Hoxton Life

International Financial Planning Careers at Hoxton Wealth

• Hoxton Wealth

Share episode

In this episode of Hoxton Life, host Sam Oakes sits down with Oliver Gorman, Head of Recruitment at Hoxton Wealth, to explore what it takes to thrive in a dynamic, international financial planning career. Hoxton Wealth offers a unique platform for financial planners, paraplanners, and professionals in operations, technology, and compliance to grow and succeed in a supportive and innovative environment.

Hoxton’s global footprint includes licenses in the UK, Europe, USA, South Africa, Asia, and Australia, enabling financial planners to deliver seamless cross-border advice. With cutting-edge tools like an in-house CRM and the Hoxton Wealth App, advisers can simplify client management and enhance the retirement planning experience.

Hoxton fosters a culture of collaboration, bringing together financial planners, paraplanners, and specialists across tech, operations, and compliance to achieve success. The company thrives on attracting individuals with a growth mindset, resilience, and a passion for client acquisition. Whether you’re looking to grow your career in the UK or take on opportunities in Dubai, Asia, or Australia, Hoxton provides the infrastructure, mentorship, and tools to help you succeed.

  • Cutting-edge technology tailored for cross-border advice.
  • Strong internal marketing and lead generation support.
  • Opportunities to work internationally or expand within the UK.


Hoxton Wealth isn’t just a place to work—it’s a platform for ambitious professionals to innovate, grow, and redefine their careers on a global stage.


Discover how Hoxton Wealth can support your career journey. Explore opportunities at hoxtonwealth.com/careers.

Ready to start your international financial planning career?

Hoxton Wealth is looking for ambitious individuals ready to take their careers to the next level. Whether you're interested in international financial planning, compliance, client servicing, or marketing roles within the financial sector, we offer unparalleled opportunities for growth and success.

Don’t miss a beat! Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch full podcast episodes featuring insights from those that work for Hoxton and some of our special guests and partners. Stay connected by following us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X for more exclusive content.

Curious about our career opportunities? Visit our website to explore open positions and learn more about joining the Hoxton Wealth team. Your journey in international financial planning starts here!

For sponsorships, partnerships, or media inquiries, reach out to us

Speaker 1:

The biggest success that I see are people that cannot afford to fail.

Speaker 2:

How many roles have you filled in the last 12 months?

Speaker 1:

74 hires, 100 offers.

Speaker 2:

The key is the people that want to grow Because it started on zero. Not everybody makes it. Is that justified?

Speaker 1:

It is justified. I mean if I think of some of the stories which I won't go through.

Speaker 2:

And it's only going to get stronger and stronger and stronger right.

Speaker 1:

Very good success rate at our last company. You're going to have to work hard, yeah, with a high chance that you will succeed in the international market.

Speaker 2:

It's about attitude right, it's about mindset.

Speaker 1:

Panic, panic, panic, panic.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know the problem is it lives in my head rent-free. You should have got it done Like we have something to prove.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we've got to be careful side of the industry which is the business development side.

Speaker 2:

What type of person are you looking for? You need to be prepared. I can't wait to get you back. Actually, You're not there at the moment.

Speaker 1:

And it's what. It might not matter to you, but it always matters to someone else. It matters to somebody else.

Speaker 2:

My advice is get on the Hoxton bus, because you'll be going. It's like a rocket ship.

Speaker 2:

It's for people that want to succeed. Oli, thanks so much for joining me today on the Hoxton Life podcast. This is the podcast dedicated to international financial planning careers, specifically at Hoxton Wealth, where you are the director of recruitment covering the international roles, whether that's America, australia, the UAE, where you're situated with me, can't wait to get you back actually, you're not there at the moment, or it could be the UK as well, right? Or Europe. So welcome to the podcast. First off, a little introduction from yourself. Tell us a little bit about you your job role and what you're doing.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, sam, really appreciate you inviting me on. So my role is a fairly. There's a number of different intricacies to the role, so one of the main part that I focus on is the recruitment side, so building an internal recruitment team as well as bringing as many resources internal from recruitment, so making sure we're placing candidates from the recruitment team rather than external agencies. I also work on client acquisition with a team of advisors and BDs that I brought across to the business with me. And the final part of my role is on international acquisitions, so similar to the UK, what we're doing, but more strategic acquisitions for licenses rather than just AUM and growth Fantastic.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for the overview. How many roles have you filled in the last 12 months?

Speaker 1:

I think we are up to 74 hires, 100 offers. Just went over the 100 offers last week, so fairly active department and up until a month ago it was myself and Michaela who did it all ourselves and it's great that we're starting to get more support and more people in the team now.

Speaker 2:

Have you found over that 12 month period you've reduced the amount you've had to lean into external agencies?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, completely. I mean, even when I speak to agencies nowadays, I say we're only looking for candidates with AUM, and most of the recruitment agencies will come back and say look, we understand that because everyone's heard of Hoxha and everyone's heard of what you guys are doing in the UK as well as internationally, which makes my job a lot easier, as well as the team that are joining.

