--- title: "Saltus: scaling resilience with growth | FourthLine" description: How FourthLine helped Saltus, a UK wealth management group, scale its operational resilience and business continuity framework across four entities in 20 weeks. --- [Skip to content](https://www.thefourthline.co.uk/case-studies/saltus#main-content) [![Fourthline risk and resilience consultancy](https://www.thefourthline.co.uk/hs-fs/hubfs/Assets%20-%20Fourthline/logo-1.png?width=212&height=28&name=logo-1.png)](https://www.thefourthline.co.uk/?hsLang=en) - Sectors - Digital Assets - Banking - Investment Management - Insurance ![search-2](https://www.thefourthline.co.uk/hs-fs/hubfs/Assets%20-%20Fourthline/search-2.png?width=18&height=18&name=search-2.png) - [Blogs](https://www.thefourthline.co.uk/blog) - [Videos & Webinars](https://www.thefourthline.co.uk/insights-video-and-webinars) - Case Studies - Guides & Tools - Learning - About Us - [Careers](https://www.thefourthline.co.uk/careers) - Meet The Team - [Blogs](https://www.thefourthline.co.uk/blog) - Videos & Webinars - Case Studies - Guides & Tools - Learning - Operational Resilience - TPRM - Response & Recovery - Consumer Duty - Tech & Cyber Resilience - Operational Resilience - Risk Management - Third Party Risk - Business Continuity # How Saltus scaled its operational resilience and business continuity framework to match its growth, in 20 weeks In 20 weeks, FourthLine helped Saltus scale its operational resilience framework to match a business growing in size and complexity: one framework across its four regulated entities, built to be owned by its executive and its business owners, and tested before handover. Its Chief Operating Officer calls the result Operational Resilience 2.0. ## At a glance | **Client** | Saltus, a UK wealth management and financial planning group offering discretionary and advisory investment management | | --- | --- | | **Sector** | Wealth management | | **Size** | Four FCA-authorised legal entities; £12.07 billion of assets under management (November 2026) | | **Services** | Operational resilience and business continuity management | | **Duration** | 20 weeks, June to October 2026 | ## The challenge Saltus was growing through acquisition and organically, integrating client books across entities that share operations, technology and third-party arrangements. A shared base like this lets a group grow efficiently, and it also means one failed system, team or supplier can disrupt service to clients of every entity at the same time. As the group has grown, Saltus needed to move from entity-level continuity arrangements to a single, group-wide, business-owned resilience framework designed to scale with its ambitions. From 18 March 2027, almost all FCA-authorised firms must report operational incidents that meet the FCA's harm, soundness or market thresholds. Saltus voluntarily adopted the FCA's operational resilience standards (SYSC 15A), reflecting its commitment to effective governance and a deliberate choice that puts client protection first. It asked FourthLine to scale its operational resilience framework to match the firm's growing scale and complexity. ## What FourthLine did FourthLine's Engagement Director led the programme throughout with a business continuity subject matter expert, working alongside Saltus's own team, on site for the core workshops, and fitting the method to the way Saltus runs its business. - **Settled the regulatory basis first.** A formal scope assessment tested each applicability route before any design work, so every later document states the firm's position the same way. - **Started from client harm.** Important business services were identified through a top-down product view and a bottom-up department view. Each impact tolerance was set from the harm to the clients affected, including the most vulnerable, assessed at 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours and five days. - **Built continuity with the business.** People from 25 departments and teams took part in the business impact analysis, and their knowledge shaped the plans: function plans with departmental sections, under one central BCMS framework and a two-tier crisis and incident management framework. - **Tested before handover.** Two tabletop exercises ran severe but plausible scenarios drawn from Saltus's own threat assessment, and two plans were updated with the findings before close. - **Handed it over to run.** The close-down call was run as Saltus's first BCMS management review, and the handover set the cycle to keep the framework current. ## What Saltus has now - **One framework across four entities:** eight important business services, each with an impact tolerance and mapped stage by stage for each legal entity that delivers it. - **Executive approval in week 5:** the Chief Operating Officer approved the services and tolerances 35 days after the contract was signed, and is the single accountable role, with service owners nominated by the COO. - **Continuity built on evidence:** a business impact analysis of 56 process activities, with recovery time objectives set from the scoring, feeding four function plans with 28 departmental sections. - **A cycle to keep it current:** an annual review of services, tolerances and mapping, a refresh within 30 days of any material change, and a recommended staged roadmap of 33 tests running to Year 2. ## In the client's words "We engaged FourthLine to help us scale our operational resilience framework to match the growing organisational scale and complexity, designing, building and implementing Operational Resilience 2.0 for Saltus. FourthLine brought deep subject matter expertise and a genuinely talented team to design, build and hand over a fully operationalised framework, taking a smart, pragmatic approach that adapted to how Saltus works rather than imposing a template. Their collaborative culture made them feel like an extension of our own team, and they invested real effort in bringing our business owners with them at every stage. The result is a framework that is now embedded across the business, with clear ownership, and one we have real confidence in." Chief Operating Officer, Saltus ## About FourthLine FourthLine is a specialist operational resilience, business continuity and third-party risk consultancy. For firms building a programme, or whose programme no longer covers the business, Operational Resilience Foundations is an eight to fourteen week build of your IBS, tolerances, mapping, vulnerability register, testing plan and first draft self-assessment, and the Business Continuity Management Programme is built to a stated level: Entry in 8 weeks, Baseline in 20, Developing in 30. To talk about scaling your own framework, [book a scoping conversation](https://www.thefourthline.co.uk/meetings/kieran-maplesden?hsLang=en) at thefourthline.co.uk. ## Get in touch Breakfast tabletop for wealth firms, Thursday 21 January, central London. For a place, email kieran.maplesden@thefourthline.co.uk. ![Kieran Maplesden](https://www.thefourthline.co.uk/hs-fs/hubfs/Assets%20-%20Fourthline/kieran.png?width=120&height=120&name=kieran.png) #### Kieran Maplesden Managing Director - [020 3800 1099](tel:020%203800%201099) - [kieran.maplesden@thefourthline.co.uk](mailto:kieran.maplesden@thefourthline.co.uk) [Download the two-page PDF](https://www.thefourthline.co.uk/hubfs/Case%20Studies/FourthLine%20Case%20Study%20-%20Saltus.pdf?hsLang=en) [Book a scoping conversation](https://www.thefourthline.co.uk/meetings/kieran-maplesden?hsLang=en) ##### Contact Us - [tel:](tel:) - [kieran.maplesden@thefourthline.co.uk](mailto:kieran.maplesden@thefourthline.co.uk) - 37 Greenleach Lane, Roe Green, Worsley, M28 2RX Company Number: 6952875 VAT Number: 981375491 [Privacy Policy](https://www.thefourthline.co.uk/privacy-policy?hsLang=en) [Complaints Procedure](https://www.thefourthline.co.uk/hubfs/Policies%20and%20Procedures/210302%20FourthLine%20-%20Complaints%20Policy%20%26%20Procedure%5B3%5D.pdf?hsLang=en) [Code of Conduct](https://www.thefourthline.co.uk/hubfs/Policies%20and%20Procedures/230119%20Fourthline%20Code%20of%20Business%20Conduct.pdf?hsLang=en) ##### CONNECT WITH US Stay up to date with industry news, risk and resilience events and webinars. - - - ![Risk and Resilience Consulting service](https://www.thefourthline.co.uk/hs-fs/hubfs/Assets%20-%20Fourthline/logo.png?width=186&height=25&name=logo.png) Copyright © 2022, FourthLine. 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