Platform upgrade news
Find out what's new
Giving you more time - helping you work efficiently
We're introducing a range of powerful online self-service tools designed to help improve efficiency and give you more time to focus on your clients.
Product improvements
Improved investment opportunities
Alongside our new product offerings, we've upgraded our investment options:
- Expanded model portfolios:
Whether models are managed on a discretionary or advisory basis, you will be able to select cash and ETIs (alongside funds) within the models, hold multiple models at the same time for a client’s product, and hold other assets alongside a model. - Integrated stockbroking service:
The platform features a share-dealing service, giving you an efficient and transparent way to manage your clients' needs. - More choice:
A wide selection of UK ETIs (e.g. ETFs) are now available, giving you far more options for your clients. - Cash panel:
Bondsmith will provide access to an extensive range of fixed term deposit accounts for our SIPP, and these will also now be available through our GIA. Any existing cash panel holding will be transferred.
Updated terms and conditions
After upgrading to the Nucleus Platform, new terms and conditions will apply. If your clients don’t wish to change to our new terms for any reason, they have the option to transfer out. If we’re unable to complete the transfer of their products before they’re upgraded to our new platform, we’ll honour the existing terms and conditions while the transfer is completed.
We no longer apply exit fees when a customer chooses to leave any of our products. Charges for transferring a property do, however, continue to apply.
Our key changes summary documents outline what’s changed. We’ll provide the relevant document to your clients.
Keeping you informed
We're here to support you and your clients every step of the way, ensuring the upgrade is as smooth as possible.
To keep you informed, we’ll be sending you a series of emails as the upgrade approaches, highlighting all the essential information you need as we prepare for the future on the new platform. Please look out for them and take time to read as they’ll help you get ready for the upcoming changes.
Keeping your clients up-to-date
We’re going to send your upgrading clients a series of letters – as outlined below. We’ll let you know in advance when they’ll receive them.
With the first letter we'll include a key changes summary document and new charges schedule, and signpost to further support materials online. These have been tested with customers and are expertly designed to help your clients understand what the change means for them. However, they may naturally want to check some of the details with you - so we’ve suggested they speak to you in the first instance.
If you’d prefer they contact us, that’s ok too - our contact details are on all our communications.
You’ll also be able to view what we’ve sent to your clients on James Hay Online shortly after each letter has been posted.
Welcoming new clients
We're proactively communicating with everyone who’ll be affected by the change.
New customers joining us between now and the upgrade will also need to be introduced to these changes.
New customers may receive their letters slightly later than existing customers.
Dates and actions
We’ll be moving both your and your clients’ records to the Nucleus Platform. We’ll confirm exactly when soon.
Once the Nucleus Platform is live, all your clients’ records for the last five years will be available there, apart from our Partnership SIPP, IPS SIPP products and a very small number of other SIPPs. These will continue to be accessible through James Hay Online. View details of products not upgrading on our FAQs page.
Key dates
There’ll be some short-term changes to our standard service in the weeks before the upgrade to ensure the process is as smooth as possible. We aim to keep these to a minimum and will confirm the timings and detail here soon.
We'll add alerts to James Hay Online to highlight the upgrade dates and service interruptions. We expect James Hay Online to be unavailable over the upgrade weekend
Important changes and actions for you to note
Some of these changes and actions won't be available to implement until you and your clients have been upgraded to the new platform - but we wanted to make sure you're aware of them so you know what to expect and can prepare ahead of the upgrade.
Before the upgrade, and if you haven't done so in the last year, ensure you and your clients login to James Hay Online. This will make your first login to the new Nucleus Platform as smooth as possible.
If you’ve got a James Hay Online account:
- when you first log into it after the upgrade to access a product that’s now on the Nucleus Platform, you’ll be redirected to the new platform to set up new user credentials.
- a small number of customers will have products on both platforms after the upgrade and these should be managed on the relevant system.
- should your client have both a product that’s being upgraded to the new platform, and one that isn’t – you’ll be asked at that time whether you wish to remain on James Hay Online or proceed to set up access to the new Nucleus Platform.
The same journeys will apply for your clients.
When setting up access to the Nucleus Platform a username will be generated for you which you’ll need to keep a note of.
You’ll also be asked to provide your email address and mobile phone number as part of our improved platform security. We’ll send you a one-time password (OTP) by text message to verify your identity. Whenever you access the Nucleus Platform after this, you’ll receive an email message to confirm your identity. You’ll only be asked to validate who you are once in a 24-hour period.
Your clients will follow a similar process – although OTPs will always be sent to them by text message.
On the new platform, your client will have a new account number which will replace existing James Hay reference numbers. After the upgrade, we’ll write to your client to provide details of their new customer number and account number/s. You’ll find copies of these letters on the platform.
New bank accounts, with new payment references, will be in place for use with the new platform. This means that following the upgrade, payments to us will need to be paid into these new accounts to avoid any delays. It’s important that the new payment references are used as they will allow auto matching.
Full account details will be provided in the letter we send to your client after the upgrade. You’ll also be able to view these details on your client platform records.
