Hoxton Life

How Tommy Built £70 Million AUM: The Power of Teamwork in Financial Planning

• Hoxton Wealth

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In this episode of the Hoxton Life Podcast, host Sam Oakes sits down with Thomas Goldie, a financial planner who has been instrumental in Hoxton Wealth’s growth and success over the past five years. Thomas shares his journey, from joining Hoxton in its early days to helping shape its innovative approach to international financial planning. This episode dives into the unique opportunities at Hoxton, including global mobility, cross-border advice, and a commitment to long-term client relationships.

Key Discussion Points:

  • The Hoxton Journey: Thomas reflects on the company’s evolution from a small team to an industry leader with a global presence.
  • Hoxton’s Unique Model: Learn how Hoxton Wealth’s approach—focused on fee-based advice, client retention, and multi-jurisdictional flexibility—sets it apart in the international space.
  • Building a Support Team: Thomas discusses the power of delegating and creating a high-performing team to scale his business and improve client service.
  • The Pathway Program: Insight into Hoxton’s structured career progression for aspiring financial planners, enabling growth from trainee to advisor.
  • Technology and Innovation: How tools like the Hoxton Wealth App and their custom CRM enhance the client experience and streamline global financial planning.
  • Opportunities for Advisors and Clients: The podcast explores planning opportunities, like navigating inheritance tax changes and offering clients continuity of advice, while also highlighting the benefits of being part of a business that allows advisors to build and sell their own books.
  • Future Growth and DIFC Expansion: Thomas and Sam discuss Hoxton’s move into the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and its potential for reaching high-net-worth clients and creating new opportunities.

This episode offers a fascinating look at the dynamic world of international financial planning, blending personal stories, career insights, and the innovative solutions that make Hoxton Wealth a standout in the industry.

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!

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Speaker 1:

The vision that Chris had when he talked to you, and Matt when they talked to you and they spoke about what they're going to do, how they're going to do it. You know, we're now five years later. Has it come true?

Speaker 2:

Because I provide advice to clients in the UK, europe, australia, so on and so forth. It makes the job even more interesting because you're dealing with different things on a daily basis.

Speaker 1:

Let's talk about assets as the management. Do you mind sharing what that generates? No, not at all.

Speaker 2:

About £70 million at the moment. I'm proud of that. I know sometimes advisors get funny about saying what they manage, but it's something that I'm proud of and I don't want to stop. Really I won't beat around the bush. Being a financial planner one way I always prescribe it it's a hard way to make an easy living. It's not. You know. You can't come into the office and expect the phone to ring and people saying please give me advice and I can pay you for it. It doesn't work like that over here For me. People that are going to go on and do well in this profession are people that work extremely hard and listen to people that know better than them.

Speaker 1:

What about financial education then? Obviously, that comes up. A lot Are lesbian out here, right, tommy? How are you doing? Thanks so much for joining us on the Hoxton Life podcast.

Speaker 2:

Very good, Thanks for having me. You're welcome. Taken a while but we got there in the end. Went to the right building this time.

Speaker 1:

I always tell people don't drive here because the parking's a nightmare. So this time did you drive?

Speaker 2:

I got a taxi.

Speaker 1:

Yay.

Speaker 2:

Still yet to pay my parking ticket from last time as well, and I drove, so we'll get that done at some point.

Speaker 1:

They stack up out here, don't they? The old parking fines? Yeah yeah, Chris was telling me that his wife's got loads, Didn't he just text?

Speaker 2:

you Blaming it on his wife, is he yeah?

Speaker 1:

Right, Right. Well, Tommy, look, thanks for joining us. Like I said, it's Hoxton Life. It's about the life of those that work within Hoxton. Okay, so you've been here for how long now?

Speaker 2:

More or less since the start. I think I joined back end of 2018 or beginning of 2019. So what's that? Five years, five, six years yeah, gosh, so quite a while. It's gone quite quickly, though, glad you worked that out.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, my brain's frazzled. You're the fifth person I've interviewed today. Couldn't quite work out simple maths. That's why I couldn't be a financial planner. I don't think Brilliant, excellent. So you joined about five years ago.

Speaker 2:

So you've seen big big change here then Huge changes. Yeah, I mean, when I first came over there I think I was the fifth advisor into the business Small office, we obviously had our UK presence and our presence in Abu Dhabi. Really small office, not loads of admin, a handful of us. So, yeah, going from that to what we are now has been really impressive, but I know there's a long way to go as well.

Speaker 1:

So you weren't there from the very, very start.

Speaker 2:

No, not from the very very. No, not from the very very start. You weren't sat at chris's kitchen table day two, if you want to call it that way. No, not the, not the table with, uh, with chris and christine yeah definitely not. But yeah, not too, not too long after that fantastic so what brought you to hoxton then?

Speaker 2:

so, um, lots of different reasons really. I mean I I was working for a different international firm at that point. Cut my my teeth there Did quite well. Then Chris gave me a call and said look, this is what I'm doing and obviously you know Matt was involved in that as well and it just kind of resonated with what I wanted to do long-term with my career.

Speaker 2:

You know, following more of a UK model, kind of lower fees, upfront building a strong book, Also being able to advise clients internationally as well, because what you have with a lot of firms in the Middle East is that you'll take on clients here and if they move somewhere else, generally you have to pass them onto another advisor in a different country. But one of the things Chris said from the very beginning was if you're regulated and qualified to provide advice all over the world, as long as you're providing advice to a good standard and you're regulated, you can continue working with your clients wherever they are and that was something that was really attractive to me, because I'm you know, I'm not in this for the short term.