Speaker 2:

So just like let's speak directly to some recruiters at the moment okay, If they want to work with us, what should they come to the table with?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's, I suppose, as we both know. A frustrating point is we are looking for assets under management. We are one of a kind in terms of the business and the operation we have with the geographic location, the ability that we have with technology to assist advisors growing. We are one of very few businesses that recruitment agencies can work for, but what we need is advisors with transferable AUM that aren't in restricted models, that are able to move the clients over. That way, we can support them in growing and it makes the fees worth paying, rather than paying fees for something that we can hire internally.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a lot easier. Me being, you know, I ran an agency for 16 years. You've run an agency before yourself. We know what it's like to be on the other end of being a recruitment consultant right, it's pressure, stressful, it's hard work, right, and you just want to work with everybody. Yeah, anywhere you can make a placement. But the thing is that when you then start working internally, you start to realize just what you have. If your brand's really strong, like me, coming on with the financial plan of life, right, that's put us on the map, massively put us on the map. So it's a lot easier to attract talent directly.

Speaker 2:

Why wouldn't we do that? We're not trying to be negative towards recruiters. We're just saying we can do it. We can do it ourselves. However, if you've got somebody of serious value ie transferable AUM pick that telephone up, send us an email because we want to talk to you. But just let us fill those power planner roles, let us fill those employee roles, because it's far easier for us to do that now. We've got the right resources in place, you've got the team, you're growing it and it's only going to get stronger and stronger and stronger, right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, agreed, and the brand's growing thanks to, obviously, you joining a number of other things that have happened. I think Hoxton are shouting more about the wins in the business. So we are all over LinkedIn and I think to most advisors both you and I speak to, they are aware of us, which means the needs for recruiters a lot less and less, but it is a difficult job and if there are the right candidates coming through, we're more than happy to work with agencies, but they do need to be of a certain caliber, which is 20, 30 million plus in assets.

Speaker 2:

Yep, fantastic, brilliant. Okay, covered that one off, finally, yeah, finally. Well, listen, I'll tell you what you know. You've been in the international space? For how long?

Speaker 1:

So I've been in the international recruitment space 13 years now Wow, yes, so worked with a majority of the businesses available, have been through the ups and downs of the industry and understand the international business probably more than most business owners, because I've dealt with most of the advisors as well as the businesses that are hiring, so I have a good overview of the international market, not just the UAE?

Speaker 2:

Okay, when people hear about international space, and most of the time they don't really have a very positive view on it, Is that justified?

Speaker 1:

It is justified. I mean, if I think of some of the stories they don't really have a very positive view on it. Is that justified? It is justified, I mean, if I think of some of the stories which I won't go through that I heard when I first joined the international business. They are pretty scary stories and I mean how some of the advisors were getting away with. It was very negative. But actually what Hoxton have built and a number of other businesses in the market is a very similar model to the UK. We are not front-loading products, meaning that we're not just charging massive fees up front. We very much focus on the ongoing advice fee and that holds our advisors accountable for the advice they're giving, similar to what they do within the UK consumer duty. The fact that the advisors are charging an ongoing advice fee means a company can look into the fees they're charging and see if the advice we're giving is of value to the charges that they're charging a client.

Speaker 2:

So, okay, let's look at the international space. Okay, Because if I'm a financial planner, I'm in the UK, might be going on LinkedIn seeing Sam Oak sat in a swimming pool like talking about how fantastic it is out there and he's on the beach and he looks like he's having a fantastic time.

Speaker 1:

By the way, I am right, fantastic it is out there and he's on the beach and he looks like he's having a fantastic time. By the way, I am right, we all are. It's amazing right.

Speaker 2:

You wake up in the morning, you look out the window and it's sunny. It's amazing actually how positive that is right.

Speaker 1:

I agree.

Speaker 2:

It's insane, right? So yeah, there is massive benefits to living in Dubai right now, right, tax-free.

Speaker 1:

One of many, should we add.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, it's pretty awesome.

Speaker 2:

But you know, that means that people look at it and they think, well, I want that, I can do that as well. So I'll apply to Hoxton and I'll join Hoxton because it looks like they're a growing company and I'm a financial planner and I'll go over there and I'll be a success. What I want to do today is I just want to kind of give somebody a really solid understanding of what's required, what's needed from them to be an international financial planner. Right, that's the key thing, because the last thing we want to do is mislead anybody about the realities of what it's like working in, say, dubai, for example. Right, because not everybody makes it. It is a tough job, and let's dispel some myths and let's give people a good understanding of what we're looking for. So when they listen to this episode, by the end of it, hopefully they'll know whether or not to put a cv fort, yeah, or to work on themselves for a little bit longer before they make that leap to say move over to dubai and join us in the sunshine, right?

Speaker 2:

yeah, okay, cool so let's just talk about some of the people we got in the business at the moment, right because you joined us and you actually brought a team of people with you, didn't you?

Speaker 1:

yeah, correct. I brought a team of advisors and BDs that joined from my previous company fabulous.

Speaker 2:

Did they have any assets that they brought to the table? Did they come with any clients?

