MM Meets… Nick Raine, CEO, Söderberg & Partners Wealth Management: ‘Concentrate on what you do best’

Nick Raine is not easily fazed by challenges. He regards them as opportunities. In fact, his professional career is a testament to his ability to bounce back from difficulties.

The chief executive of Söderberg & Partners Wealth Management has faced several bouts of redundancy since he started out with AXA in 2002. He left that role to join Burns Anderson, an IFA network that was later sold to Money Portal.

Raine’s first foray into the platform sector was with an Australian investment firm, Macquarie Group, which was launched in the UK in 2010. After 18 months, the Sydney-based firm pulled out of the UK platform market.

We’re here to invest in businesses and help them grow

Raine then joined Close Brothers, a UK merchant-banking group, to launch a direct-to-consumer platform. He moved to the group’s offices in Northwich, Cheshire. After a few years with the company, he was made redundant.

A short hiatus followed, but he was soon recruited by platform tech provider Novia. Raine spent nine years with Novia — his longest stint thus far — until the business was sold to AnaCap in 2021, upon which he was made redundant yet again.

Fortunately, Raine has an upbeat outlook on life. He has a genial and friendly disposition, and his approach to adversity is to look on the positive side.

“You feel that things are happening around you,” he says. “But I do think [redundancy is] an opportunity — one door closes, another door opens.

“You can either take it in a negative way and think, ‘Someone doesn’t want me,’ or be positive and say, ‘Someone else can have me.’ I’m in the latter camp.”

Concentrate on the things you do well and excel in those

Raine’s mental strength and fortitude have stood him in good stead, eventually carrying him to the top of the corporate greasy pole.

Six months after departing from Novia he started his own consultancy firm, working with some of the leading investment platforms, including Söderberg & Partners, a Swedish wealth manager that was in the process of launching a platform in the UK.

“Söderberg had looked at the UK platform market for opportunity. They saw lots of potential,” says Raine. “They asked me to look at some of the decisions they’d made and some of the technology they’d looked to invest in or partner with.”

Ambitious task

Following his assessment, Raine was hired alongside Bill Vasilieff, the platform pioneer and former Novia CEO — who has since died — to build the Söderberg UK platform proposition.

The duo set out on their ambitious task to build “the best adviser platform” in the UK.

“The remit is to grow the platform business,” says Raine.

We’re on that growth curve now. We’re not where we want to be

He relished the challenge of starting with a blank canvas.

“I’ve spent 14 years in platforms, and you always inherit decisions that were made before you. This was an opportunity to start from scratch — a blank piece of paper so I could put all those lessons into play. It’s happened that way so far.”

Söderberg & Partners is not yet a household name in the UK, although it is a leading wealth manager in Scandinavia and administers over £80bn of clients’ investments. The firm, led by Gustaf Rentzhog, employs 3,000 people in seven countries.

Its UK subsidiary, Söderberg & Partners Wealth Management, was launched in 2023 as part of its expansion into the lucrative UK platform market.

The UK business model includes an adviser platform and back-office system, as well as an acquisition strategy that involves buying small stakes in advice firms. Söderberg has invested in more than 20 UK advice businesses and is on course to sign up more firms.

How do you say no to books of business and just say, ‘That’s not right for us, you should go with somebody else’?

Söderberg prefers to view itself as an aggregator rather than a consolidator.

“We’re here to invest in businesses and help them grow. We will allow our firms to be more efficient, service more clients, reduce the cost of advice and hopefully provide outcomes across the board,” says Raine.

He explains that the firm is attuned to its goal of creating an efficient platform system that helps advisers get the right client outcomes. Educating advisers, he adds, is one component of that system.

“We’ve been used to how platforms have operated in the last however many years,” he says.

“When something new comes along, it takes a slightly different view and mindset to understand those things.

“I think that’s the education we’re going through now. I’m literally in the middle of writing something that we’re going to pass out to help with that.

There will be more consolidation in the market, for sure

“It’s looking at not just the cheapest rate I can possibly get on platform but does the platform handle all my processes, transactions and productions efficiently and digitally, rather than needing any manual intervention or client signature or interaction.

“If we can do that, everything happens quicker and therefore clients get better outcomes.”

Platform tech

Söderberg currently partners with Octopus-owned Seccl for its platform technology. The platform tech provider was selected because of its speed to market, ease of connectivity and ability to plug into different software systems.

Raine says new players such as Seccl have transformed the platform sector by creating a competitive environment.

We will allow our firms to be more efficient, service more clients, reduce the cost of advice

“If you’ve got monopolies, it’s obviously a bad thing. You have three big players that are driving the market.”

