withdrawal requests).
We will not accept instructions by email and our advisers use a secure messaging service to pass instructions to us.
It’s important that advisers have processes in place to ensure such requests are genuine. To reduce the risk to clients, we have implemented a control by which the adviser must confirm that they have checked bank details with the customer either face-to-face or via a phone call. For payments to us, we apply a risk-based approach to determine if we would apply enhanced due diligence to verify the underlying source of wealth and source of funds if the client is investing a large sum or lives in a higher risk country.
How do you make sure a payment instruction is genuine?
Our payment controls process means we'll only pay to named accounts associated with the designated platform account. These details will have previously been verified by the relevant adviser via our secure messaging.
Changes to associated accounts are controlled and the adviser must attest to doing this face to face or by phone.
Are you a member of Cifas, the UK’s fraud prevention agency?
No, as we are an adviser-facing platform we don’t see membership to Cifas as being of benefit. However, we liaise with various anti-financial crime organisations to share best practice.
Are you registered with the information commissioner’s office? If so, what is your registration number?
Yes, Nucleus Financial Group (NFG) is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and holds registration number Z9643780. Nucleus Financial Services Limited (NFS) is also registered and holds registration number Z9643794.
How do you comply with the seven high level principles of GDPR, and how do you demonstrate the platform meets these requirements?
We’ve established an organisation-wide focus on data governance, with a culture of collaboration, innovation, and accountability. We’re fully committed to ensuring our platform aligns with the seven principles of GDPR.
- Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency
We process personal data based on clear legal grounds, such as contractual necessity, explicit consent, or legitimate interest. Our privacy policy is written in plain language and is easily accessible, ensuring transparency about how and why data is collected, used, and shared. Our privacy policy can be found on our website.
- Purpose limitation
Personal data is collected for specified, explicit, and legitimate purposes. We process personal data for those purposes only, and we regularly review our data processing activities to ensure alignment.
- Data minimisation
We only collect data that is strictly necessary for the intended purpose. Our platform is designed to avoid excessive data collection.
- Accuracy
We take reasonable steps to ensure personal data is accurate and up to date. Customers can access and update their information, and we have processes in place to rectify inaccuracies promptly.
- Storage limitation
Personal data is retained only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected. We have a defined data retention policy and mechanisms to delete data where appropriate.
- Integrity and confidentiality
We implement robust technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.
- Accountability
We maintain detailed records of our data processing activities and conduct regular GDPR compliance reviews. We conduct Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) for high-risk processing. All staff are required to undertake regular mandatory GDPR training.
Demonstrating compliance
We maintain a comprehensive Record of Processing Activities (RoPA) and we conduct DPIAs for high-risk processing.
We ensure third party processors are GDPR compliant through contractual agreements and due diligence. Data sharing agreements are in place with all third-party processors.
As we’re a data controller for our products and tax wrappers, we’re registered with the ICO and have appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO) who is a senior member of our team. The DPO is responsible for our GDPR compliance and has oversight of our internal audit activities. The DPO can be contacted by emailing dataprotection@nucleusfinancial.com.
What safeguards are there in relation to my client’s assets on the platform?
In the event Nucleus is unable to continue to operate, client money and assets would be protected under a combination of the FCA’s CASS rules, pension rules and arrangements operated by the bond providers. Under these rules, Nucleus is required to maintain books and records that can be accessed by administrators/insolvency practitioners in order to establish where client monies and assets are held and identify client money accounts, to ensure their prompt return to individual clients. So, we can assure you, your clients’ money and assets have the highest level of protection.
If Nucleus were to fail, what would happen to client money and assets?
In the event Nucleus is unable to continue to operate, client money and assets would be protected under a combination of the FCA’s CASS rules, pension rules and arrangements operated by the bond providers.
We deposit client cash with authorised banks, in what’s known as a pooling arrangement, where each client’s individual share of the pool is recorded in our records and reflects what we show in each client’s wrap account summary. We work within a control framework which helps ensure accurate books and records are maintained. Each business day we complete a reconciliation to ensure the total of all individual accounts held on the platform matches what we hold in the pooled cash arrangement.
As all client money is held by us in trust and is segregated from our own funds, any creditors of ours would have no legal right to it. Similarly, we're unable to use any of this money to meet our own obligations as a company.
What protection is there for an asset held in client's accounts?
Investments will be with the individual fund managers and their books and records will reflect legal title consistent with our records. All assets bought through the Nucleus platform are registered to a separate nominee and therefore segregated from the financial position of Nucleus. These would remain registered to the relevant nominee in case of a Nucleus failure and therefore would be available for the insolvency practitioner or purchasing company to ensure safe return to the client.
If a client holds an investment with a fund manager that's failed, it may be possible to claim compensation, but this will depend on the specific circumstances of the fund manager involved. Your CRM will be able to help if this situation arises.
What action have you taken to ensure clients wouldn’t face a deduction from their assets (e.g. to pay administrators fees) in the event of a platform failure?
The special administration regime (2011) introduced the right of administrators to deduct fees involved in returning assets to a client from those assets, even if they’re held in trust in nominee accounts. This applies in the event of a special administration although instances of these events are rare. A special administration is an insolvency process that makes sure essential services continue to be delivered.
Regardless, we are required to hold sufficient funds in our own capital, in reserve, to allow the firm to be wound down while covering administrator fees and therefore we wouldn’t expect clients to face deductions from their assets in the event of our failure.
Our guide titled 'the investor protection guide' explains protection in more detail.
What processes does your platform use to ensure all two way communication with a firm is secure, such as a secure messaging service?
We use JIRA messaging to ensure secure communication with firms. If an adviser firm wants to raise a query with us, they can do so by raising a JIRA ticket. Each firm has their own JIRA 'project' and for each firm there’s a dedicated Client Relationship Manager (CRM) who is responsible for managing the firm's workflow.
For firms that don't have a dedicated Client Relations Manager, you can still access support through a centralised team who can provide ad hoc guidance on administration and processing as required.
What measures do you have in place to prevent fraud attempts?
As well as our data and system security, we have implemented processes such as eSignatures, change of address and change of bank details procedures to help prevent and detect fraud. Additionally, all employees at Nucleus must complete training on financial crime with enhanced training provided to teams most likely to handle fraud attempts.
Data shows that many fraud attempts are the result of advisers taking client instructions via email (such as change of bank details and subsequent withdrawal requests). It’s important therefore, that advisers have processes in place to ensure such requests are genuine. To reduce the risk to clients, we have implemented a control by which the adviser must confirm to us on JIRA that any change of bank details has been verified as genuine.