Speaker 2:

Um, I want to be in it for for a long time and you know, I think with financial planning, you have relationships with your clients that you want to. You know, you want that continuity of advice, basically, um, so I didn't want it to be. You're here and you can deal with these clients and then that's it, basically. So that was one thing, I think, one of the biggest things for me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, fantastic the vision that chris had when he when he talked to you and matt, and they talked to you and they spoke about what they're going to do, how they're going to do it. You know, we're now five years later. Has it come true?

Speaker 2:

yes, so far. I mean, I don't think they probably even realised it was going to get as big as it already has. I don't think that blueprint was always there. Right, it's obviously developed over time but, you know, certainly in the early years they still they wanted to do something incredible and different and that's happened. But, yeah, it's probably gone even bigger than anyone expected, I think, which has been good, been been nice to be a part of. Yeah, absolutely, and I was brilliant this year.

Speaker 1:

Obviously, they released the l tip, didn't they? Yeah, so the long-term incentive plan. So sharing that success with everybody um within the business, and I think having an incentive like that in place that gets everybody pulling in the right direction is such a powerful thing, yeah, um. So that was a real um really great thing for me to come into and be a part of, and it certainly made me look at the business in a completely different way, because I want it to be a huge success and I want to contribute to the huge success and if I do that, obviously my l tip gets bigger, the business gets bigger and we all win, don't we? Yeah, and that, to me, was a big win.

Speaker 1:

And there wasn't many companies that were really, really doing that um in that international space. You raised a really good point there. Right, there was. Before you came to Hoxton. It was probably more commission, upfront focus, higher commissions, and that's what it was like really in the international space, especially in the Middle East. It needed cleaning up a little bit, didn't it? That UK model needed to come in and someone needed to push that forward, and I can imagine so many people going that's not going to work out here, or why would I do that?

Speaker 2:

But going to work out here or why would I do that?

Speaker 1:

yeah, but it's great to see that it is working and it has worked and one of the things you pointed out pointed out there as well, I can imagine would must have been massively frustrating, because I used to know advisors would come out here, earn an absolute fortune and then they couldn't bring their client. No income could come with them the clients can come with them.

Speaker 2:

When they came back to the uk, and they end up essentially just starting again and over, and over and over right yeah um, so hoxton is just definitely one of those places you can build a long-term book. Yeah, and it's flexible, as long as you're doing the right things and you know continuing to learn and take qualifications and stuff like that and want to be in the profession for a long time do you think like, if you let's kind of like people love traveling, do you think you could with this job?

Speaker 1:

do you think like in the future, people could actually literally travel around the world being a financial planner? Do you think the infrastructure and what we're building here the cross-border multi-jurisdiction, the technology that we have is connecting clients and advisors across the world? Do you think it would almost create careers across the world?

Speaker 2:

definitely, um, but obviously we would have to be careful with that. We don't want junior people just gallivanting off around, but you know, people that have got experience and have, um, you know, good books of business and things like that. There is that flexibility to kind of work that way yeah, if you want to, yeah um, we do.

Speaker 2:

We do believe that being in an office is is the right thing as well, though, because you can learn more that way. But, yeah, certainly for and I'm talking about advisors here. But yeah, it's definitely becoming a real global business, which is really interesting and exciting.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and we've got people all over the world already. Yeah, you know, and it's just about building those hubs out. One of the most exciting areas for me with this business one is the UK and the acquisition work that we're doing now. I really wanted to join hox. I only joined hoxton, really, because they had that uk presence. For me to join an international firm and for it to not have a uk presence was risky, so for me it was like a big, big selling point. And when I started looking under the bonnet a little bit further and I started looking at all the acquisitions that were going on and the energy and the effort, the money spent on compliance, what it actually takes to run a international business across multiple jurisdictions, I mean, like it's hard enough in the uk being regulated by the fca, but when you bring in multiple across the world. And one thing was really interesting was that you had a load of the regulators come in, didn't you not?

Speaker 1:

not, not too long ago yeah, one after the other one after the one after another I think it was like four, wasn't it, and you passed it and that must have been incredibly stressful at the time for everybody involved, but it showed to me that it was a squeaky clean business and again ping unique to me, there's an international firm here doing what they said they're doing.

Speaker 2:

They're doing fee-based advice there across the world and you know regulators coming in checking over it and it's good.

Speaker 1:

It's squeaky clean and for me that was a real usp, was a real unique selling point. What are the unique selling points of an international firm, would you think, um, say, financial planners in the uk should be thinking about?

Speaker 2:

um, it's the. It's the flexibility that we've already covered to work in multiple jurisdictions and look after clients all around the world. That's a big thing. We've obviously got the Hoxton Wealth app as well now, which is amazing. The guys that have developed that over the last few years have done an incredible job, and I think most of the advisors in our office at the moment they're typical clients. You know senior people that have worked in lots of different countries. They've accumulated assets all over the world and no one really wants to work with five or six different. You know advisories in different countries these days, so the ability to basically bring everything in house is massive and all it really does is just help. You know, help develop your book and your client base a little bit quicker, and I think that's a really attractive thing for UK-based advisors that are just restricted to one place.

Speaker 1:

How do you use that app in the advice journey and process with the clients that you're servicing?

Speaker 2:

Yep. So whenever I have a review meeting with a client, for example, I will update everything. On the Hoxton Wealth app, We'll look at how we think assets are likely to grow over time. We'll have a base scenario and say, look, this is as you're doing things at the moment. This is what your future is likely to look like. However, if we restructure things in a slightly different way, this is what it could potentially look like, and it's just constantly tweaking that over time to make sure they're getting the absolute most out of their assets and the investments that sit within them it's nice also for the client to be able to just literally whip out their phone and take a quick look and get an update on exactly what's going on, and with all their international assets in one place, it's pretty impressive.

Speaker 1:

I mean, it's even got things like crypto on there, isn't?

