Gaining absolute control of your investments One of your independent financial adviser’s prime responsibilities is to help you increase and protect your wealth. To do that, they must have a thorough understanding of your personal circumstances, your financial goals and your attitude to risk. They then use that knowledge to create an appropriate investment strategy for you. Once that strategy is agreed with you, they then select the investment vehicles which are best able to meet your objectives and reflect your views on risk and return. The development and implementation of your investment strategy is one aspect of the wealth creation process – the other is the on-going management of your invested assets.
Nothing is set in stone
Knowledge is all very well as far as it goes, but in the investment business the goal posts move daily. The pace of change can be fast and furious: economies boom and bust, fledgling and established fund managers launch new funds, funds merge, different asset classes and subclasses appear, managers move from one investment house to another and risk ratings are adjusted. Although it can be both intellectually taxing and time-consuming, your IFA is duty bound to inform their clients if they feel that any of these developments could positively or indeed negatively affect their interests. In a fastchanging and crowded environment, how best can they do that while keeping their attention firmly on each investor’s particular interests?
More choice, more attention In the past, the majority of private investors owned no more than a handful of investments. A unit trust or two, a pension (invested in a managed fund) and some Isas. That’s no longer the case. Many clients understand the attractions associated with a diversified portfolio and are spreading their capital across more asset classes and in more investments than ever before. As a result, it takes more time and effort to monitor the performance of each investment and the portfolio’s performance as a whole. However there’s no getting away from the fact that once established, a portfolio must be monitored. Your IFAs task was to find the most effective way of doing that.
The solution
After carrying out rigorous due diligence on the solutions available in the market, your IFA decided to integrate the Nucleus wrap platform into their service proposition. Nucleus offers you a consolidated view of your investments, which in turn makes it much easier for both you and your adviser to monitor and understand how your portfolio is performing.
Who are Nucleus? Nucleus was established in 2006 to help private investors in the management of their wealth and long term financial plans. It is based on the knowledge that the central relationship is between you the client, and the adviser, and that everything else is simply there to help support the goals you agree on. Nucleus was founded by a number of financial adviser businesses and continues to be majority owned and controlled by investing IFA firms. As a result of this, the future direction of the platform is determined by your IFA with their clients best interests in mind. Your IFAs shareholding in Nucleus neither influences in any way the investment advice we provide to you, nor does it diminish our regulatory responsibilities.
Your investments and product providers remain the same, they are simply stored in one place so that you have a holistic view of your investment portfolio.
Nucleus Financial Group Limited, Nucleus HQ, 22 Thistle Street Lane North West, Edinburgh, EH2 1BY
Tel: 0131 226 9800
Web: www. nucleusfinancial.com
What is a wrap?
The benefits for you
At its core a wrap is effectively a technologically advanced filing system for your long-term investments, it allows you to look at your investments as a whole and to assess their progress and value at a glance of a single screen online 24/7.
Holding all your different investments in one place allows you to quickly and easily check, via our website, how well each investment in your portfolio – and the portfolio as a whole – is doing. The consolidation facility, often referred to as a ‘wrap’ or a ‘platform’, provides you with other specific benefits such as:
Within the Nucleus wrap environment you can access over 3000 different investment funds from over 200 investment management companies. Using Nucleus is easier for your financial adviser than the historical model, and as a consequence they have more ability to focus on the key issues – building and managing the right investment solutions for you. Nucleus allows you to invest in six types of accounts to maximize the tax efficiency of your investments. • • • • • •
A General account for direct holdings An Isa account A Pension account A Protected Rights Pension (PR) account An Offshore Bond account An Onshore Bond account
Exclusivity The platform is owned and managed by Nucleus. Because the majority of Nucleus’ shareholders are firms of IFAs, the future direction of the platform will be determined by those firms with their clients’ best interests in mind. Not every IFA has access to the Nucleus platform. In fact, for an IFA to be able to use it, the firm is required to purchase a relatively small number of shares in Nucleus Financial Services Limited. As stated earlier, your IFA’s shareholding in Nucleus neither influences in any way the investment advice they provide to you, nor does it diminish their regulatory responsibilities.
• It’s easier to transact – once your investments are in place, it’s quick and easy to make additional investments or change existing investments • A complete overview – having all your investments in one spot can help clarify your understanding of your investment strategy. • It’s more efficient – you will be able to see the current value of each of your investments at any time of the day or night, 365 days a year • Any charges associated with using the Nucleus wrap are completely transparent; the total charge to a client consists of three elements: - the Nucleus wrap charge - the cost of the assets - the cost of financial advice, agreed in advance • Greater flexibility – assets can be sold or removed from the platform at any time and without financial penalty by Nucleus • Less paperwork – you will receive one statement every six months direct from Nucleus which will tell you how all your investments are performing. We will also provide any additional statements you require, including consolidated income and capital gains tax statements for tax return purposes • Economies of scale – the platform’s purchasing power can attract discounts on initial and annual management charges, savings which are passed on to you • Better investment portfolio organization – your investments can be segmented across the various tax wrappers available and this helps you to maximize the tax efficiency of your investments.
Nucleus Financial Group Limited, Nucleus HQ, 22 Thistle Street Lane North West, Edinburgh, EH2 1BY
Tel: 0131 226 9800
Web: www. nucleusfinancial.com
More about wraps Prior to wraps it took a considerable amount of time to analyse a client’s different holdings and prepare accurate and up to date portfolio valuation and asset allocation reports; the Nucleus wrap enables us (and you) to do that in just a few minutes, saving time and reducing costs. The Nucleus wrap makes it significantly easier to analyse your portfolio by value, taxation status, product type and by overall and individual asset allocation. Furthermore, you can buy, sell and adjust holdings quickly and easily whenever you wish to do so.
Isa
Fund group C
Isa
Isa
Fund group D
Fund group B
Insurance company D
eam Inco e str m om tion and pa e s c n ica pe un
INVESTMENT BOND
PENSION
Insurance company A
Income strea am etween m In clie tre ork b n rw
stream Income me p co FA and roduct st p t, I
Complicated paperwork Disparate income streams Difficult to review Harder to apply a cohesive investment approach
Isa
Fund group A
CLIENT
Income strea m am Com I re vider m ro
The legacy model
INVESTMENT BOND
PROTECTED RIGHTS PENSION
Insurance company C
EQUITY PORTFOLIO
CASH
Building society A
PENSION
Insurance company B
CASH Bank A
CLIENT
The new model
Communication and paperwork between client, IFA and product provider
Consolidated in one place Greater transparency of costs Analysis of asset allocation Improved investment returns
Income stream
WRAP platform
Cash
Nucleus Financial Group Limited, Nucleus HQ, 22 Thistle Street Lane North West, Edinburgh, EH2 1BY
Direct
Isa
Tel: 0131 226 9800
Bond
Pension
Web: www. nucleusfinancial.com