Nucleus Wealth is an Australian investment fund that started in 2016. Nucleus Wealth offers significant points of difference in the way the fund invests for potential investors/clients, with the aim of providing a transparent and easy-to-understand investment solution.
Every client of Nucleus Wealth has their own bespoke portfolio of shares, bonds and cash held on a third party platform called Praemium in a Separately Managed Account (you will sometimes see this called an SMA). More information on Praemium and Separately Managed Accounts below.
Because the client has their own individual portfolio, they can individually tailor the account using 31 different ethical and portfolio tailoring options- from this, Nucleus Wealth can offer free investment advice on an appropriate portfolio for the client’s needs.
Nucleus Wealth predominantly operates online. Regularly updated blogs, reports, podcasts and articles are available on the company’s website, as well as calling and email services. The Nucleus Wealth client onboarding portal not only details every share and bond in the client’s portfolio, but more importantly why they are in the portfolio. While clients are welcome for an in-person visit at the Nucleus Wealth office, the company’s hope is that the unparalleled transparency and online investment support is enough to give clients all of the information needed to make investment choices.
Praemium is a platform that administers investments and performs trading of stocks on behalf of Nucleus Wealth clients.
Nucleus Wealth chose Praemium as its investment platform because Praemium is fully backed by global and local banks, such as JPMorgan, HSBC and ANZ, offering the gold standard for client asset protection.
A separately managed account (SMA) is a portfolio of individual securities managed on the client’s behalf by a professional asset management firm, such as Nucleus Wealth. Separately managed accounts offer the investor the benefits of direct share ownership. Dividends, distributions and franking credits are confined to the client’s account, whilst the client still has the hands off nature of a professionally managed investment solution. Separately managed accounts have been around for some time, and have grown in popularity in the last 5 years.
Individual – For clients looking to invest personal money in their own name (not in superannuation)
Personal Superannuation – For clients looking to rollover funds from their existing personal superannuation account, or looking to open a new account
Joint – For clients looking to invest personal money in the name of 2 people (e.g. the client and their partner)
Company – For clients looking to invest money in the name of a company they have control of
Trust with Individual Trustees – For clients looking to invest money in the name of a trust they control that has individual trustees
Trust with a Corporate Trustee – For clients looking to invest money in the name of a trust they control that has a corporate trustee
SMSF with Individual Trustees – For clients looking to invest money in the name of a Self Managed Super Fund they control that has individual trustees
SMSF with a Corporate Trustee – For clients looking to invest money in the name of a Self Managed Super Fund they control that has a corporate trustee
A self managed super fund (SMSF) is a superannuation trust structure that provides benefits to its members upon retirement. The main difference between Self Managed Super Funds and other super funds is that Self Managed Super Fund members are also the trustees of the fund. More information on Self Managed Super Funds here and here.
Nucleus Wealth has put together an online onboarding tool, which there is no obligation to invest, but offers the ability to tailor and view an indicative portfolio as we would invest on your behalf today. The whole process is paperless and can be completed in 10-15 minutes.
You can invest through all major ownership types, including personal superannuation, individual, joint names, Self Managed Super Funds, Trusts and Companies.
You have the ability to tailor your investments using 29 different ethical and portfolio screens, which effectively knocks out stocks from your portfolio that do not meet your requirements.
You can also seek free personal financial advice through the ‘Limited Advice’ path, which will ask questions about important factors such as your time frame for investments, risk appetite and feelings towards volatility.
From there, Nucleus Wealth can then recommend a portfolio (or blend of portfolios) from our company’s range that is appropriate for your answers.
You can also opt to just select the portfolios off-the-shelf using the ‘Self Directed’ option.
The full portfolio, as Nucleus Wealth would invest today, fees and initial brokerage estimates are available at the review stage of the onboarding portal.
All information displayed on the screen is available in document form, along with the product disclosure statement (PDS), which will be sent to you before you decide whether to invest.