Speaker 2:

it. Yeah, you can put everything on there. You can put. You know the value of your cars, your properties, wherever they are in the world, um uk assets, ices, pension slips, you know, whatever it is you, you can have a real good view literally at the touch of a button um which is, you know? Again, it's the way that the world's going, isn't it? Yeah, um, so it's been brilliant.

Speaker 1:

I think, if you're one of those people that like to tinker the wealth flow side of it, which is cash flow forecasting essentially, not, that's called it.

Speaker 2:

That though, it's always wealth flow wealth flow exactly.

Speaker 1:

But someone can sit on their sofa and if they really want to get a bit deep on it, they can start playing around with that as well. And I think it just puts that control in the hands of the client and the way it feeds into our matrix as well, which is our own built CRM for financial planning that has the capabilities of being able to deliver advice and service clients anywhere in the world. I think there's many, there's many crms out there that can actually do that, especially off the shelf, yeah you're not going to find something.

Speaker 1:

You're going to have to kind of yeah, bodge something. You know people use salesforce, don't they?

Speaker 2:

and then, try and budget and it's which is expensive as well. I think you know people pay huge fees for, or you know huge uh yeah, huge fees to use that type of stuff. We've got all of ours in-house and we own it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's amazing, and it all talks to each other as well, right, so it's like it's very, very unique, and that was another thing that I was really impressed with. One of the benefits that I do see as well is that in Dubai is tax-free Advisors sitting in the UK. They get their head around this. You can move from the UK to Dubai. You've got an existing client book, you join Hoxton, you come in under Hoxton, you have to be an employee, but you're not treated like an employee. You're not paid a basic salary or anything like that, but you get your visas and all those typical types of things sorted for you and when you come on board it's tax-free. I mean that's pretty cool. That was quite unique, and I just don't think people fully understand that in the UK that you can service your existing client book from Dubai and have it tax-free, and that's a huge benefit.

Speaker 1:

And I was thinking to myself Christ, that's definitely going to be of value in the future. Yeah, people are definitely considering their options.

Speaker 2:

It's huge, isn't it? It's, yeah. I mean, people in the UK are conditioned to paying tax every year, so it's almost like it surprises them when there's an alternative. So so, yeah, it's fantastic. It helps you get to where you want to be a lot quicker.

Speaker 1:

Let's put it that way I understand tax right and I understand where it can be beneficial to pay tax for society right and I'm not against that. But it's not really working.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you know it's funny when I see people like I like paying my taxes, I feel like it's a good thing to do. It's like, yeah, but like what? Nearly 50 percent of what? Everything. It's like, yeah, too much. And where's it going? Yeah, you know, it just doesn't feel quite right. So, yeah, the opportunities are there for advisors to go on an international basis. They can move around the world. You know you got you know you don't have to be muted to buy and you know you got michael yule. It was fantastic to go and, um, catch up you saw him a few weeks ago, didn't you?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I went to France did a little documentary about him and the chickens and his life in France and the opportunities in France and being an hour and a half away from the UK and him being able to live in France is a wonderful experience.

Speaker 1:

But whilst he's in France. He's also servicing American clients as well, australian clients, south African clients, because he had a career over in South Africa with clients over there. So it was really interesting to see this CFP you know, very well-qualified, educated, intelligent financial planner living his dream out in France and having no issue moving around the world and servicing clients.

Speaker 2:

It's unique really.

Speaker 1:

It's hugely unique and if you think about the average age of an advisor in the UK being 55 years old, right, a lot of them are probably thinking, oh, I'd love to retire in France, the uk being 55 years old, right, a lot of them are probably thinking, oh, I'd love to retire in france.

Speaker 1:

I was like you don't have to just go there and work and then retire eventually, exactly once you're used to it why do you have to retire like, go over and do it exactly to underneath hoxton wealth and you know, benefit from our infrastructure, our lead generation, our marketing, our branding, that we're starting to absolutely smash out the park and open yourself up to the international market. It's a little bit interesting. Don't lose those clients, they're going to be moving around.

Speaker 2:

It makes the job more interesting as well when you're, you know, from my side, rather than just purely dealing with ices and um in you know, uk pensions, because I provide advice to clients in the uk, europe, australia, so on and so forth. Um, it makes the job even more interesting because you're dealing with different things on a daily basis yeah um, that's something I really enjoy about it as well. Do you think global?

Speaker 2:

yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, you're always thinking global yeah, and the world seems to be getting smaller these days as well, right, yeah, in many ways. So, um, certainly, the future giving advice this way, in my opinion, in my opinion, brilliant so let's talk about your advice career then.

Speaker 1:

So how long have you been an advisor? For seven years, seven years, and within that seven years, let's talk about assets advice career then. So how long have you been an advisor? For Seven years? Seven years, and within that seven years, let's talk about assets and the management. Do you mind sharing what you've generated?

Speaker 2:

No, not at all About £70 million at the moment Fantastic Over a seven-year period. So yeah, it's been good. I'm proud of that.

Speaker 1:

And.

Speaker 2:

I sometimes advise as a you know, get funny about saying what they manage, but it's something that I'm proud of and I don't want to stop really.

Speaker 1:

And are you feeling like it's ramping up?

Speaker 2:

Definitely. I think the other good thing about working at Hoxton is we don't rest on our laurels. We always look at doing things in a different way to make sure that we're developing as a business. We're doing a great job for clients, so it's progressive in that sense.

