The founder and former chief executive of Novia, Bill Vasilieff, died over the weekend at the age of 68.
He was originally the founder of the Selestia platform in 2001, before founding Novia in 2007.
Vasilieff stepped back from Novia in 2021 after it had been bought by private equity firm AnaCap but he remained chairman of Novia Global.
Earlier this year Vasilieff re-entered the industry as chairman of the UK arm of Swedish wealth manager Söderberg & Partners.
Born in 1955, Vasilieff originally came into the industry in 1976 in a role that would now be called an IFA, although the term did not come into use until later.
He trained as an actuary in 1986 but quickly moved into marketing and worked for various life companies.
In 1993 he joined M&G and was involved in the creation of the original Cofunds platform.
Speaking to FTAdviser in 2021, Vasilieff said: “I worked on the original Cofunds for about four months, and then a colleague left, and a few other colleagues left to join him and create Selestia, which was a very early platform. It was backed by Old Mutual, and when they subsequently bought Skandia and decided to merge the two together, I set off to raise some money to launch a platform.”
Vasilieff was a critic of the consolidation latterly seen in the platform sector.
He said: "“When we launched Selestia, we were told there is only room for two platforms, but obviously that wasn’t the case. When I look at the wider market, I see there are 80 or 90 life insurance companies, and probably over 100 fund management firms, so why can’t there be 15 platforms?"
Vasilieff was a lifelong Bath Rugby supporter and raised considerable sums over the years for the Bath Rugby Foundation.
In 2013, Vasilieff took part in the Bath Half Marathon in aid of the Bath Rugby Foundation, aiming to raise £2,000 (pictured, above, right). He ended up getting the fastest time out of all those who took part from Novia.
He is survived by his wife, son and daughter.
Details of a memorial service will follow in due course.
Vasilieff's family have requested privacy at this time but you can send condolences, memories or any written tributes you would like to share to pippa@russellcommunications.co.uk.
