Hoxton Life

Building One Global Financial Planning Company: Hoxton Wealth’s Vision - with Jonathon Jay and Jacob Hall

• Hoxton Wealth

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Episode Overview

In this episode of Hoxton Life, host Sam Oakes sits down with Jonathon Jay (Director of UK Advice) and Jacob Hall (Global Head of Advisory, based in Dubai) to discuss how Hoxton Wealth is redefining financial planning on a global scale.

With a presence across multiple jurisdictions, Hoxton is focused on collaboration, shared learning, and replicating best practices worldwide to ensure every client—no matter where they are—receives a gold standard of financial advice.

Jonathon and Jacob share insights on:
✅ How Hoxton is unifying its global advisory model to create consistency for both advisers and clients.
✅ The importance of client experience in 2025, and why Hoxton is doubling down on service quality.
✅ Net Promoter Score (NPS) and why it’s a game-changer for improving client satisfaction and engagement.
✅ Technology and efficiency, including how the Hoxton App is enhancing transparency for clients.
✅ Why collaboration, not competition, is the key to adviser success in a modern financial planning firm.

If you’re an adviser looking for a firm that truly supports career growth, or a client wanting to work with a financial planner who puts service first, this episode is for you!

🔹 Key Takeaways

💡 For Financial Advisers:

  • Hoxton operates as one unified business—no silos, just global expertise.
  • A strong adviser support system helps planners focus on clients, not admin.
  • The NPS system ensures service excellence across all jurisdictions.
  • Hoxton’s global footprint means opportunities to work internationally.

💡 For Clients:

  • Hoxton is committed to providing seamless financial planning worldwide.
  • The Hoxton App enhances client transparency and service efficiency.
  • NPS-driven feedback ensures ongoing improvements to the client experience.
  • A financial planning firm that truly listens and prioritises long-term relationships.


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:

I must say you're two of my most favourite people at Hoxton Wealth.

Speaker 2:

I do think you say that to everyone. It's reciprocated.

Speaker 1:

Since you two have met through the business, I feel like the business has been more connected.

Speaker 2:

We're pretty good at service. You know everyone can be better. You know they can be better, but overall, as a business, the quality of the advisors. However, as you scale and grow, that's when service can drop.

Speaker 3:

I've been a power planner and it was a really good way for me to become an advisor. So by the time I became an advisor I'd sat over 100 meetings.

Speaker 2:

Something I talk to a lot of clients about is, yes, you've got to save for the future, but you've also got to live along the way.

Speaker 3:

People think that Hoxton's only been in the UK for five minutes, as we haven't.

Speaker 1:

Hoxton have had an office in the UK since the beginning and most of the assets in the business sit in the UK. Trump going on all those different podcasts and how it's managed to get him straight into the White House again. It's clearly obvious that long-form podcast content and collaboration and education is key. Jacob, jonathan, welcome back to the Hoxton Life podcast. I must say you're two of my most favourite people at Hoxton Wealth.

Speaker 2:

I do think you say that to everyone, but yeah, okay, it's reciprocated. It's reciprocated.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I am the best here, aren't I Right? Okay, so today, on the Hoxton Wealth podcast, we've brought you sorry the Hoxton Life podcast. We've brought you back to discuss collaboration Because JJ you've been here as long as me haven't you really Yep.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, jacob, you've been here quite a while, a few years now Part of the furniture, and since you two have met through the business, I feel like the business has been more connected, and I think that's something that we want to do, isn't it? We want to make sure that this international business, this multi-jurisdiction with offices all across the world, that we're not isolating people, that we're not siloing people, that we are one business, we are Hoxton Wealth and we are international. And it's interesting and it's a challenge, but the way we do it is by getting together and connecting, and you two, in very similar roles one in the UAE, one in the UK right are now connecting and working together. So today we want to talk about that. What have you learned from each other? What have you learned from the different locations that we have around the world, and how are we taking the best parts of each area and implementing it into another area? So we create this business with extreme synergy. So how's it been going, guys? You good. Jacob, do you want to kick things off?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's good, I synergy, so how's?

Speaker 3:

it been going guys.

