This feature is brought to you in partnership with M&G
Our exclusive interview with M&G’s Chris Hudson explores why bringing PruFund to third-party platforms could open up new opportunities for advisers and their clients.
Platform adoption has become central to how UK financial advice businesses operate, with advisers increasingly building portfolios, managing client models and delivering investment solutions through integrated technology.
Against that backdrop, M&G’s decision to make PruFund available via third-party platforms could prove significant for advisers seeking greater flexibility when constructing portfolios. By bringing one of the UK’s most established smoothed investment solutions into platform-based propositions, advisers can more easily incorporate PruFund alongside the other strategies and models they already use for clients.
Chris Hudson, M&G’s Director of Distribution, talks to Sue Whitbread, Editor at IFA Magazine, about why this move matters, how advisers are using PruFund today, and what broader platform availability could mean for adviser businesses and their clients.
For advisers who may not use it regularly, how would you describe PruFund — and what do you think has driven its long- standing appeal?
“As many readers will already be aware, PruFund is M&G’s flagship multi-asset investment solution and has been delivering outcomes for investors for more than 21 years. Today it manages around £70bn of assets and offers a range of strategies designed to meet different client objectives and attitudes to risk, across different formats such as bonds, pensions and ISAs.
“A key strength of PruFund is its scale and diversification. Alongside exposure to traditional capital markets, it provides access to private market investments, an area where M&G has extensive experience and expertise.
“The PruFund proposition is also built around its smoothing mechanism, which aims to deliver a more consistent investment journey for clients and help reduce the impact of market volatility. That can be particularly valuable for those clients drawing an income from pensions, investment bonds or other portfolios, where sequencing risk is an important consideration.
“Over recent years we’ve worked hard to provide even greater transparency around how PruFund is managed and the assets it invests in. Advisers increasingly want to understand what’s under the bonnet, and we’ve focused on demonstrating how our investment expertise, scale and diversification can add value for both advisers and their clients. That greater clarity has been an important part of how we’ve evolved the proposition over time.”
Why are you bringing PruFund onto the FNZ platform network now?
“If we look at the advice market over the past 15 years, the growth of platform technology has fundamentally changed how many adviser businesses operate. While PruFund has been available through our own product range, the feedback we’ve consistently heard from advisers is that they’d like to access it through the platforms they already use to manage client portfolios.
“Listening to that feedback, and as part of our strategy to broaden access to PruFund, we took the decision to make it available through third-party platforms.
“The first to launch PruFund is Scottish Widows Platform, following the partnership we announced with FNZ last year. Scottish Widows has ambitious growth plans and is focused on enhancing its proposition for advisers and clients, so we’re delighted they’re the first platform to bring PruFund to market in this way.
“For advisers, the key benefit is flexibility. Many firms build their own centralised investment propositions and model portfolios, and platform availability allows them to incorporate PruFund alongside the other solutions they already use. Ultimately, it’s about making access easier and giving advisers more choice when constructing portfolios designed to meet specific client outcomes.
“It’s also an important milestone for us. Delivering PruFund through a third-party platform has required significant investment from both M&G and our platform partners, but the infrastructure is now in place. As we continue working with other platforms over the coming months and years, advisers can expect to see PruFund become more widely available across the platform market.”
How are advisers using PruFund today, and how do you see that evolving as it becomes available through more platforms?
“Traditionally, advisers have used PruFund as a standalone investment solution within pensions, bonds and other packaged products. Over its long history, it has built a strong following among advisers and their clients looking for a smoother investment journey, particularly those drawing an income while seeking to preserve and grow wealth over the longer term.
“More recently, we’ve seen advisers incorporating PruFund into centralised investment propositions (CIPs) and centralised retirement propositions (CRPs). Until now, however, that has often involved running PruFund separately from platform-based portfolios, which can make portfolio construction and risk management more complex.
“Alongside broad exposure to public markets, PruFund offers access to private market investments and a smoothing mechanism designed to help moderate volatility. In more challenging market conditions, such as those we’ve experienced in recent years, that mechanism has become an increasingly important consideration for advisers supporting clients through periods of uncertainty.
“We’ve also focused on improving adviser understanding of what sits behind PruFund. As we’ve discussed more openly how the underlying portfolio is constructed, advisers have become more comfortable incorporating it into broader portfolio and retirement planning frameworks.
“We’ve also seen PruFund considered in a wider planning context. With bonds returning to the forefront of advisers’ thinking due to changes in regulation and evolving client tax planning needs, there is a renewed focus on how different wrappers and income strategies interact. In that environment, having a smoothed investment solution that can support more consistent income outcomes becomes increasingly relevant.
“As platform availability expands, we expect advisers to use PruFund in different ways. Rather than simply as a standalone solution, it can sit alongside other multi-asset and investment strategies within a broader portfolio, giving advisers greater flexibility when balancing growth opportunities with a more controlled level of risk for their clients.
“Ultimately, our ambition is to make the benefits of PruFund accessible to more advisers and more clients, and expanding platform access is a key step towards achieving that.”
Looking ahead, what’s the plan for PruFund’s platform expansion from here?
“The heavy lifting on achieving this step has now been done with FNZ, which is one of the largest platform technology providers in the UK. That gives us a strong foundation to build from, and we’re already in active discussions with a number of other platforms.
“The reality is that different platforms have their own development priorities, but we’re working closely with them to bring additional integrations to market over the next 12 to 18 months.
“Our ambition is clear: to make PruFund available more broadly across the platform market. While the “available in all good stores” idea is a helpful analogy, the more important point is ensuring advisers can access PruFund within the platforms they already use to build and manage client portfolios.
“There has been strong engagement across the market around how smoothed funds like PruFund can sit within centralised investment propositions and managed portfolio services. That includes how they can help advisers manage risk, support smoother client outcomes, and enhance retirement planning strategies.
“It’s been encouraging to see the level of interest across the profession following the launch of PruFund on platform. Ultimately, this is about giving advisers greater choice and flexibility when building portfolios, making it easier to access the solutions they believe can deliver the best outcomes for their clients over the long term.”
This feature is brought to you in partnership with M&G
Chris Hudson
Director of Distribution
Chris Hudson is Director of Distribution at M&G, having joined in March 2025. He previously held senior roles at Aegon, Aviva, LV and Standard Life UK (part of Phoenix Group), where he led propositions, marketing and distribution for the intermediary business.
He has extensive experience in bringing investment propositions to market and building distribution strategies across the UK adviser landscape. He is a long-standing advocate of smoothed investment solutions and is leading M&G’s efforts to expand access to PruFund through platform distribution.
This article was sourced from IFA 150, our July/August magazine.