Speaker 1:

uh, they do have assets that will become available over 12 to 18 months, but from a starting point in January, everyone started at zero in terms of assets under management.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so they've got some restricted covenants in place on other stuff, but they all started on zero. Yes, Correct. This is a great example, right, let's talk about those people. Yeah, okay, because they started on zero. Okay, what's their backgrounds?

Speaker 1:

those people? Yeah, okay, because it started on zero. Okay, what's their backgrounds? So the backgrounds are they have been through the more difficult side of the industry, which is the business development side, which I know is one bit that probably most uk advisors don't really can't really get their head around, which is the sales side of the business. Okay, uh, it's not cold calling. So it is how I suppose you can get as qualified as chartered and move forward on the qualifications. But if you can't get in front of people, those qualifications are invalid. They don't really help you because you can't give the advice to people unless you're in an employed role. For these advisors they started on the business development side, so calling through leads in the system that had previously been approached by their previous company and getting their advisors in front of clients. So all of the advisors started on those roles, stepped up to advisor two or three years ago, had a very good success rate at our last company and, as we said, joined Hoxton on Xero. So that's a bit about their background. All UK qualified.

Speaker 2:

We're on the UAE license, so they weren't doing business in the US Australia like the rest of the advisors in Hoxton are currently doing pre-qualified leads, just leads that are coming through marketing et cetera, turning stones over having those exploratory chats, uncovering and discovering opportunities, working with advisors to pass those leads across and manage the relationship right. So they've got that experience. And that's the tough part, isn't it? You have to be able to get yourself out there and sell yourself. And in the UK what you tend to have is the admin to power planner to financial advisor route and actually when they end up becoming level four qualified, then they're in the position of being a financial advisor. They haven't even ever really gone out and prospected, right, a word that we use in hoxton prospect, yes, right, people don't really prospect. So they've come across with that level of experience. Let's take that into consideration first. Right, they've got that level of prospecting experience. We're not just I'm talking, picking up the telephone, the telephone sending emails, linkedin, networking, events and stuff, client acquisition, client acquisition.

Speaker 2:

as we covered, let's call it that let's call it client acquisition Right? Tell me a little bit about their journey at Hoxton.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So all of them, I suppose, as we discussed, started on zero. So they came with business development managers from our last company, or what we call trainee wealth managers, kind of your entry-level staff coming into the business that want to get qualified as advisors. They focused on predominantly warming up old contacts so people that they'd previously been in contact with that maybe didn't go with our prior company and focusing on that from a client acquisition side. All of them within six months were up to I think the minimum was five, six million through kind of focusing on how to generate business outside of just Hoxton, supplying marketing leads, because that's what a lot of people get.

Speaker 1:

You need to think outside the box to get past that point. So, working closely with the business development managers going out, networking themselves, as well as relying on previous conversations that they'd had at our last business and so far that has been a very, very high success rate with the guys that have joined. I think most of them are in the top six of advisors for AUM inflow for Hoxton this year. That is excluding, obviously, the acquisition advisors that are bringing on quite a substantial amount of AUM every year.

Speaker 1:

Right, so they've had some success Collectively, how much AUM in that nine-month period? So we're currently up to around 40 million In that team. Yes, and just in that team through four people. Okay, so the minimum is around 8.2 million, right, but I mean, I saw the guy did a 3.6 million pound case last week.

Speaker 1:

So that will go up to 11 million plus and the highest end is 15 million. So if you looked at that, in nine months they have if you average on 1% service management fee or ongoing advice fees following next year they've got 90 to 150,000 pounds of revenue coming through into the business, which then they'd have a kind of fee split on that, which is a lot more comfortable than how they started in the business.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, they're working hard, they're getting those assets under management to secure that level of recurring income. That gives them a little bit more security. But that certainly doesn't mean they're going to take their foot off the gas, because it's all about driving more business in. It's a very business-driven orientated kind of business, isn't itxton? It isn't like well, I've got 10 million, I'm gonna sit on my hands now and relax definitely not quite the opposite.

Speaker 1:

you've always got, I suppose with hoxton, there's always someone doing more than you, yeah, so if you looked at from mo to chris, to the senior leaders in the business, it's very difficult for an advisor to come in year one and exceed what those guys have done. So I believe that for a lot of advisors coming in, you can't take your foot off the gas If we hire the right people, which is what we're here to do. We are bringing in people that are they've got growth mindset, as we've discussed previously people that are looking for more than just a day-to-day role, and I believe that is something that has been bred quite strongly into the Hoxton culture.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, a hundred percent, Right, brilliant, so we have some huge success. Okay, let's just talk about client acquisition, because a lot of people need to work on that side. You know I speak to. I spoke to advisors. Well, we speak to advisors all the time, right, some advisors are very, very good at doing that, at doing that, and some really struggle. Now, those people that struggle might be used to the business they're in, handing them business over. Yeah, perhaps they inherited a client bank so they can sit down and they can do the advice side, they can do the planning side, but they're not very good at the prospecting side. Okay, so, using your team that you bought because it's a really great example, I think, because they're standing stars right, bringing that team into view here when it comes to client acquisition, do you help a lot with that as well? What types of things are they doing that's working?