He thinks the platform sector, despite making strides in the past 20 years, has created a situation “where average has always been acceptable”.

He says the sector has been heavily reliant on three big technology providers whose legacy tech issues have affected efficiency and service delivery.

“Their technology tends to be a waterfall approach, with big releases,” says Raine.

“The new players, on the other hand, are much nimbler and can release things more quickly. It’s built on infrastructure that is more modern and that allows things to happen much more fluidly.”

AI won’t supersede anything — there will always be human intervention and interaction

He continues: “We’re in a position where those new technologies can make an adviser’s life more efficient. But, more importantly, it can give a better outcome to clients.

“What you get to see is that a client’s portfolio can maximise itself much more readily than it can with some of the existing tech, which needs a lot of manual intervention. That’s the core of what we’re doing and then building out from there.”

He predicts more tech-driven vertical integrations in the platform sector.

“What we’ll see over the next 18 months-plus is platforms being more heavily integrated into back-office systems or cashflow systems, and then maybe advisers bringing down the number of platforms that they utilise, so they can drive those efficiencies more deeply into their business,” he says.

Söderberg has signed partnership deals with tech firms such as Plannr and Morpheus Wealth, to receive back-office services and performance-reporting tools respectively.

When something new comes along, it takes a slightly different view and mindset to understand those things

Raine thinks technology should address the systemic issues that have dogged the platform sector for years.

“There’s going to be more of a focus on how those technologies speak to each other more fluently, and how they help the advice process from cradle to grave rather than just look at each part,” he says.

Raine adds that, despite the advances in platform technology, the sector still grapples with perennial issues such as delays in transfer and lack of integration.

“Transfer is a big challenge for the sector. It’s one that’s very difficult to resolve because there are so many moving parts. I know Origo and ATG are there, but not everyone signed up to that.

“There’s a problem in terms of getting everybody aligned and wanting to move to an electronic basis, which I think is almost impossible.

This was an opportunity to start from scratch — a blank piece of paper so I could put all those lessons into play

“You’ve got some closed shops out there that are just winding down, so they’re probably never going to engage.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been touted as a possible panacea to systemic issues in the sector, but Raine doesn’t see it as a silver bullet.

“We’re utilising AI in some of the tooling we’re providing, and I think it will make life easier,” he notes.

“But it won’t supersede anything — there will always be human intervention and interaction. It’s another one of those tools that will help push the industry forward. It’s evolution rather than revolution.”

When asked if the platform market is overcrowded, Raine replies that there is always space for new players.

“I don’t think ‘overcrowded’ is the right word. There are some [platforms] that have gone and some new ones that have come. There will be more consolidation in the market, for sure.

The remit is to grow the platform business

“If you look at the assets in the UK, there’s enough to go around and there’s enough space for everybody. But I think maybe one of the problems is that platforms over time have tried to be everything to everyone.

“So, how do you pick your spot in the market? That’s probably the challenge.

“How do you say no to books of business and just say, ‘That’s not right for us, you should go with somebody else’?

“Concentrate on the things you do well and excel in those.”

A good vision

Raine is taking his own advice. He says the team at Söderberg are focused on achieving the company’s goal of building a successful platform business.

“We’ve got a very good vision here and everyone is aligned to get to the goal,” he says.

Söderberg had looked at the UK platform market for opportunity. They saw lots of potential

“We’re on that growth curve now. We’re not where we want to be. But we’ve got some good sessions in terms of big migrations coming up. We hope to end the year at £1bn-plus.”

Raine’s love of building stuff extends to his leisure time — for example, he builds Lego cars as a way to relax.

“I relax in one of two ways: either Lego, so I can just follow instructions and I don’t have to think about anything; or I get on my bike and go for a nice long ride out on the road with just my thoughts.”

The Bristol native also loves watching rugby and is a season-ticket holder.

“I like to go down to Ashton Gate when Bristol Bears are playing at home. A few beers and a bit of rugby keep me happy,” he says.

Raine is married but has no children. The couple used to have two dogs — a deaf Dalmatian and a Jack Russell, called Bob and Pippa — but both have sadly died.

Redundancy is an opportunity — one door closes, another door opens

“We know the days they went. But we gave them a good life. A bit like the redundancy issue, we take the positive.”

Taking the positives from challenging circumstances has been Raine’s mantra throughout his career. This resilience in the face of setbacks has served him well.

He’ll no doubt face more setbacks as Söderberg continues to grow at pace.

But, as leader of the pack, Raine — like his rugby idols — can spur his firm on to greater things.

This article featured in the March 2025 edition of Money Marketing. 

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