Nucleus has announced three big changes that aim to benefit customers that use the James Hay platform.
In the first of the improvements, James Hay will start paying interest on its transactional cash account from July.
This is to give clients a greater return on their cash held with the platform as interest rates rise.
Money Marketing first reported on this feature in May 2022 when Nucleus said its newly created treasury function manages pooled cash across a panel of nine banks to maximise returns.
The rate customers will receive will fluctuate depending on the rates Nucleus is able to obtain through its actively managed treasury function.
According to Nucleus the initial rate is expected to be in the region of 1.5%.
The platform is also significantly revamping its cash panel, through a new partnership with Bondsmith.
This is the second upgrade and is for customers who want to lock their cash away for longer periods of time in exchange for higher rates of interest.
The new panel will provide access to a far wider range of competitive fixed term deposit and notice accounts.
The minimum deposit amount has been reduced from £25,000 to £1,000 to help more customers benefit from higher interest rates.
Finally Nucleus will axe the last remaining exit fees that applied to the following James Hay Online charge types:
| Transfer out charge to UK scheme |
| Transfer out charge to overseas scheme |
| Account closure charge |
| Annuity purchase charge |
| Modular ISA/GIA transfer out charge |
James Hay acquired Nucleus for £145m in February 2021 and the deal received regulatory approval in August of the same year.
The Nucleus name has been chosen as the brand for the combined company as it plans to create a retirement focused adviser platform.
Yesterday (20 April) it appointed a new chief risk officer Justin Tovey who joins from River and Mercantile Group.
Nucleus also bought Sipp provider Curtis Banks Group in January.
Nucleus chief commercial officer Alex Kovach said: “Whilst we’re busy developing our new platform, we are keen to use our new group’s scale to invest in our existing platform products, the service we provide, and the price customers pay. So, we’re very pleased to be able to make these three improvements for our James Hay Online customers.
“We believe we’ve got the balance right between offering an attractive rate of return on the short-term transactional cash account, whilst providing greater investment choice and flexibility for those seeking higher returns over longer periods of time.
“The removal of the final remaining exit fees from James Hay Online is an important step in our reforms. We don’t believe any customer should face unreasonable barriers to exit if they wish to leave, for whatever reason.”
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