Speaker 1:

So I suppose having a plan is going back to the initial conversation of people looking at this offshore industry or the international space, as they keep slipping up on that. Looking at the international space, you have to have a plan when you're coming out here and what I would say is a lot of these guys have an existing network. We already have a client database of contacts we were previously in contact with and then it's just organizing that through the CRM for the wealth trainee, wealth managers, to be contacting them. What a big mistake people make when they're looking at the international space is they feel it's everything's going to be handed to them, it's going to be very easy for them to onboard clients because they do have a UK background and, yeah, that does help because people have a lot more trust.

Speaker 1:

But at the end of the day, the industry has had a very negative reputation, which makes it a lot more difficult to onboard clients initially, and if you're running the same format as every other advisor that's looking to go internationally which is I'm qualified, I want to be given leads you will struggle to get ahead and write business, which is where I find the team that we've onboarded at the beginning of the year they've been a lot more active. I mean, you've seen them. They've ingrained themselves fully into the team. Yeah, uh, they're part. They rely on the partners and the managers for advice when they come against a complex case and communication. I feel those points are what has put them ahead of of where a lot of advisors would be in nine months they essentially.

Speaker 2:

Then they're trainee advisors, right, they're trainee planners. So they're on the pathway no, so they are.

Speaker 1:

They are financial advisors. They're not on the pathway. Um, so pathway would usually be someone coming from a power planning or our trainee wealth managers roles going into that course. So the step up from you haven't had your advice experience, but you understand the process, you understand how to prospect. That's where the pathway comes into play. These guys have been giving advice for two years plus, so they were above the pathway at the point of entering.

Speaker 2:

Hoxton yeah, fantastic, good stuff. Great explanation. Okay, great, lovely. So they're doing really, really well. Now let's talk about the types of clients that they're working with, because if you're working out out in Dubai I suspect there's lots of people listening to this episode now. They're from the UK and they're thinking well, if I go out to Dubai, then I must be working with locals or all my clients are going to be in Dubai. What's the reality?

Speaker 1:

It comes down to where we're regulated. So obviously there's no the kind of client. Each advisor will work with a different type of client based on their personality. So not every advisor is going for the same clients. But if we looked at geographically, it comes down to where we're regulated. The certain licenses we have gives us passporting permissions into other regions and, as you know, we're also looking at acquisitions in international markets that will give us more licenses. But the kind of target client, should we say, is based on where we're regulated. So if we are regulated and we're able to give advice to the client, we would look to onboard them as a client. Great.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so someone's listening to this. They want to come out to Dubai? Okay, and they're a UK-based financial planner. They come out to Dubai, they sit in the Dubai office. Where are we regulated and who are we going to give advice to?

Speaker 1:

Okay, so we're currently regulated in the UK, europe, so all MIFID or MIFID II permissioned countries. So I know, switzerland, you need an additional license in order to give the pillar investment advice, but MIFID or our CISEC license will cover most of Europe. And then we have a South African license, an Australian license, a US license and to date, that's where we are. We obviously have some exciting things we're working on which will open us up into new regions.

Speaker 2:

Fantastic. So this is the thing that people need to understand, isn't it? So people are basing themselves in Dubai, not to work with just people in the UAE, but to be based in Dubai. You can work with Australian clients, you can work with clients from the USA, you can even work with clients that are in Europe or UK. So when we start to look at who could possibly make the transition over to Dubai with probably the least amount of stress, if you like, let's talk about that. Because would it be advisable for an advisor to join us over in Dubai with zero client bank?

Speaker 1:

I mean there are some good success stories of people that have done it, but the percentage is very low. Okay, and I don't mean that from a Hoxton perspective, I mean that from every international company I've worked with that have looked to just onboard UK advisors. Unless they're coming into a client servicing role, where they're given clients, they usually struggle on the client acquisition side.

Speaker 2:

So let's look at those types of people in the UK. So they're sitting there there. They're seeing us on linkedin, they're listening to this conversation. They're thinking I want a piece of this. Right, they're listening to this podcast. Now, okay, what do they? What?

Speaker 1:

the best routes, the best route for them.

Speaker 2:

What position should they be in right now to make that transition? Transition, say, over to dubai, for instance?

Speaker 1:

so I'd say the highest success rate is if you have clients in the UK. I'm sure I put posts out, you put posts out. There's a lot of millionaire outflows in the UK, so I think we're targeted to see 9,500 millionaires leave the UK. I think it's like 186,000 millionaires become more mobile, so move around internationally. And I suppose if you have clients in the UK or you built a book of clients and some of those clients are moving to Singapore, the UAE because of certain changes that are happening in the UK, you are an ideal candidate to the business.

Speaker 1:

There's lots of options you can do. You could look at your UK assets. You could sell them to us and take a multiple on your income, your recurring revenue, and then retain your clients that are moving internationally. Just get on the relevant licenses to carry on giving advice. That would be what I would say is the easiest way to come into the international market. First of all, you've got clients, so you've got recurring revenue. Second of all, you've got an exit plan from your uk book, so you've got a cushion of cash to move over. And third of all, your clients that are working internationally they'll have referrals if you've done your job correctly, so it will have a knock-on effect to you building a book internationally yeah, because it gives you a bit of a landing strip as well, doesn't it?