There is also the ability for Nucleus Wealth to make a referral to a third party face-to-face advice network if you feel you need broader advice.
Once aboard, you will have your own fully-featured client dashboard that provides a wealth of information. At any time, you will be able to see your portfolio’s asset allocation, sector and country analysis, as well as if there is an investment-grade analyst report for every holding in your portfolio.

In this dashboard, you will also be able to make additional changes to your portfolio, such as seeking further investment advice or other portfolio adjustments and modifying your ethical and portfolio screens.
You will also have access to Praemium’s award-winning client portal that provides cash flow and depositing information along with performance statistics and reporting.
As an investor, you can expect an in-depth monthly performance report, which details the macroeconomic drivers and narratives that are at work in your portfolio.
Nucleus Wealth also has our popular live weekly webinar series, giving you some serious insight into the themes that are front of mind of our company’s investment team.
MacroBusiness is an Australian investment blog. David Llewellyn-Smith & Leith Van Onselen from MacroBusiness are partners with Nucleus Wealth, and are on the board as Chief Strategist & Chief Economist respectively. David in particular has a lot of input with Nucleus Wealth’s long-term strategic investment direction.
The MacroBusiness Fund (also known as MB Fund) and Nucleus Wealth Fund are the same product. David, Leith and the MacroBusiness team have partnered with the like-minded asset manager, Damien from Nucleus Wealth, to create the fund for investors.
Unfortunately, Nucleus Wealth is restricted by compliance.
The way for you to access the Product Disclosure Statement is for you to use the Nucleus Wealth online client onboarding portal, keeping in mind that creating an application does not require you to deposit money.
You can also access more accurate fee estimates once you have completed the online onboarding portal.
Once your account has been approved by Praemium, you will be sent several documents, including the Product Disclosure Statement, which you can then read over and decide whether you want to pursue depositing money into your account.
Tactical Growth – $10,000
Tactical Accumulation – $10,000
Tactical Income – $10,000
Core International – $70,000
Core Australia – $25,000
Nucleus Super – $35,000
Note that all of these minimums are a guide to the investment required to get adequate diversification. Nucleus Wealth will accept lower balances on request.
The minimum account funding is not set in stone, but is more so indicative of the level of funding required to have access to the number of securities included in the target portfolio.
Nucleus Wealth is able to fund accounts with less, however it might mean you might miss out on certain stocks and bonds, making the performance of the given portfolio slightly different to the target portfolio.
Nucleus Wealth uses a third-party platform called GreenID, which cross-checks your data against several databases including the electoral roll. This is in compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Laws.
Yes.
Omnibus cash deposits’ of the Scheme is protected up to $250,000 as it is held in a trust account with a covered Authorised Deposit-taking Institution.
The Financial Claims Scheme provides protection for depositors of banks, credit unions and building societies that are incorporated in Australia (also known as authorised deposit-taking institutions or ADIs), for deposits up to $250,000 per account holder per Authorised Deposit-taking Institution. The scheme aims to return deposits to account holders within seven days of activation of the Financial Claims Scheme.
The Financial Claims Scheme applies to a wide range of deposit accounts held with Authorised Deposit-taking Institutions that are incorporated in Australia, but only applies to deposit accounts with funds in Australian dollars. Under the Financial Claims Scheme an account holder can be the trustee(s) of a trust (e.g. the account holder is Praemium as trustee of the trust/Scheme).
The Scheme’s custodian, HSBC Bank Australia Limited, is an Authorised Deposit-taking Institution covered under the Financial Claims Scheme.
Other protection and assurance is that it is a registered managed investment scheme that is regulated by ASIC and assets are held by an external regulated custodian. Responsible Entity & custodian must comply with certain capital and investor protection requirements e.g. assets held on trust.
Regulatory Guide 133 can be found here, and Regulatory Guide 166 can be found here.
Nucleus Wealth has products that may suit your needs. We encourage you to have a phone conversation with one of our financial advisors to discuss this.