Speaker 1:

And have you built a team around you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I've got quite a big team now. So you know, when I first started off it was just sort of me and an administrator. And now I have myself Kim, who's my administrator, who's been with me for sort of six years now. I've got Ryan, who's my paraplanner, who's also, you know, qualified in different jurisdictions as well. I've got a market researcher and I've also got a couple of client relationship managers that work with me as well. So it's good. Yeah, I enjoy it. I kind of enjoy that bit of managing them and helping them develop as well. That's quite big for me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, how hard was it for you to let go and start hiring people? Because, essentially, you're running your own business within Hoxton. It's down to you and your responsibility. If you want to grow your team, you're hiring those people, right? Was it hard for you to let go of that control?

Speaker 2:

To begin with. Yeah, yeah, I'm not going to lie, it was difficult to begin with, but you have to delegate to elevate. It's one of my favourite sayings. Yeah, and you know sometimes they might get things wrong, but that's the way that people learn, but that people learn. But yeah, ryan does a lot of stuff for me now, kim does a lot of stuff for me so that I can kind of continue with other things right. So, yeah, I found it hard to begin with, but now not so much and I realised that that's how you scale up.

Speaker 1:

Do you think you would have built that level of team and generated that level of assets and the management if you were running your own business, for example, outside of the ecosystem of Hoxton Wealth?

Speaker 2:

No, because I see what goes into running Hoxton the compliance, the guys in accounts, marketing, so on and so forth. I would imagine if I had that book of business and I was trying to manage the business, it would be almost impossible to do anything else is the way that I see it. So yeah, being able to plug in and just focus on giving advice and helping develop people in my team.

Speaker 1:

it's made it a lot easier under Hoxton for sure, a lot of people speak very highly of you in there. They say you're a really good, great mentor, a great trainer. Where do you think that's come from?

Speaker 2:

Having great mentors right. So I've known Chris for a long time, since I was a teenager, which you probably know that, um, I obviously came up sort of sort of um underneath Chris, um sort of the business development role. That's that side of things.

Speaker 2:

I've always had good mentors for me, um, and I see the real value in that you know, you're only really going to learn the most from dealing with or working under and learning from people that have been in the exact same situation, so that's the reason I'd like to think I'm quite a good mentor as well within the business no, that's really good.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, very lots of positivity. You got stuck in and and help set up um the pathway program as well.

Speaker 2:

Right, just let people know what the pathway program is yeah, so pathway program is essentially I mean, we're calling the whole thing pathway now, aren't we? Yeah, but yes, if you want to call it the associate wealth advisor or financial planner role. It's for people that are a fund analyst or a power planner or a business development manager or client services, that feel like they've been stuck. It's very difficult to go from that to becoming a financial advisor without any support in between. I think in a lot of other firms as well, if you're a good client relationship manager, you're sometimes held back by senior people.

Speaker 2:

But the way that we see it is that we want to build out great advisors over the long term. So to do that, we've put some support structures in place, which has effectively come onto the pathway team. We've got 11 advisors at the moment. It's a salary and a reduced fee structure, so that takes the pressure off a little bit. Um, and there's a learning environment as well. It's it's office based because, again, we believe that being in the office you learn the most generally. So, yeah, that's kind of it. It's a support structure really for people that are aspiring advisors, that don't just want to be thrown in at the deep end yeah, talk to me a little bit about expectations.

Speaker 1:

So if someone was to come out and they wanted to be a financial planner, right, and let's say they've got their qualifications. But from a starting place they and they've given advice in the uk right, let's say they had no clients. Yeah, how long do you think, realistically, it would take for them to start generating income good levels? What do you think they would earn in three years, let's say and how long do you think, realistically, it would take for them to start generating income good levels? What do you think they would earn in three years, let's say and how long do you think it would take to get there?

Speaker 2:

Is year one really really hard? Year one's hard. I won't beat around the bush. Being a financial planner, one way I always describe it is that it's a hard way to make an easy living. So what I mean by that is the first few years are ridiculously difficult. You have to do prospect, you have to get out there, you have to roll your sleeves up, you have to learn lots of different areas of advice and technical skills and things like that. But once you've got that, you've got that it's like riding a bike right and at that point it becomes more and more easy. You build up good relationships with clients, you get referrals, you build up an ongoing fee for providing good advice. So, yeah, the first year is difficult and then it becomes less difficult, providing you're doing the right things, you turn up, you go above and beyond. That's the way that I look at it. It's not easy, but it does become easy over the long term.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, definitely take into consideration if you've got kids or if you're relying upon a certain level of income. Thinking about coming over to dubai, you do need to think about that you know, because it is an expensive place.

Speaker 1:

Um, you know, school fees are expensive, rent can be quite expensive, so it's well worth sort of considering that. And you know I I'm not into like trying to mislead somebody that you know you could come out to dubai and everyone's chucking money at you. It's not really like that. It is really competitive and it is really tough.

Speaker 1:

And if you are leaving a level of security that you were used to in the UK and you need, you do need to think about right, where am I going to get my income from? And if that means you're in a financial advisor in the UK, maybe you're self-employed, you've got 10, 15, 20 million under, feel that pressure to um perform within the first year and you can live the lifestyle. Perhaps you're used to send your kids to school, start to settle in, start to do the networking, all of that typical type of stuff. But obviously if you're somebody quite fresh, you're quite new. Take consideration that we do pay basic salaries and on the pathway, there is a remuneration package on there as somebody is learning, yeah, or if they are showing the right attributes, then, um, you know they're already advised, they can get stuck in and get out there, but it's not going to land on your lap is it?

Speaker 2:

no, it's, it's not. You know, you can't come into the office and expect the phone to ring, yeah, and people saying, please give me advice and I can pay you for it. Yeah, it doesn't work like that over here. Um so, yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's different in that sense. But as long as you come over with an open mind and understand that, look, I need to, I need to really kind of dig in here, um, there shouldn't be any problems.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, perfect um, talk to me about success stories, right? What? What type of advisor have you seen come through the business? They're absolute success stories. Why, yeah?