Speaker 2:

because you need a cushion when you come out here. I've noticed that I've moved out and it's been. It's expensive, yes, right, because you've got to get your rent. You've got to pay your rent in like four checks. You know like it's, especially if you've got a family. You've got to sort out your um, your schooling. You know it's cost me five thousand pounds in earlier term to put my daughter into school, so you've got to take that into consideration. Then you've got to think about your flights. You've got to think about your accommodation. It soon starts to add up.

Speaker 2:

And if you're coming out on a basic salary which we do offer basics for people, but it's quite small, it's like around the 30,000 mark, right, it's not enough, right. So you do kind of need to think, right, am I in a position financially to make that transition over to somewhere like Dubai? Can I do this? First of all, right, and yeah, look at what are you doing in the UK? Do you have an existing client bank? So if somebody's self-employed, for example, right, the likelihood is they've got more access to their clients. They can, they can novate their clients across. If you're working for a firm, you've got amazing client relationships. You're going to be under restricted governance.

Speaker 2:

So, unless you know 100% that these are I class A clients, right People that you could sit down and have a beer with and they would go with you anywhere. You've still got to wait, because no one wants tanks on the lawn, and we certainly don't want tanks on the lawn. We don't want lawyers phoning us up and saying that we're pinching clients, et cetera, et cetera. So the type of person that's perfectly fits right now really is the person who has a client bank to move. So a benefit to them is look, you're in the uk. Let's say you got 10 million under management. Let's say you're doing let's say you're doing 150, 55k a year, 150k a year, something like that. Right, that's a mixture of new business and recurring income, but you're paying tax right, it's not a point that no one likes to talk about.

Speaker 2:

Yeah right, there are obviously benefits to coming over to dubai yeah, of course for that very reason.

Speaker 2:

Right, you are in a situation where you can novate those clients because we have a uk regular, uk regulated business. We sat in st albans right this second right we give advice to uk clients. We are regulated by the seo. We are here, right. It's very easy to novate those clients across position yourself over to dubai and continue servicing those clients. You can service those via Teams. You don't have to go back and forth every two seconds. If you want to go back and forth to the UK, fine. If you want to win new client relationships in the UK whilst you're out in Dubai, crack on. If you've got introducing relationships in the UK, you can continue to do that. If you want to smash into the USA, get series get your series 65 qualification right.

Speaker 2:

So that to me, is a unique opportunity for the right person. So if you're that person and you're thinking you want to go international and you're thinking about dubai, there's a great example of someone that I think would be a perfect fit right now yeah, 100.

Speaker 1:

And I suppose one thing that hoxton's been obviously you have a maximum capacity of clients that most people will be able to manage and I think something that Hoxton has done very well and Chris is probably the leading example of that he's built an internal team for his book so he's got paraplanners, junior advisors, that help him manage some of those clients. I feel if you are a UK advisor with an existing book looking to move over, it's very positive, but you do need to have a plan for what you're going to do with your UK clients as your international book grows and also you need to have a want to build your book internationally, not just move over because you like the sun. It needs to be a commercial reason why you are moving over to the international market.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, exactly Accelerating your business, growing your business. So when we look at our journey here at hoxton, I always class phase five is this area where you're building assets under management. You've got clients but you now want to accelerate. You can't do it on your own right and I spoke to an advisor quite recently. He's got 22 million under management. He's self-employed, runs his own business. He's listened to a few of the podcasts on um the financial plan of life around hoxton and he's like this sounds like the type of business that I need to join because I've hit. I've hit a roof, I hit a ceiling, yeah. So now he's thinking I want to join you because I want to accelerate my business. And when I got into the detail with him, the fee split that he was on it was relatively attractive. It was 70 30. It's not bad for the uk, yeah, but he wasn't getting any. You know, administration, power planning or all those typical types of things right, he wasn't getting support. He wasn't able to grow his business.

Speaker 2:

Now, those types of individuals that want to grow their business, we can bring them over and work with them to build a business within a business essentially right, we can plug in administrators, we can plug in power planners. It's not free. No, of course, for the cost of the business. It's the cost of the business, but we work with them because we've strategically done it before and we've helped people grow. Chris, for example, 250 million, I think he's, yes, just reaching that now. Just reaching that now it's huge. We've got mo 130 million, I believe, correct. Yeah, people are doing really, really well, but they've got those teams around them. We know how it works on an international basis. Therefore, we can help you grow your business if you have the appetite to want to grow it, and we want those people that want to grow.

