We started Timeline in a tiny office in Bas Vegas (go on, Google it), fuelled by a bold vision, sheer grit, and a stubborn belief that financial planners and their clients deserved better.
We launched our Model Portfolio Service (MPS) in March 2020, right at the start of COVID. Talk about impeccable timing!
As I recall, not a single industry pundit gave us a chance. Little did I know that just five years later, we’d be entrusted with £10 billion of people’s hopes, dreams, and financial futures, making us the third-largest MPS in the UK.
I’m filled with immense gratitude:
- To our extraordinary team who show up every day to build something remarkable
- To the advisers who trust us to play a small part in their clients’ futures
- To the backers, friends, and well-wishers who’ve stood by us through every twist and turn
- And yes, even to the competitors and detractors, you’ve kept us sharp
We estimate that advised clients invested in Timeline portfolios have saved over £35 million in fees compared to the average MPS. That’s more money toward their hopes and dreams, and less into the industry’s coffers. Since we launched five years ago, the average cost of an MPS portfolio has dropped by 50 percent. Arrogantly, I call that the Timeline Effect. (Bite me!)
Stewarding More Than Just Money
This £10 billion milestone isn’t just a number.
It represents £10 billion worth of people’s hopes, dreams, and their sense of financial security, expressed in pound signs.
And that’s something we remind ourselves and the incredible advisers we work with across the UK, every single day:
We’re not just managing money.
We’re stewarding the aspirations of thousands of families and individuals.
Because most people who work with a financial adviser aren’t investing for the sake of returns alone. They’re investing for a purpose; to enjoy retirement, to support their children, to build a legacy, or to face the future with peace of mind.
Fixing a Broken Tech Stack
One disconnect we see all too often is the fragmentation between a client’s financial plan and their portfolios. Bits of their financial plan and portfolios across multiple systems.
Cashflow sits in one tool. Risk profiling in another. Performance reporting in a third.
Portfolios are held on a platform that doesn’t talk to any of them.
Data fragmentation is a drag, not just on adviser productivity, but on client outcomes. It isn't just the root cause of inefficiencies inside advice firms. It’s also the fragmentation of wealth from the client’s perspective.
Most advice firms today are trapped in swivel-chair syndrome, juggling between 8 disconnected systems: Fact-find tools. Cashflow modellers. Risk profilers. Portfolio analytics. CRM/back office. Platforms. Client portals.
Even if you could get these multiple systems to talk to one another, I am not sure it meaningfully removes the swivel chair syndrome since the adviser would still need to log into each system to perform the functions.
This fractured experience slows down the adviser and confuses the client. It’s 2025, and yet most advice clients still don’t have a single, joined-up view of their financial lives. Very few clients have a single place where they can see their real-time financial plan, their goals, tax position, assets, liabilities, income and expenditure, protection policies, wills, trust and estate plan, all in one place.
The Future Is Here: Platform 3.0
At Timeline, we’re building something better.
A unified ecosystem, Platform 3.0, brings everything together in one seamless, modern interface.
From customisable fact-finding and risk profiling to modular reporting, portfolio analytics, client portal, and integrated platform, it’s all under one roof.
One platform.
One joined-up view of a client’s financial life.
Built for advisers.
Platform 3.0 improves adviser productivity, enhances the client experience, and reduces operational costs, all while delivering a new level of clarity and confidence.
It’s built to become the single source of truth for financial planning. A platform that gives both adviser and client a real-time, holistic view of their entire financial life.
Still Just Getting Started
You’d think I’d be content with how far we’ve come. You couldn’t be more wrong.
We’re still just scratching the surface, managing barely 1 percent of a market projected to exceed £1 trillion by 2030.
I genuinely believe we can grow tenfold from here.
With the launch of the Timeline Platform, we’re bringing the same ambition, execution, and disruptive mindset to the adviser platform space.
What we’ve done in MPS, we’re now setting out to do in platforms. And just like last time, there will be sceptics. That’s fine. We expect to prove them wrong all over again.
All I’ve ever wanted is to make a difference, to help people face their financial future with clarity and confidence.
Our founding hypothesis was simple: investment management is a commodity. The real value lies in financial planning.
We believed then, and believe even more fiercely now, that technology can amplify the transformational power of great financial planning.
A truly integrated platform can help millions of people connect the dots between their plans and their portfolios, between their money and their meaning.
That’s what Timeline is here to do.
And this?
This is Day One.