Speaker 2:

I'm going to talk about ravi. Actually, I know I know you've had Ravi on the podcast probably a few weeks ago. Ravi used to work with me at our old firm. I actually had to do a little bit of persuasion to get him over to Hoxton, but he'll probably admit that it was the best thing he's ever done For me. People that are going to go on and do well in this profession are people that work extremely hard and listen to people that know better than them, and Ravi is just a prime example of that. You know he's always listened. If you ask him to do something, he always does it he's. You know he's always continuously learning as well. I know he's studying for his Series 65. At the moment. He's Level 6 qualified, you know. So he's a perfect example of the type of people that will go on and have an amazing career as a financial planner why do you think that is like?

Speaker 1:

what is it about him? That's, why is he? Why is he? Is he just natural um? Has he worked hard? Why? What are the what? What are the skills and attributes that he's had?

Speaker 2:

this made it success ravi's a a good people person, which I think is absolute paramount. To be a good financial planner, you know you have to get on well with people and ask the right types of questions and be inquisitive, because it's not just about, you know, convincing someone to look at a product, it's understanding what's most important to them. Ravi's very good at that. He's also extremely hardworking. I mean, you know he comes from fairly humble sort of humble beginnings, you know. I'm sure he won't mind me saying that. So he's just got that work ethic to work hard. You know he just he turns up and he just continues to get better and better at what he does. There's no real secret recipe, I don't think, but it's yes, it's the just the things that I've just mentioned really Secret recipe.

Speaker 1:

I don't think, but it's, yes, it's the just the things that I've just mentioned, really, so you work with a lot of clients in the GCC Yep. What are some of the problems and the challenges that they're coming up against?

Speaker 2:

Yep, discipline is one massive thing. You know, when you're in the UK there's workplace pensions that are set up for you. You know you kind of have to pay into them and that type of thing set up for you. You kind of have to pay into them and that type of thing. Although the UAE, or the GCC in general, is getting better at that as time goes by, people come over here on inflated salaries, larger disposable income, and it's very easy to go out and spend that money on flash cars and brunches and things like that.

Speaker 2:

I know I did that in my first few years over here. So it's really discipline. It's sitting down with people and helping them understand what they need, what their goals are, you know, short, medium and long term, um, and then building out a plan for them that's going to essentially reach those goals. And you know that is discipline. It's almost like going to the gym, right? Uh, we all know that lifting weights builds our muscles and stuff, but, um, unless there's somebody there like a financial planner or a pt in this case um, that's pushing the time. It makes it very, very difficult. So, yeah, discipline is a real big thing Just making sure that people are doing the right things that they know they need to do anyway.

Speaker 1:

It's important as well that those individuals that are moving to Dubai that they do reach out to a trusted, well-qualified financial planner, I think, before they come over, because the earlier they can start looking at it, the earlier they understand perhaps some of the pitfalls that might well be coming their way if they're not disciplined and sensible with their money or things like tax, for instance. Maybe they're coming over and they're wanting to sell a business. There are so many things you've got to be aware of if you are moving to the GCC right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. There's nowhere really that you can go. That's going to be complete. This is exactly the same as the UK. Everywhere's got different rules, different tax legislation, all of this type of stuff. So if you can speak with an advisor that can kind of preempt you and warn you of the type of things you're going to come up against, why not?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, you're bang on.

Speaker 2:

I speak to a lot of people that are about to move out, not just necessarily the UK, but anywhere in the world, that are coming over here. They reach out to us and we can explain how we can help them with lots of different things. It's not just financial planning. Sometimes people say where's a good area to live? I know you asked me that not that long ago, right? So, uh, there's loads of things that we can help people with. Where do you live? Again, I live in emir south.

Speaker 1:

Yeah you're loving it there, aren't you?

Speaker 2:

love it. Yeah, we've been in. We've been here for a while now, married with two kids, so I don't get out partying so much anymore. Yeah, um, so we, uh, we have a nice villa up there, which is good that's not what it looks like on instagram, mate. Yeah the wife doesn't know, they must.

Speaker 1:

They must be old pictures, mate, what you're on about in your bermuda shorts, yeah, you had a six-pack, so it must have been an old one oh, it's a very old one yeah, I haven't had a six-pack for a decade because I'm losing mine probably more mate, that's by stone thing where people say like, oh, you're putting a load of weight when you go to buy. I was like never yeah, I'm literally. It's a real thing, yeah it's definitely a real thing, but I'm aware of it now I've got a stone on me at least you're Like I said, the pleasure of working out.

Speaker 1:

Yay, planning opportunities with clients because of changes in the UK, things like inheritance tax, for instance. So what are the opportunities for planning? You know, planning opportunities for clients because of the changes that are happening in the UK.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so obviously we had the budget recently, which was interesting probably not quite as bad or as onerous on certain people as we were expecting, but some interesting things have come off of that, and one of those things being that UK pensions are going to come into scope for inheritance tax as of 2027. And for a lot of my clients that are high net worth individuals, pensions have always been seen as something that is there if you need it, but it's a legacy planning tool where they can pass the assets onto their children or whatever. But obviously from 2027, that's going to be changing. So the UK has a double tax treaty with a lot of the countries in the GCC and what that means is, from the age of 55, people will be able to effectively use the tax treaty to take their funds tax-free out of the UK. So there's some huge planning opportunities around that for people, which is interesting, right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, huge, yeah, massive opportunities. I don't think again, I don't think people are fully aware of it. No, you know when should they start talking about it? When should they start looking at it and really understanding it?