Speaker 1:

That's it. I think the key is the people that want to grow. We have a good idea of how those profiles look like and it is someone that has. For example, if you're in the UK and you've built a book of 30, 40, 50 mil and a lot of that has been given to you nine times out of 10, you struggle to do that in the international market. Initially. You're not given very much lead, support et cetera to get to that volume. If you've built your own campaigns on how you're going to onboard clients and you've had a good success rate of an entrepreneurial way of bringing clients in, there's a high chance that you will succeed in the international market. Because you've had success in the UK, you know how to onboard and bring in clients, which are the two most challenging parts that most advisors would deal with.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think also as well when we look at the unique selling points of joining someone like Hoxton. Are hoxton doing right? It's all well and good saying come over to our business right, work tax-free and to buy or whatever?

Speaker 1:

yes right.

Speaker 2:

There's plenty of places ways you can do that right. It's about joining a company that are going above and beyond and adding value and continuing to add value. So what do you think? Some of the things that we're doing at Hoxton that are value adds for advisors that want to join our business now, yes, and in the future.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I feel like we are building a full holistic advice model. So what most advisors struggle with is client retention. As you know, expats are very mobile. They do contracts in different countries, move around and some of the advisors lose those clients due to the company they're working with not being licensed. We have a very good global infrastructure of licensing, which means most of the countries that these people are going to we will have a license or an ability to give advice within that region. So one massive benefit is the ability to manage the clients also when they repatriate to the UK, to manage the clients also when they repatriate to the UK.

Speaker 1:

A key point which in any other industry it would be a certain that would happen is we do what we say we do. I think that's a key point. There's many businesses I'm sure you've worked, you had some international exposure. You work with these businesses. They promise the world and they don't follow through on what they said they'd do. I can think of well, 73 times this year if we look at the hires, where Hoxton have stuck to what they say they're going to do.

Speaker 1:

I think if the people that are being onboarded stick to what their goals were, what their targets were. They are supported fully by the business and that assists them in growing within the role that they're doing. And, yeah, I suppose, the support from a core management team. I don't believe that any management team like Hoxton out there in terms of how supportive they are. I also think, from an advisory perspective, there are very few businesses that you can go into and everyone in the business will support you. So, for example, you could walk over to Mo, ask Mo for advice, tommy ask him for advice on k on a case. Most offshore international companies are very competitive so the teams don't like to support the advisors. We built a very collaborative environment where everyone's working together. We're all very much driven to the end goal of growing the business to be the largest international wealth management firm.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely love that. Love that Collaboration, not competition. One of the favorite things that I've always looked for when I work with people is is it cutthroat, is someone trying to outdo me or whatnot? No, everybody's working towards the same common goal. I think the long-term incentive plan that's come into place as well is huge right. Everybody within that business is part of the long-term incentive plan. The l-tip will benefit from this business pushing forward right now. What we got? We got five billion under management target by 2027 that will easily I genuinely think that's totally achievable.

Speaker 2:

I think we'll surpass that. I was on a management chat quite recently and we're talking about big aum, big goals, yes, and everybody in that business is behind it. So I think introducing things like an l tip is a really, really good thing. But I also think as well as if you join this business right and you want to exit the business, there is a buy option. You know it's. There is a buy option. So if I wanted to sell my business and move on, I could do that and I guess out to hoxton, it might be over a period of time, as I've, as I've exited the business and it's long, as it's a good exit, yes, then I can sell my business. So I like that. There is a longer term incentive plan for me in place. Now, if I'm sorry, I'm employed in the uk or whatnot more, nine times out of ten. You haven't got anything like that in place and there's a very few amount of companies out there that even have these long-term incentives and do it correctly.

Speaker 1:

I think that's the main point doing it correctly correct 100.

Speaker 2:

Now the key thing for me is I want people who are in the uk considering working for hoxton on an international basis. Let's just look at dubai, because we're talking about dubai and we're both there right, and that's where our main hq is right. It's a don't oversell yourself if you can't deliver on your promises, because once you're over, you're over and you're chucked into the deep end, if you like, and you have to prove yourself based on what you've said, because we're not looking to hire people, the we're not trying to bring somebody into business and say, oh yeah, come on over, it's really easy, quite the opposite, quite the opposite, yeah so back up what you're saying, because it is going to be tough.

Speaker 2:

Look, there is some fantastic leads there. We've got business development managers. We're paying extortion. We're paying loads of money on marketing we've got a great team yeah, we're investing in marketing. I've come on board. I'm creating the expat life soon, which is going to create some amazing brand awareness for us right.

Speaker 2:

We spend a lot of money on pr. We're on the bbc, chris is out there on linkedin push, push, push, push, push. We are doing everything we can as a business to raise our brand and you will be benefiting of that. A byproduct of that is more people will see it and, in the future, clients will come to us. Right, that's inevitable. But what we don't want is someone coming over almost cap in hand what have you got for me? So we just need to make sure that person listening that you're gonna have to work hard, yeah you need to be prepared like it's not.

Speaker 1:

I feel one of the things I probably missed on listing what hoxton do correctly, we built a team of specialists in each department. Yeah, so if you looked at hoxton as a business, one thing we do correctly is we've built a real business infrastructure to support advisors whether it's marketing, compliance, bds they're the full support structure for advisors to grow their business. For UK advisors it's not going to be a year, it's not going to be two years that you see a high. Maybe it will, and you'll be one of few, but it's a long-term plan to grow your book to the likes of what Chris and Mo have done. The hours that those guys are put in to grow their books to the size they have is not a nine to five, and they've been on numerous flights, tested a number of different clients with processors to sign them up. And to get to that level you need to be doing more than what your average person is.

