Nucleus is on a mission to be the UK's leading adviser platform, through a significant investment in technology, service, propositions and people, its chief executive has said.
Richard Rowney, who took over as CEO in 2021 after James Hay's acquisition of Nucleus, told FTAdviser he has made it his "mission" to drive changes that will truly support all advisers, from the smallest traders to the largest advice companies.
As part of this, he has pledged to continue to improve the platform proposition, bring on new staff and complete the integration of Curtis Banks into the group.
According to Rowney, the private equity backing provided by HPS, which bought a majority stake in Nucleus in March 2022, has enabled the platform provider to invest millions in developing and expanding its service.
If your tech is so out of date that it is uncompetitive, you end up losing out and could face issues of operational resilience.Richard Rowney, Nucleus"We have already invested £20mn in upgrading our service, proposition and pricing over the past 12-18 months. We have also been able to recruit more than 200 people over that time - completely aside from the people we acquired with James Hay or Curtis Banks."
He said these were new roles created across the business in 2022 and 2023, such as front-line staff, technology professionals, data and risk management specialists.
"Whenever there are acquisitions and mergers, redundancies and people losses can be one of the big stories. It certainly was a headline when we bought James Hay - but in totality we only made about 10 people redundant.
"We are a business focused on growth and investing for the future, and that means recruiting and retaining some of the very best people in the profession."
Confidence
According to Rowney, this will also help give confidence for more advisers to place clients with Nucleus. "Over the long term, service and proposition and talent are absolutely critical.
"We want advisers to feel that the service they are getting and the relationships they have with our people are second to none."
He previously told FTAdviser he was not averse to considering another acquisition if it were to be giving Nucleus something extra, but he said building the platform was the main focus.
"Any company can try to compete on size. Now I like having competition, but I want advisers to know that their clients are safe, that we are financially resilient and well capitalised.
"Advisers want to deal with a company that will continue to be around in 20, 30 and 40 years. This is our sole focus, and I do not want to get distracted by anything other than to be the UK's leading adviser platform.
"I am not even concerned with competing on assets under administration".
The work being done with tech provider FNZ on the technology upgrades is vital. Rowney called platform tech a "big industry challenge".
He added: "Building tech platforms can cost tens of millions of pounds and take time. It is one of the big challenges for those who run on proprietary technology.
"Analysts question the amount of tech debt that is being built up because at some point, some providers will have to replatform some very old technology and we've seen in the past how this has proved problematic for some industry players.
"But if your tech is so out of date that it is uncompetitive, then you end up losing out and you face issues of operational resilience.
"Thankfully we have already got a good platform and are still winning business but our aim is to get this new platform built for James Hay early on in 2024.
"We will launch in a way that is friendly to advisers."
He said some advisers have been actively testing the platform build, and the company expects the new platform to be ready in the first half of 2024.
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