Speaker 2:

There's no, yeah, I mean really, you want to be looking at these things all the time. I think it's the same with any financial planning or any asset that you might have. Um, you need to look at things and review them on a regular basis, whether that's, whether that's life insurance protection you know your home insurance whatever it might be, these types of things need to be looked at all the time I guess as well when you're in the international space.

Speaker 1:

People are moving around all the time and we touched on this earlier but there is that continuity of advice. Is that a big problem that you're the clients are experiencing? Is getting that continuity of?

Speaker 2:

advice? Yeah, I think so. So I know we kind of touched on it earlier, but if it was me and I had assets all over the world and you know, I wasn't still entirely sure where I was, when was going to be I would want to work with an advisor who was able to look after me wherever I went and whatever assets I had. Um, you know, for me, financial planning is not something I'm going to work with this advisor for two or three years. I'm going to work with that advisor for two or three years. It's building out a long-term relationship, because good financial planning comes from really understanding understanding your clients needs and wants, um, and that's something that's built up over a long period of time, right? So yeah, was that the question? I think that was the question wasn't it yeah, good so

Speaker 1:

you know, like I touched on it earlier as well, that you know, in the international space there's a lot of worrying concern about people running around saying they're financial advisors and they're not qualified and they're not experienced. Um, you know, these are risks and these are problems do you come across them and our clients should be aware of these yep absolutely so.

Speaker 2:

You know, really anyone that's seeking financial advice should be doing all of their background checks checking the FCA register in the UK, for example, to make sure the person they're speaking to is qualified and able to give that advice. And that doesn't just go for the UK, that goes for everywhere. But there is always that fear isn't there. I think you know the other thing that we do quite a lot of here and um, something I think we do very well as well, as you know. For example, if I'm going to take on a client somewhere, I will usually ask one of my existing clients that have been with me for a long time to act as a referee or reference.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so we do we do quite a lot of people are very passionate about financial education.

Speaker 2:

Are we seeing less of it out here? Less of it out here? I wouldn't say less of it out here, but one thing that I'm quite big on is the fact that we don't even give financial planning classes in school, when we're growing up, right, and I still can't get my head around that. But, um, one of the great things about working with a financial advisor is that it's not just about us helping put you in a better position, but it's also about educating you about lots of different things over time.

Speaker 2:

So I've got friends, you know, that have been clients of mine for quite a while now, and when they first came to me, they didn't know what a pension was. They didn't know, um, really anything about tax or anything like that. But now, you know, the type of conversations I have with them are quite in depth about, um, different assets that they might be able to hold, all of that type of stuff. So that's another good part of the job that I enjoy actually educating people and it's, you know, even if they're not my client forever, it's something that will have for a long time. Now, yeah, um, passing on that knowledge, passing on the knowledge, yeah, not that I know everything. Yeah, um, but yeah, they're the type of conversations I like, and I like seeing that client journey as the years go by.

Speaker 1:

Getting 70 million under management right is tough, you know, when you hear the whole phrase like it's making your first million, that's hard. Every million after that is a lot easier. Is there a tipping point with financial planning? Because you've obviously built your team? Like when did you start to hire into your team? Did that have a positive impact on the amount of time, the amount of aum that you were generating? Yeah, and can you kind of extrapolate that forward? Do you feel like you're going to accelerate growth within your client acquisition assets and the management as you build out your team? Like what, yeah, is it?

Speaker 1:

Let's give somebody a kind of insight, because a lot of people like again, like maybe they're in the uk sitting on 15, 20 million in there, maybe they're an ar, maybe they're even directly authorized, and I've spoken to them. In fact, one of them is actually joining us. He's got 25 million under management and the reason why he is because he needs to free himself up to be able to go to the next stage. Right, he wants to bust through that because at the moment he can't on his own, because there's too many things to do.

Speaker 2:

Gabriel reports all this sort of stuff when was it a good time?

Speaker 1:

you know when was a tipping point for you and when do you think is a a good time to start building out your team? And did you see an acceleration of, maybe development of business? Were you stagnating? Before it tells a little bit.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I think, honestly, it was as soon as I came to Hoxton, because when you start charging your clients an ongoing fee, it makes it easier to build your business rather than taking big upfront commissions, right, because I wake up on January and I know how much I'm earning, I know how much I can allocate to building out my team who then help me service my clients and things like that.

Speaker 2:

So there's lots of different things we can talk about. Uh, you know, around this, but, yeah, it's, it's just you have to speculate to accumulate, and that's something that I've done quite well. Um, you know, take, taken advice from chris and matt and the other guys, the senior guys in the business. Um, build, yeah, to help essentially build out my team so that I can continue to do more. And, uh, the other side of it as well is that you know, I could go on and go out and take on 20 million pounds worth of assets in one year, but if I've got loads of unhappy clients that walking out the door, what's the point? So something that we do again very well at hoxs we retain clients, which is just as important as taking on new clients, right? Yeah?

Speaker 1:

and what part of the business does it? How do we retain those clients? What is it?

Speaker 2:

we have that retains them. It's everything, isn't it? It's it's brand image, um, which I think ours, you know, in the international space, is one of the best, if not the best, in my opinion. Um, it makes it a lot easier to take on clients and retain clients that way. Um, we have everything. You know, we have all our own direct licenses. So, uh, uk, europe, us, australia um, here, you know, we don't piggyback off of anyone else's licenses. We, we own all of the licenses that we have, which is always, I think, a nice thing for clients to see. Um, we just do things properly, yeah I also love um.

