Novia Financial to cut platform charges from January

Private equity-backed adviser platform Novia Financial will cut platform charges starting from 1 January 2023. 

The reduction will see the headline rates paid by a typical Novia client, with between £100,000 and £200,000 on the platform, reduced from 0.50% to 0.30% and 0.35% respectively for firms with over and under £10m of assets on the platform, it said.

The new charges will be applied to new and existing clients. Under the new terms, a customer with a £150,000 portfolio would have paid an annual platform charge of £750 and will now pay £450 where the adviser firm holds more than £10m of assets under administration (AUA) on the Novia platform (£525 for those firms holding up to £10m of AUA).

The minimum fee is to be increased from £75 to £100 from 1 January 2023 and will only apply to clients with small portfolios paying less than £8.33 per month.

This is the first pricing change since its launch in 2008 and demonstrates Novia Financial chief executive (CEO) Patrick Mill's drive to focus on value for money, it said.

Mill said: "We've been preparing the ground to position Novia for what we believe is a third era for platforms, differentiating on true digitisation and deeper connectivity. Running alongside our investment in technology and work on microservices, has been a review of pricing strategy focusing on value and transparency.

"We've always taken a sustainable and responsible approach to price which means we aim to strike the right balance between offering great value for money for customers while continuing to invest in our technology, our service, and our people to help create efficiencies within adviser businesses. I'm pleased to say that we're now in a position to share the benefit of our increased scale by reducing our standard platform charge and simplifying our charging model."

In May last year, private equity firm AnaCap acquired Novia for an undisclosed fee, and Novia will be unified with AnaCap-owned platform Wealthtime under a single group rebrand this year as part of the final stage of a strategic review spurred by that purchase, the company said.

Following this acquisition, long-time Novia CEO Bill Vasilieff was replaced in the role by Mill, who joined the firm from Wealthtime, where he has been CEO since AnaCap acquired the firm in December 2019.