Speaker 1:

The UAE is one of the most competitive job markets in the world. If I put a job advert out, I'll get five 600 applicants in two days for a job. So you need to have something different to what your peers have. So if you're working in a team for financial advisors, what can you bring to the table that is different to what every other advisor around you is doing? And I'd say that's the key that every advisor should look at first is look at yourself, look at the people around you and work out how that will adapt into the international market.

Speaker 1:

If you cannot find anything or you're clutching straws for reasons that you should look at the international market. Past tax on the sun, revisit it in a year or two, build some skills up, get in front of an international market, get in front of more people internationally and then look at the international market. Don't rush it, because if you do rush it and it goes wrong, you'll be left with a very sour taste in your mouth, which is what I feel has had. A massive issue with the international market is it's not necessarily the success stories that are shouted about. Yeah, it's the people that have been promised the world and in three months in they built up a load of debt because they've been promised the world by have a company.

Speaker 2:

Luckily, hoxton isn't one of them yeah, yeah, I think that's great, I think that's sound. Now listen, trainee wealth management yes, we offer that route. Okay, yes, so somebody has zero experience, they want to join hoxton? Yeah, now we have the trainee wealth manager route. They start in the UK and they are phoning up inbound inquiries that have come via our fantastic marketing and they're picking the phone up, turning stones over and they're making call after call after call, but they're learning some fantastic skills about what it's like to be a financial advisor. They're working with advisors, they're building relationships with advisors, they're passing those clients over, they're managing the processes. They do that in the UK. Then, if they want, they don't have to.

Speaker 2:

Nick Champion, stayed here, stayed here, yeah, they can go over to Dubai. And when they go over to Dubai, they continue on that journey and they work underneath Kane right, yes, part of the business, business development out there. And then from there they can transition down through the beginning of the pathway where you start your qualifications and you are um, well, you can do your qualifications in the training, training world manager yeah, but you start to kind of move towards becoming that financial planner now and getting regulated in jurisdiction.

Speaker 2:

Yeah now realistically, as a trainee financial planner right? I want people to understand there might be places out there where you can get qualified and running within three to six months. Yes, doesn't make you a financial planner 100, right? So if somebody is considering becoming a financial planner, I think our route to becoming a financial planner is realistic one, two, three years I would say you three years before you're actually up and running kicking ass as a financial planner. I think that's a realistic timescale. Now, what type of person are you looking for if you were to hire into a trainee wealth manager role?

Speaker 1:

I mean resilience and drive is going to be the two key traits.

Speaker 1:

It is by far one of the hardest roles in the whole industry and I think if you make it through that role, that sounds very daunting not make it through.

Speaker 1:

But once you have success in that role and you become qualified, as long as you've kept up the prospecting skills that you learned at the beginning, you will be doing more than all your peers, because most advisors tend to forget how they got to where they are and slowly stop contacting clients themselves.

Speaker 1:

The business development managers have the hardest role in the industry in my opinion, which is very much phone-based, dealing with previous contacts as well as marketing leads. And for those guys, once they get through the two to three years, we have trainers that come into the office in Dubai two times a week to focus on the level four and the series 65. So you will be getting qualified over those two, three years. But resilience and drive are what will get you over the line and I think we both as recruiters should we say recruiters, is that still what we are? We know how to identify that. It's either proven through sports, certain things that have happened during people's lives. There's a lot of keys that we'd look at when we're speaking to people that have shown something different to your standard candidates we're looking for evidence.

Speaker 2:

Yes, agreed evidence 100, and evidence can come in multiple ways. But, um, if you, if you have examples of where you've shown resilience, where you've got results and you pushed hard and pushed through, you'll know. Yeah, you'll know. Um, mick champion, you know, tree surgeon, right, tough job, run his own business, tough job, right left the tree surgeon went and did a course for three months, moved himself to Watford away from his daughter and his son, and son and wife for three months went back to tree surgeon. The job wasn't there anymore and then he was like ah, but because Chris came into that course and did a presentation on Hoxton, chris recognized in him that determination and strength and everything offered him a job. The guy's still living down in devon, isn't he? Yes, and then still traveling up here monday to friday. He gets up at 3 30 in the morning on a monday I just did the drives this morning and it was horrendous.

Speaker 2:

That to me is resilience, that to me is strength, that to me is determination. The guy wants to be a success. We're not saying everybody has to be that way, but for me I know he's going to be a success. I can just tell because he's displaying the characteristics and the drive that we are looking for to be a success.

Speaker 2:

So it's not about I've got a degree or I've worked no definitely it's about attitude, right, it's about mindset, and that, to me, is a prime example and people need to remember. And he felt this right. He felt that he needed to have a degree to be a financial planner and in his 30s that was what was going through his mind. How many great people are sitting there? It's one of the one professions, it's one of the one roles where you don't need a degree to earn over £100,000.