Speaker 2:

You good, jacob, you want to kick things off. Yeah, it's good. I mean I think you you've highlighted there some. Obviously the business has grown exponentially in the past. Everybody kind of knew each other. Obviously you joined and then jj joined and he came into the uk, and not that there was a disconnect, but because there was a relationship there between myself and the guys in the uk.

Speaker 2:

Before there was an instant connection, whereas JJ was brand new, building an office very, very quickly and it could have quite quickly become two businesses if we didn't speak. So, even though we both have different areas to work in, we started speaking on the telephone. We got to know each other, obviously met when he came over, obviously got on really, really well, and what that's allowed us to do is understand what the business is doing and making sure we are working to each other's strengths. The other interesting thing obviously is JJ grew up here and now has moved back to Liverpool, which is near to where I'm from. I grew up there and I've moved over here, so we've kind of almost swapped roles in a certain way. He is also a Liverpool fan, which helps, it, does help, it does help Trading places. He is also a Liverpool fan which helps.

Speaker 1:

It does help Trading places, the international version.

Speaker 2:

Fantastic.

Speaker 1:

Great. How have you been? How do you find the whole experience?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, amazing. Look me and Jacob picked up the phone to each other really early on and believed it was super important that we work closely together so that we avoid that silo mentality, avoid silos in the business and, like Jacob said, things are going so quickly and growing so quickly in the UK. It's super important that we don't create that two different businesses doing two different things and we both think in a very similar way. So we believe in collaboration and the team approach and we're both very much team players and I believe we build out our teams with that kind of mentality. We bring in people that have that mentality. So we have the same views on how we should build out our teams, which is good, but we obviously have to do it in different ways given the different markets. But there's lots we can learn from each other and have learned from each other already Fantastic.

Speaker 1:

What people need to understand as well. We are an international company, multi-jurisdiction. We have people sitting out here in our Dubai office, which I call the heartbeat of the business right, I do like that term the heartbeat heartbeat of the business. Everybody that I've brought onto the podcast, who ends up joining or selling their business to Hoxton they always say to me, when I walk into that Dubai office, it's like the heartbeat is different to what I think, and it happened to me when I came to Dubai, which is why I stayed, and that's why a lot of advisors in the UK are really, really interested. They're interested in Dubai, right, and we've got advisors, obviously in Dubai that are servicing uk clients.

Speaker 1:

So there is that synergy. So I just want to make that really, really clear. Like, if you're part of the business in the uk and you're a financial planner and you're staying in the uk, yeah, you're going to be dealing with uk clients, but if you're based in dubai, you can do exactly the same. It's interchangeable because we have those multiple jurisdictions, we've got those different licenses. So this is why it's important that the businesses communicate well those different areas, those different countries, to make sure we're not missing opportunities as well. We're offering the same level of client service, proposition marketing. Everything needs to be succinct, doesn't it? Is there a big crossover? So you've built out a fantastic team now in the just opened up that Liverpool office, correct? I want to ask you first, is the mentality in the UK international, or are they in a UK frame of mind?

Speaker 3:

It's an interesting question, I think. Look, the people that we are bringing on in the UK are likely a very high percentage of them are likely always going to be UK. Yeah, but clearly there's an attraction in working for a global, international business. People like to explore and learn new things. We are always going to be a UK-focused domestic business, but the fact that we have colleagues that we can work with, learn from Stuart, for example, and Teresa that have joined us in Liverpool I think they've enjoyed being able to pick up the phone to people with different experiences in different jurisdictions so I think we are a UK domestic business for sure, and that's what we're trying to build. We're trying to build that local advisor for local clients. But I think there's a big attraction in being in an international business Fantastic.

Speaker 2:

I suppose on that just before we go on to the next part, is a big frustration I found from speaking to advisors while we've been going through recruitment and JJ and people think a lot of people are leaving the UK, right, so you work bloody hard more so probably down south in London but work hard, build up a client bank.

