Fry pushes Nucleus' number to 55

International financial adviser The Fry Group has joined forces with wrap platform Nucleus Financial.

The move brings the number of adviser firms using Nucleus - which is only available to companies that take up a stake in the business - to 55. As with all other existing members, the firm has taken an equity stake in Nucleus.

Stephen Tucker, managing director of The Fry Group, said: "As an adviser-owned and controlled platform Nucleus is not only closely aligned to the needs of our business and clients but also provides us with the ability to influence its future development and direction.

"We pride ourselves on offering handcrafted solutions to suit our clients' needs and the Nucleus platform will allow us to service these needs in an efficient and cost effective manner."

However, not all larger advisers believe Nucleus offers the best means of accessing a wrap platform though – especially if they can develop a wrap system in house.

Hugo Shaw, business manager for London-based adviser BestInvest, said: "Wrap platforms have been a hot topic for a while now. We have looked at Nucleus and its competitors in the past and would not rule out joining up with one of them in the future if we felt it offered a better solution for our clients.

"However, we have developed our own 'virtual' wrapper internally and use this to pull together three platforms, including Cofunds and Funds Network. At the moment, we feel that this offers our clients the best service - especially as we are able to play the three platforms off against each other to get the best deals. Platforms such as Nucleus offer a great service for smaller advisers, but we are able to achieve the same results ourselves."

However, Nucleus, which was launched 18 months ago, is targeting both large and small adviser firms, as long as their business models and values are a good fit.

It said that deals with a couple of other larger advisers are in the pipeline and that it thinks the fact firms of this size are now signing up is indicative of the fact that it has now proved its worth.

Philip Martin, business development manager for Nucleus, said: "To have more than 270 individual advisers - including The Fry Group's extensive team - using the Nucleus platform within 18 months of launch is a tremendous achievement. It demonstrates a clear demand among top-end advisers for a truly independent platform that ensures they remain in total control."