Speaker 1:

I think a degree is proven track record that you can study. Yeah, and I feel a lot of people make mistakes in their teenage years, late teenage years, into the early 20s. I'm sure Nick now is a very different person to who he was in his 20s. There might have been the urgency to go out and earn money, so university wasn't an option, and I feel like those kind of things are what separates people Like.

Speaker 1:

Nick is one example, but the biggest success that I see are people that cannot afford to fail. It was similar to when I moved out to Malaysia, like I'm sure my family thought I'd be back in a few months. I was 21 years old, going to set up a business, and the thought of everyone thinking I was going to fail was a motivation to drive it forward. Yeah, and I feel like those kind of people are the people that succeed in this business, that cannot afford to fail and have something to prove. I think that is a massive need and we can't always tell that in the interviews, but we definitely can tell it once you're in the business like a like, a almost like.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes a little bit of a chip on the shoulder can drive you, yes, yes. You know, yeah, like we have something to prove. Yeah, we've got to be careful that we don't put too much pressure on ourselves, but at the same time, a bit of pressure, it's good for you. I love it, I love it. I love it.

Speaker 1:

I love it. Pressure is good. I, I love it. I love it, I love it, I love it. Pressure is good. I think pressure for the right people is what will help people succeed.

Speaker 2:

You and me are very similar now as far as how we think, and I think you know it's like leaving something to the last minute. I always do an amazing job when I leave something to the last minute.

Speaker 1:

I can't say that to be honest, because I'm like because it's like everything's just so spontaneous.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's good, you know very natural. Yeah, it's natural. You have to think on your feet. It drives me, it excites me. When I have to plan something like months in advance, I'm like well panic, panic, panic, panic. Yeah, you know the problem is it lives in my head, ready, free and I know I'm gonna do it.

Speaker 1:

You should have got it done. Yeah, I'll just do it a day, yeah, yeah, I just do that, like 20 days ago, I know but you know, sometimes people are like that, aren't they?

Speaker 2:

yeah, but what I've noticed with hoxton and this is the first thing that I've kind of picked up when I came in is that there is a lot of processes in place and they teach it, yes, like how to be organized. You know, lewis louis has been doing some brilliant stuff with me around um teams and stuff like that because I haven't worked in a massive organization.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, agreed, I've got to fall in line with the processes and the last thing I want to do is start rocking the boat, because I'm being a bit of an idiot around my organization, because and it's what.

Speaker 1:

It might not matter to you, but it always matters to someone else, it matters to somebody and it affects someone else's day by you not following those processes. Yeah, it's respect, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I've taken a massive obsession interest now in organization and time management. For that very reason, I want to add value to everybody else who's adding value to me. So it's a give and take thing. And I think again when you're coming into this environment yes, you want to everybody else who's adding value to me. So it's a give and take thing. And I think again when you're coming into this environment yes, you want to be somebody who's determined and driven. But it comes back to that collaboration, teamwork, working towards a common goal. We all want to smash it. We all want to benefit from the growth of this business, right?

Speaker 1:

Yes, 100%, and I think that's seen across the whole business. Like I said, there's a lot of people in this business that are very good at what they do. For example, louis, you've got charlie uh, chief operating officers. These guys are way above the standard level of people in these positions within some of our competitors. Yeah, and I feel like the value that each department brings to advisors is tenfold.

Speaker 2:

Getting a higher fee split from a company yeah, I think we've done a good job here of explaining. Look, hoxton isn't a come and coast company. Hoxton is a growth mind company. It's a growth mindset. Okay, it's not a come in and coast. Now, if you want to talk to us because you've got a client book and you would like to exit the profession, please have a conversation with us and we will talk to you about buying your book of business and helping you exit out over a couple of years.

Speaker 2:

We're not turning those types of people away at all. We're interested. We're growing through acquisition, aren't we right? Yeah, yeah, uk, anywhere. We're interested in talking to people. Some exciting stuff happening internationally as well 100. It's a load of really exciting stuff going on. But the thing is like we're just saying that it's a growth mindset business. You're going to come into a company where probably you've never experienced the drive quite like it. So if you're stagnant in a role right now and it's just not enthusing you at all, my advice is get on the Hoxton bus because you'll be going boom. It's like a rocket ship.

Speaker 1:

And it's not for everyone. I think that's the point to add. It's for people that want to succeed, yeah, and for some people it's not the right environment. Yeah, and there are many businesses out there that you can go and join, but hoxton have bred a certain culture of people that want more than whatever people are doing, and I think that's how we've seen the growth. We've seen as well. It might be the best of the best, of course.

Speaker 2:

Hey, listen, I'll tell you what. If you people are gonna be listening to this podcast right now and they're gonna go, that's for me, for me, that's not for me. Now, that was the objective for me, that was the objective for you. So, if you're listening to this and it is for you and you tick the boxes, get in contact with Oli, because he wants to hear from you.

Speaker 1:

Sounds good. All right, appreciate it. Thank you, mate, thanks for your time.