Speaker 2:

Your clients start leaving and you've just got to wish them well and find someone for them to go to. Well, if you can find someone within your own company, that is, within hoxton, that can continue that relationship, they might end up back in the uk in three years time and they can go back to you. Yeah, you might want to get qualified in a different jurisdiction internationally and continue that relationship. Yeah, that's a huge usp. I mean having we talk about this all the time, but we're licensed in multiple jurisdictions and we we allow people to work across those. I don't encourage it. So I don't say to people go and get qualified here, here, here and have clients everywhere, because it's too much, but just being able to keep them in house is a real big thing.

Speaker 1:

I think I love it we got the uk and we've got dubai right and we got two individuals here at the forefront of building the UK and we've got Dubai right and we've got two individuals here at the forefront of building the business and building the teams for those locations. Now, one of the things that I've noticed 16 years working in recruitment in the UK there isn't a huge focus, a lot of the time on the business development side, of generating clients right and out here in the international space. There's a big emphasis on that. In fact, it's even part of the career development plan. You start at the beginning and getting and at the beginning is generating some clients.

Speaker 1:

It's not coming in and saying in the uk, for example, it's come in and sit in and be an administrator and then work your way up to be a power planner and then we'll put you in front of the client and, by the way, you've got no client experience unless you're lucky enough to be working with an advisor would actually give you that exposure for sure. So is it organic, inorganic? Okay, this is one thing I'm going to get onto right now. So in the uk we've got this inorganic approach to grow in the business and that is massively through acquisition that you've been hugely involved with since you've joined. We've hired new advisors into those businesses that we've acquired to service those clients, for example, right, and then over in Dubai slightly different right.

Speaker 1:

There's a big emphasis on that business development side. How have you found that and how have you found understanding how both those businesses actually operate and what are you doing to implement the positives from each side?

Speaker 3:

I'm happy to start with that, yeah.

Speaker 3:

So in the UK we are also bolstering our business. We we started with an acquisitive strategy, so we were going to grow by acquisition, service those clients and use that as an opportunity to then springboard in the uk and build from there. We do have an organic strategy as well in the uk, which is we've talked about on previous podcasts which is bringing in advisors who have their own networks, have their own clients, know how to go out and win business. I have the benefit of having worked here in the Middle East and in the UK, so I understand both, which is, I think, may be useful. And why things have gone so well and why we've worked so well together is because I understand the differences.

Speaker 3:

In the UK the business development is very much on the advisor. We don't have business developers. Some businesses do have specific business developers that go out and work with introducers and things like that, but largely it falls on the advisors. So we're doing some work around that. We are trying to replicate some parts of that in the uk. So we have a role that we're going to roll out for customer service advisors. So, but that will be more on the ongoing servicing. So they will work with advisors. They'll pick up the phone every few months, see our clients getting on, see if there's anything that's changed and anything we need to do, um, and they will work in that way with the advisors.

Speaker 3:

But what we need to do in the UK is free up, because a lot of business development is actually done out on the road, networking, going out and sitting in the offices of your introducers. We need to free up the advisors to be able to do that. So my focus is making sure that the advisors have the time and the space to be able to do those things with customer service advisors, with a good power planning team and a good admin team as well. And then clearly so the activity. Jacob talks about activity a lot. That's what we need to allow advisors to do in the uk have time to be actively out there looking for new opportunity.

Speaker 1:

But the activity here in Dubai and in the Dubai business is, if you said, if you said activity in Dubai and you said activity in the UK, they mean two different things right they do, but they're different, but they all roll back to the same thing.

Speaker 2:

So prospecting, right, and we've our famous word we talk about all the time, I suppose. Talk about the elephant in the room in the middle east, you know it was it. Over the years it was quite tough to prospect. You know, advice has got much, much better, but in in the old days, you know, there was a lot of, you know, rogue advisors, I suppose what we call them back 10, 15 years ago, which made it quite tough. So you had to actively go out and you had to go and prospect. You had to go and meet people, right? It isn't like people would come to you, right? I'm not saying in the UK these guys are just sitting in the office and there's a big queue around the block of people going give me financial planning, but everyone you meet in the UK they go. Oh, you're a financial advisor.