Speaker 1:

There is a kind of you could join this business without any experience, right, and you could start with no experience all the way through your financial planning career and you could exit out of this business and you could sell your book of business back to Hoxton Now. Does that incentivize you? Is that something that you're thinking right? Every time I'm building, you know, the more assets and the management I'm generating, the bigger hopefully my book will be and the bigger the sale value will be. Tell us a little bit about that. You know how much. What part does that play when you're building a book of business?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's always in the back of your mind. For me, I'm 38 in a few weeks, so I don't want to go anywhere. I love what I do. I enjoy looking after my clients and the relationship I've got with them, but it is nice to know that you've got that option. You know, if something happens further on down the line, it's effectively your retirement plan, isn't it? So it's nice to know that that's there and that's something that Hoxton promote essentially Well, I think it's really interesting.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of these entrepreneurial advisors that are out there, especially in the UK, and they didn't really want to go self-employed because of the there is so much regulation.

Speaker 2:

All the hassle that comes along with that.

Speaker 1:

The hassle, the stress, everything you talked about before yeah, you know, we would mean Jonathan Jay were talking about it. Intrapreneurs, you know, bringing them into the environment, into an ecosystem where they can be nurtured, they can build their business within it, with the support of the infrastructure, of everything around it, and they can sell the book. So it's kind of like a win-win. It's a win-win and that's what hoxton does. It creates this win-win and that was a huge selling point for me. And again, once advisors truly understand that, and if you listen to this and you want to know more, reach out and ask, because we'll go through with you. There is a structure here. You can go from no experience all the way to selling exactly your book of business. And and that's a positive and and not only on top of that, but we've only just announced that there's an LTIP as well. It's a long-term incentive plan which everyone's going to benefit from. So that, to me, is important because it pulls everybody in the right direction, Exactly.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a brilliant system. You know that we've built out and we're continuing to develop. You know, realistically, we're going to have people within the business that start in Keynes' team. You know the business development guys all the way through. As you said, you could be within the business for 20, 30 years if you wanted to, which is incredible, because moving businesses and moving firms isn't fun to do either. When I did it, I had a very small book of business, so it wasn't as bad, but you know, I couldn't think of anything worse than going to a different business at this point in time. So, yeah, we really do cater for the entire journey.

Speaker 1:

Power planners Do you have power planners in your team?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I have Ryan, who's you know, uk level four qualified. He kind of he does a lot of the technical work for me. He's been with me for a few years now so he's a huge help.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so international power planners, slightly different from the UK power planners. Uk power planners tend to be you know, here's a report, get it done type thing, Don't sit in front of the client. But it's a bit more out here in the international space you tend to find power planners sitting in front of clients, more working with the client, more like in almost like a relationship type, manager type position, like unearthing opportunities, following up with them like a concierge service almost. Is that something that you encourage Ryan to do?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely so. Whenever I'm taking on a client, you know, providing advice, what I like to do is integrate my team at the very beginning, just so that people understand it's not just me. I'm not a one-man band. I have a huge team behind me and it's not always going to be me. You know, on on the phone calls it might be booking ryan in to do a fact find, or you know asking kim to do something, or you know even asking tom or charlotte to do something. That my, my, um, you know my client relationship people. So I think it's it's important that clients understand it's not just me, yeah, um, there's a whole big team behind me.

Speaker 1:

So I do, I do try and integrate them right at the beginning of the uh, the process I think it's really powerful as well, because if you position it in a way that it's like a little family office, you know everybody's got their part in your business, yeah, and that the client gets that feeling they're being really looked after in every aspect, every detail you know, if there's something looks.

Speaker 1:

You know, if the administrator notices there's something not quite right, then the administrator would call it's like there's detail there, there's, there's a service there, yeah, and at the end of the day, when someone's paying on a recurring income basis, right, yeah, they need to know that they're actually getting a service for that's right what they're paying for essentially um, I think it's a really powerful tool, a great way to position yourself as a differentiator to the guy running around. Yeah, out here on his own, for instance yeah, yeah, exactly like.

Speaker 2:

My typical day is that I'm on meetings most of the day, um, whether it's you know, first meetings or existing client meetings, or you know sitting down helping one of the guys and mentoring. So I can't always be available. I wish I was always available. But when clients know they can drop ryan a text message or you him an email and say can you just come back to me on this, it's really powerful and it's important as well. The other side of that as well is that the guys that work underneath me that are eventually going to come through, they all want to be advisors. So if I get them involved in my process, it makes that transition so much easier. So I think in other firms a lot of the junior people in that respect are kind of left in the dark a little bit. Yeah, um, so I like to get everyone involved. I copy them into all the emails. They can see how I deal with clients, the relationship that I've got with them, because they can see that you know that's the way that things should be done.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's that open, honest, yeah, um, mentorship again right, yeah, like you're actually empowering them to push their careers forward. And I think when we, the more I talk about the power planner side out here, um, one of the struggles you have in the uk is like it would be administrative power planner, become an advisor, um, so that would be like the route that you would, you would kind of go down out here.

Speaker 1:

It feels way more um, way more geared towards that so sometimes power planner would really really wants to be an advisor but their business is keeping them in the power planner role, yeah, whereas in the international space it's encouraged, so you're kind of speeding them up. So actually a power planner in the UK who's like I'm really like super bloody personable.

Speaker 1:

I want to get ahead. They should be knocking on our door and saying have you got any power planner stroke, trainee roles? And I wonder with us and I think we're going to develop this how you feel about that. Do you think that power planner role should be in the whole pathway process? Let's say you're a trainee wealth manager. You come in without any experience, you start smashing the telephones, phoning leads, generating leads for advisors and starting to work with them and chasing clients, booking them in, all that kind of stuff. But then eventually you do step then more into that power planner role and start working a lot closer with an advisor. So you start to understand that element of the business and then you go into advice. Yeah, kind of feels like a more.

Speaker 1:

Smoother transition, smoother transition instead of, like BDM training wealth manager, straight into advice. Yeah, almost like a kind of bit of a leap.

