Nucleus Financial Reviews 

You haven't sorted my issue yet so it's a bit premature to be asking for a review. I've been waiting since March.

Who is Emma? What does she achieve?

Reading the dozens of complaints here it is obvious Emma is employed ( probably contracted) by Nucleus to try to preserve their image.
Nucleus outsourced their systems and payments to a multi national- FNZ. The switch from real people in the payments department at James Hay to this outsourced company has failed badly.
It is time for the CEO or Chairman to apologise to all pensioners in the middle of this meltdown. They Must address this, and get a human to redesign their useless unworkable website.
Or do they care?
Maybe Emma can tell us!!!!!

This review is being sent from the USA where I am once again located supporting a family member under going medical treatment. Nucleus is aware of this .
On June 10, 2026 I LOGGED into my Nucleus Account BUT DID NOT RECEIVE THE AUTHENTICATION EMAIL FOR WHICH I REQUESTED A RESEND. I NOW SEE A MESSAGE THAT " MY ACCOUNT IS LOCKED OUT BECAUSE OF NUMEROUS INCORRECT PASSWARD ATTEMPTS". THAT STATEMENT IS N O T C O R R E C T I was logged in but did not receive the email authentication message. I have sent 3 messages to NUCLEUS and each time received their AUTO reply da da large volumes etc and I can expect a response within 48 hours. I am still unable to LOGIN to my account in conditions that most professional market commentators would describe as extremely uncertain and volatile. There are no words to describe the absolutely abysmal customer service from NUCLEUS. I won't deal with it here but I still have my complaint of MARCH 12, 2026 still unresolved. This complaint I will now appeal to the Pension Ombudsman.

This is the worst platform around. I have been trying for 5 months to transfer my pension to a new platform and have experienced delay after delay. To make the transfer easy, I actually sold all my investments and moved them into two simple tracker funds but this has made no difference. I call them regularly to chase but no-one is able or willing to help. I have complained to the Nucleus CEO and issued a formal complaint. After 8 weeks they hadn't even completed reviewing my complaint so I have now escalated to the Pensions Ombudsman.

They recently even had the audacity to charge me an annual fee for 2026/27 three months after I served notice to move to a new platform. They recently moved to a new platform/re-branded themselves, so I don't know whether they are having systems issues.

Given how slow and incompetent they are, I would suggest that they re-brand themselves as HS2 rather than Nucleus!

AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Had my SIPP with James Hay for years.
Nucleus new system/ website has been awful.
A transfer which started in October 25 is still incomplete and communication has been virtually non existent.
Promises of a resolution have proved worthless.
They even suggested that I went to the Ombudsman because they failed to meet their own deadline for a response to my complaint
They have real problems.

Further to my previous reviews, Nucleus have maintained their 1 star standard.
It is now 9 months to the day when Nucleus (then James Hay) were requested to transfer my pension monies to an Assurance company, so that I could set up an Annuity. 10th Sept 2025. All I have ever asked is: “When are you going to transfer my money to the Assurance company?”
Emma from Nucleus did reply to a previous review to request my details. These were sent on the 29th April and I got a message back from Customer Services saying that they have raised a complaint. I have not made a complaint, just asked 1 question - as above.
Emma has since replied to my next post, “please send us your details”.
So, as suspected, we are no further on.
To be fair, responses although poor, do happen. Action however - is diabolical. No one knows what’s going on and details are lost over & over again.
Richard Rowney CEO doesn’t respond to anything.
Just answer my question please:
When are you going to transfer my money to the Assurance company?
Am I looking a 1 years wait to get my own money transferred over ? I will update on this platform in due course.

If a company can't handle a basic enquiry I am not in the least surprised it can't deal with annuity & drawdown payments.
My personal experience has led me to withdraw & transfer all funds.I will not be the only one.

Am still waiting for my draw down payment. Was told it would be last Wednesday, nothing. A week has passed no word from them. Now told it might be next Wednesday two weeks later. They had my request in early May but just sat on it, found out my bank details I sent them had not arrived? But failed to inform me.
I have requested Fisher find me an alternative financial company as it looks like they are disorganised. Staff were generally polite though but no one could give me a pay out date?

Efficiency and promptness of your staff.

After emailing you, with a question regarding my account, all i got back was this asking how you did with my inquiry, without any answer

Firstly I would like to say that the staff I have spoken to ( many times) have been nothing but polite and have tried their hardest to be helpful, and deserve credit for that.
However it is now it is now 4 months since they should have made a payment to me, notwithstanding I am on their vulnerable list following hospitalisation. They have offered and transferred agreed compensation, but not the sum originally requested, of which they had notice in December 2025. Twice before February 2026 at my request I was told everything was in order and no further information was required - which they have acknowledged as true. Today they tell me they have difficulty making overseas transfers even though they are transferring to a sterling account. The inefficiency of their system and the absence of communication is appalling.

I would give this company zero stars if I could. My husband has been waiting since September 2025 to have his funds transferred to another provider from previously James Hay, and now Nucleus. Ring them weekly same old response - no managers available no idea of timescale. Absolutely useless company . Feel sorry for the poor admin who are left to bull shit everyone trying to get information about their investments. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! A formal complaint was sent to nucleus on the 28th April, 2 responses received staying they haven't been able to provide a full response. Don't hold out much hope they'll resolve anything within the 8 weeks time period so will definitely be escalating this to the ombudsman at the end of this month. Can't believe you have to wait 8 weeks when a company holds money you desperately need to live in .

26.06.26 review
Since writing my earlier review things have got nowhere.
Put in a written complaint, 8 weeks almost us the company nucleus have advised us to make an application to the pension ombudsman,, due to an increase in complaints, they are not able to provide any response!
Also , despite my husband ringing every 10 days, each time being told they will send out chasers , guess what, they haven't done this. Only one chaser has been sent out in the whole 6 months we have attempted to get this sorted
Chaser lady sent back in May. Admin obviously tell lies despite trying to assure us they would get things moving for us ! Can't change the date in this review only allowed me to put 03.06.26

Spoke to Hannah, today. Brilliant, she knew the answers to my questions, elaborated where appropriate. I got straight through, and the call was very helpful. I have to say my experience of nucleus has been excellent, on the few occasions I have needed to call. Today Hannah was especially helpful. thank you

Transfer out information provided to the new scheme was incorrect and subsequent complaint remains outstanding.

They do not carry out your inatructions Very poor responces for information on your sipp investments.

My experience was NOT great - in fact the opposite. Nucleus insist on passing their responsibility to provide valuations and other policy info back onto the financial adviser - the entity that provides them with their business in the first place. No other company I deal with in obtaining policy info takes this stance and it thoroughly upsets the advisers. Even when there is not a financial adviser involved they grumble about performing their responsibility and take an age to perform it.

We sent a secure message request on 23rd January, we have chased every month since and despite the initial acknowledgement have had no further response from you. Today we tried calling, you would not put the call through to the relevant department, would only take a message, which would take 10 working days to respond, despite us already waiting over 4 months.

I started my tax return for 25/26 year. I needed my tax certificate from Nucleus and sent a request but email.
To my surprise the response stated, fairly bluntly, that since I had a financial advisor, I should ask him!

Your customer representative (Martha) was excellent, she explained that there would be some delay in receiving the funds from my drawdown account with Equilibrium.