Third Financial wins Lulworth Investment Partners as custody client
Third Financial, the technology-led platform specialist within the Nucleus Group, has been selected by Lulworth Investment Partners as its custody and platform partner. The agreement, conducted under Third Financial's Model B proposition, covers full custody and platform services for Lulworth's high-net-worth client base.
Lulworth is a founder-led discretionary investment management firm established by Harry Sevier, who spent more than 15 years at Ruffer LLP as Partner and Investment Director. The firm is built around an unconstrained investment approach, personal client service and a performance-linked fee structure: where it fails to meet a client's mandate objectives, it reduces its fees. That commercial model places particular demands on operational infrastructure, as bespoke reporting, flexible portfolio construction and rapid client onboarding are all prerequisites.
Third Financial said the authorisation and implementation process ran from initial agreement to live onboarding in three months, a turnaround it attributed to close collaboration during the FCA authorisation process.
Harry Sevier, Head of Investment at Lulworth Investment Partners, said: "From the very first meeting, the team at Third demonstrated a clear understanding of our business and ambitions. Their support enabled us to move quickly from our initial agreement through authorisation and implementation in just three months, giving us confidence that we had the right foundations in place as we began onboarding clients."
The Model B proposition
Third Financial's Model B offering is aimed at discretionary investment managers and wealth management businesses that want direct control over the client experience without building proprietary custody infrastructure. Under the model, the firm handles the regulated custody, settlement and operational backbone while the investment manager retains full control over portfolio construction and client communications. This contrasts with the more common white-label or agency custody arrangements offered by larger platform providers, where client-facing flexibility is typically more constrained.
Ricky Ali, Commercial Director at Third Financial, said the win reflected confidence in both the proposition and the broader backing of the Nucleus Group, which administers £117 billion of investments on behalf of approximately 251,000 UK customers across the Nucleus Platform, Nucleus Wrap and its SIPP and SSAS businesses via Curtis Banks and Talbot and Muir.
Market context
The UK discretionary investment management sector has seen a wave of boutique launches over the past three years, as experienced investment professionals leave established multi-family offices and large wealth managers to build founder-led firms. These businesses require custody and platform infrastructure from day one but are rarely large enough to negotiate bespoke terms with tier-one custodians. That creates a structural opportunity for mid-market platform specialists.
Third Financial competes in a segment that includes Pershing, SEI and a range of FCA-authorised boutique custodians. The Nucleus Group's ownership provides capital backing and cross-group technology from Dunstan Thomas, potentially differentiating it from smaller standalone competitors. For Lulworth, which has positioned its performance-linked fee model as a point of differentiation, the operational credibility of a regulated, well-capitalised custodian is also a client-facing selling point. Neither party disclosed contract value or assets under administration at launch.