Speaker 2:

It is a big leap yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I've heard from people when they've made that leap that they didn't quite understand how big the leap was. They were just like, oh yeah, great Once I become a financial planner. That's why it's the name, that's what it will do for me and I'll be great at it and it's like, well, no, actually there is a process and ways to do this, and you'll learn that through being a paraplanner. So so it is actually a vital step in a successful career. I think, um, I can see how that fits in, really, really beautiful in the international space because it's encouraged.

Speaker 2:

We don't. We don't want to hold people back. Um, like some you know some, some firms probably do we don't want to hold people back, but at the same time, we want to make sure that all of the tools are there. Yeah, um, because you can rush it as well. Right, you can go from being a client relationship manager straight into being an advisor, and that's no good for anyone because you know, if you don't do a great job of it or you've missed loads of steps on the way through, it kind of messes it up for everyone, for us as a business, and so we do like to make sure that things are structured in the right way. What I've found as well over the last few years is that the very best advisors are usually the ones that have done the best job as a BDM, the best job as a power planner, so on and so forth, because they've got all the tools and you know they've kept them sharp on the way through.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, love it Fantastic. What are you looking forward to the most?

Speaker 2:

about the future, just to see where the business goes. To be honest, you know, I the fact that we've gone from where we were to where we are today in such a short period of time, does make you think. You know, where can this really go? So I'll probably be. I know you talk about being on the bus. I'll be on the bus, probably till the end. I would imagine yeah, that's the plan. Um, just continuing to do a good job for clients as well. Right, because that's what essentially pays the bills and make, makes the business tick. Um, you know, we talk about what we earn, things like that, from time to time, but that is secondary. You know, the first thing, first and foremost is, is doing a great job for clients, and everything else comes afterwards.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, I love it yeah, I'm really excited about the difc as well, actually, yeah, yeah, I think that's going to a fantastic opportunity. Explain to people what the DIFC is, just in case they don't understand.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, difc is Dubai International Financial Centre. It's its own region, effectively downtown, that has its own kind of regulated by the DFSA, so slightly different to the licences that we operate under at the moment, and some of the advisors in the business are going to have the opportunity to work out of there, which will open things up a little bit in terms of our offering. So that's exciting. Is it important to be in the DIFC? I think so. Yeah, I think it's taking nothing away from what we already have in place, but all of the big banks are down there, all of the big institutions are kind of regulated out of there and work out of there as well. So to be amongst those big names, yeah, that's going to be really good for us.

Speaker 1:

Yeah and sort of the high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals. Yeah, in that space too, that kind of private client space, right, yeah, I'm really looking forward to building some stories around the difc. You know our journey into the difc, why we're going there, the types of advisors that we're putting in there, what we want to do, yeah, and then start bringing those client stories in as well. Yeah, yeah, I'm really looking forward to for me. The future for me and what I do is in a creative role is how can I bring more stories to life around hoxton, and a big focus for me next year is a bit like this might your ones? Yeah, is I want to. I want to bring the client stories to life because people like look at reviews these days and we've got loads of trust pilot ones. You can't take that away. It's a a bloody good one, a trust pilot for building trust. But if I went on a website now and I see loads of reviews sometimes, I think well, how many of those are these?

Speaker 2:

Are they even real?

Speaker 1:

Sometimes I think that, whereas you interview a client in their home and you make it like a really emotional journey where we've actually helped them, they're going out of their way.

Speaker 2:

When you can really yeah, when you can get them on film, they can quantify the difference that we've made.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that would be really powerful and that's what I want to do. So I want to do that on an international basis. I want to. I want to bring that into the advisor stories as well and, of course, the advice stories, the things we do and I can?

Speaker 1:

I can kind of bring all those together on an international basis. We've've got one in America, we've got one in Asia, one in Australia. I think I can visualize it now. It's like who the hell is doing that, who the hell is bringing to life international advice through the stories from the people who deliver it and the people who receive it, and that, to me, is the vision that I've got For like no one's done that ever.

Speaker 2:

No one's done it.

Speaker 1:

no one's done it, not even close probably but it's just bc, I suppose, in a way. But even then you don't it. They don't market it that way do they? No, no it's not like. It's like the global bank or whatever, but it's not. It's not marketed.

Speaker 2:

That way, it's not that personal. Yeah, in the sense that when you see people's actual stories, then you've got that expat you know, and that expat and the journey that they're going on.

Speaker 2:

So you might have the expat who's you know you might keep it and if you, if you sink it into, like the uk, so you've got like a uk person who's in america who left america and then maybe went over to australia and they can say oh my, the same advisor is still looking after me and this is kind of what they've done to structure things that would be really cool.

Speaker 1:

So you're connecting the stories and it takes and takes people on a journey. But what I also love and this is one of's like a travel show. People buy with their eyes, man, and they want to go on a journey and they want to feel emotionally connected to something. So there was a reason why I put pictures of me in the pool. There's a reason why I put me when I'm at this nice hotel in the desert because there's a romance, there's a romance to travel, there's a romance to exploration, and I want to bring that exploration to life and I want to take away this idea that it's dodgy, because it's not. It's not dodgy. You can be an international financial planner. You just need to join the right company, and that, for me, is really, really important. How do we bring to life the great work that we are doing? So advisors can join us to offer more great work to the clients that we service. And let's get those clients on camera. Let's get them amazing.

Speaker 2:

I'm sure we've got lots of good clients that will be happy to do that as well.

Speaker 1:

I'd like to think so I'm looking forward to it next year, mate brilliant well. It's been an absolute pleasure getting to know you as well. You're a top bloke and I understand why everyone rates you so highly in the business. So thanks for sharing your hoxton life today with me. I've thoroughly enjoyed it you're welcome.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for having me on cheers buddy cheers.