Selestia co-founder Vasilieff to launch new Novia wrap

Bill Vasilieff, ex sales and marketing director at Selestia, is set to launch a new wealth management platform called Novia later this year.

The platform is primarily backed by structured finance firm Future Capital Partners and also has individual support from two Matrix Securities directors, chairman David Royds and director Donald Mackinnon.

Its full name will be Novia Financial Plc but it will be known as Novia which is Latin for ‘new way’.

Custom built technology for the platform will be provided by Sydney-based InfoComp, which is the biggest provider of wrap technology in Australia.

Wrappers on Novia will be a General Investment Account, ISA, SIPP and an offshore bond which will be outsourced to a third party.

Charging structures will be announced nearer to the launch date and Vasilieff says although Novia will not be the cheapest platform in this space, charging will be competitive.

The platform is currently well into the ‘build phase’ and is doing deals with fund managers. It has a long term target of reaching £5bn within five years from launch.

Vasilieff comments: “There is an estimated £2trn of wrapable assets in the UK and we need under £1bn to break even.

“There is only one wrap taking business right now and that is Transact. None of the others are taking a huge amount of volume business. We are not looking for business from people like Transact as there is trillions locked up in old propositions such as with-profits and life funds which are not performing well and that money is going to move. That is where we see a lot of the money for Novia coming from.

“We see Novia as an evolution from what I was involved in at Selestia. There will be a few people from Selestia working on the platform but it is not another Selestia.”

“We think wrap is in its infancy and this year and next year IFAs will be making decisions about where to go from here as they are a bit confused as to how things have happened so far. We see the market going into the wrap space, which is really an administrative platform for advisers, rather than fund supermarkets which don't offer all the investment options such as ETFs and alternatives."

He says that although they are not actively seeking IFA investment in the platform, there could be options for advisers if they wanted a long term relationship with the wrap provider.

For more information contact Bill Vasilieff on: bill.vasilieff@novia-financial.co.uk and 07525 767276.