Temporary arrangements will be in place to transfer payments into the new accounts if necessary.
Following the upgrade, the name that’ll appear on client bank statements for non-pension direct debit payments (JISA/ISA or GIA) will be Nucleus Financial Services Ltd.
Direct debits: All active direct debit arrangements will be automatically transferred to minimise disruption. Any temporarily suspended direct debits will need to be set up again. This also applies to employer contributions and third-party payments.
On the Nucleus Platform, you'll enjoy much greater flexibility, with the ability to select income payment dates from the 1st to the 28th of the month. After the upgrade, changes can be easily requested, by you or your client, to ensure the timing of payments is as desired.
In the future, drawdown will be managed on the Nucleus Platform, allowing you to set up new arrangements and make changes to existing ones online.
Customers wishing to enter drawdown can do so via a paper-based process rather than directly through the platform.
On the new platform, all customer correspondence will be sent directly to them – there’s no option to send it to a third party such as yourself or a solicitor.
Your clients will initially be set up to receive paper-based communications from us. If they have an online account, and would prefer, they can opt to hear from us electronically. We’ll then send them email notifications when there’s new correspondence to read in their document library. They'll receive most of their updates sooner online and help us save paper.
For regulatory or legal reasons, certain correspondence has to be sent by post, so these will still be issued as paper copies.
You can easily select this option for them after the upgrade.
How this affects you - important info
New Terms of Business and Remuneration Policy
As you start your new journey with the Nucleus Platform, you’ll be asked to accept our new Terms of Business and Remuneration Policy, which have been significantly streamlined.
Under our new Terms of Business, you'll now be working with Nucleus Financial Services. We'll write to you about this in the coming weeks.
Adviser charges on the Nucleus Platform
We're giving you more control. You’ll be able to request adviser charges or edit them yourself online. Plus:
Adviser models – new functionality
When managing models, advisers can use the model reporting tool to track the model against target. The Nucleus Platform has a smart new feature which allows you to set up auto rebalancing based on frequency, tolerance, or both.
User control and customisation
Following the upgrade, on the Nucleus Platform your firm will experience self-service control.
You can designate a Master user with special account privileges to manage user access and assign roles to your team. This provides you with more control over your data and the ability to tailor access to your business needs.
The table below illustrates the roles and functions available:
| Role 1 | Master user - Full edit and view rights and the ability to add/amend/remove users in the adviser firm |
|---|---|
| Role 2 | Full edit and view rights BUT no ability to add/amend/remove users in the adviser firm |
| Role 3 | Can run reports available on adviser portal, can add/amend/remove users in the adviser firm with everything else read only |
| Role 4 | Edit and view rights in the adviser portal for everything but cannot trade, set up new benefit events or write new business (but can illustrate for new business) and cannot add/amend/remove users in the adviser firm |
| Role 5 | Read only rights with ability to run reports available on the adviser portal |
| Role 6 | Edit and view rights in the adviser portal for everything but cannot trade and cannot add/amend/remove users in the adviser firm |
Setting your firm up on the Nucleus Platform
We’ll set up your adviser firm records based on our understanding of your company structure. Please tell us about any specific setup requirements through our sales operation team.
Adviser back-office integrations
Following the upgrade, a new Nucleus Platform data feed will sit alongside the existing Nucleus Wrap and James Hay data feeds.
We've collaborated with back-office software providers to ensure continuity of data flow once the upgrade is complete.
We’ll provide specific guidance for each provider here shortly.
If you’ve any specific questions, please contact your provider directly.
Data relating to Partnership SIPP products will continue to be available through the James Hay data feed and the Nucleus Wrap data feed will remain unchanged.
Do you currently have adviser fees owed to you over the period September 2023 to September 2024?
Please be aware that typically if an adviser charge on a client’s product isn’t paid within 90 days of the payment due date because insufficient funds are available in the client’s product bank account, the payment will be cancelled.
However, in the lead up to our platform upgrade we have extended this window to allow action to be taken on outstanding adviser charges back to September 2023.
If this situation applies to you, please arrange for sufficient cash to be made available within your client’s product bank account, so that we can make the appropriate payment.
You can check whether any outstanding charges are owed to you by logging into James Hay Online and navigating to Tools > Adviser charges.
If we don’t hear from you, we’ll assume that all fees due have been collected by separate means.
Any such fees that remain on our system after 30 November will be cleared, in line with our adviser payment settlement terms.
If you have any questions about this, please contact your Business Development Manager.
Supporting you
Access valuable upgrade resources
We're committed to making sure your upgrade to the Nucleus Platform is as smooth as possible.
Here's how we’re supporting you and your clients:
Adviser Help Hub: Here you’ll find:
- a wealth of information and resources.
- up-to-date information on important dates.
- Coming soon - helpful guides and videos that explain how the Nucleus Platform works.
Product literature
Visit our literature library for all of the forms and guides you’ll need to manage your clients’ products following the upgrade.
Customer upgrade support
A dedicated web page is available to support your clients throughout the upgrade, providing them with the information they need. Please encourage your clients to make use of these resources.
