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The focus by such rival platforms on the IFA ownership structure of wraps like Nucleus’s “is a smokescreen designed to take attention away from the real conflict of interest” in the wrap industry, which was transparency, Nucleus said.

The Edinburgh-based company, which was founded in 2006 by a group of seven independent financial advisers and is now 51 per cent-owned by a consortium of 48 firms, did not identify the provider-led platforms it said had been critical of IFA-owned wraps.

However, it was understood they could include one or more of the major insurance giants, which have launched their own wrap platforms in recent years, while continuing to provide investment products for IFAs to sell to their clients.

Nucleus highlighted the major changes currently taking place in the market for such investment products as insurance policies and pensions.

A combination of pressure from the FSA, changes in tax regulations, and the emergence of the web-based technology that since about 2001 has made wraps like Nucleus’s possible is forcing IFAs as well as their investment product suppliers to change the way they do business in order not to risk being left behind.

In its statement, Nucleus said "rather than provider platforms questioning advisers over ownership" of their wrap platforms, those platforms critical of IFA-owned wraps should instead be providing advisers with clarity on a number of key issues.