Speaker 2:

Oh what do I do about this? It's a little bit more fluid, okay, because because we've had to learn to prospect, we can turn that in any way, whether it's through networking, whether through events or whatever we do, and there's a lot of skills we have internationally because we've had to come bloody good at it, because it was quite a challenging market that hopefully I'm going to spend some time in liverpool this year speak about networking strategies, practice prospecting strategies, see how it goes. But then, on the flip side of that, jj presented this week about lifestyle planning. I mean, we we do do holistic advice internationally, but what I've always found is to get somebody interested in Dubai, for instance, you have to find a need, so you have to be quite targeted people here and quite a lot of money. They think they're doing really, really well, but they may not have a strategy or a plan, whereas the lifestyle planning so once you onboard them as a client, then going in and looking at all of their goals, their aspirations, aspirations, their dreams that allows us to give full holistic planning. So JJ is going to come over and train our guys on the lifestyle planning that he's been doing in the UK, which was incredible and everyone was really interested in.

Speaker 2:

I'll go to the UK, train and help with and give my ideas around prospecting and networking. As you know, I did a lot of that in the past and that, straight away, is something that we can both benefit from. You know it keeps us in sync and the UK market. There are advisors that want a prospect. You know there are advisors that don't. You know some people want it all to come to them but, like Theresa and Stuart, those guys, they want to grow their books, they want to have a big business. The other thing that you just mentioned there is we've learned really well how to get advisors doing only what they should be doing, so sitting at night rewriting emails or writing out plans and stuff. You know we've learned how to scale businesses around people to allow them to do the things that matter and not the things that they shouldn't be doing, and that's something that JJ and I'll be working on together as well.

Speaker 1:

I love it. Net Promoter School was a big one, wasn't it? We had our conference, our kickoff conference, which I think is just a great way to start the year Two days of training and development and workshops dedicated to improving yourself and your journey as a financial planner or a power planner or marketing whatever it might well be. It definitely, definitely fired me up. But one of the things that stood out for me was net promoter score.

Speaker 1:

I've seen net promoter scores in different companies across financial services foster de novo, for one. I've got it and they've always banged on about it and I used to think like, oh, is it really that important? And the more I've looked into that net promoter score and it's the feedback from the clients, it's the experience that the clients are actually having. It's the positive effect that then has in respect of clients being sticky. It's the positive effect that has on clients then referring business or wanting to then step into, maybe a lifestyle planning situation where you can offer a deeper level of service, right, how are you now looking at that net promoter score and what are you doing within each of those locations to ensure, as a business, that we're going to achieve a good, strong net promoter score that indicates that our clients absolutely love the experience that we're giving them so similar to what I mentioned around structure and putting teams around advisors to.

Speaker 3:

It's really difficult for advisors, particularly when they get to some kind of capacity, to be able to look after their clients really, really well. So we need a team approach to looking after clients, so those customer service advisors and the team, the the clients knowing about the team that they're dealing with, not just the advisor. Um, so for our acquisitions, for example, the way we actually remunerate our advisors is all around service, so they have to make sure that they do their reviews with their clients. They do really good job for their clients. So everything that their bonus, for example, is all linked to kpis and those kprs are linked to service and really looking after the clients really well.

Speaker 3:

The, the net promoter score is really important. We're a business Chris, in particular, loves data and we don't hide behind. I think some businesses hide behind assets under management and revenue and think that that's the be all and end all and that's how you create success or that's what determines how successful you are. But if, behind the scenes, you're not doing a very good job with your clients, one, you're likely to lose clients and it's going to be harder to get clients. So it's not good enough to just look at how big we're getting. It's also how good we are at looking after clients, so that it's a really positive thing for me. We understand where we are, wherever that sits on the on the spectrum of really good to not very good, and then we can build on that and we look to constantly improve on it and have that as good as possible, because we want clients to feel we are their trusted advisor.

Speaker 1:

We want them to see us as being, um, the best financial advisors for them, um, and that's that's going to do really good things for us reputationally, I think but yourself, jacob, what are you thinking we could do over in the um to buy space to really kind of push in on ensuring that we are getting a great client experience? It's such. I'm so into it because I used to work in customer service, so I'm really keen to understand and dig a bit deeper around this, and I've got loads of ideas myself, I think so there's two things here.

Speaker 2:

So, as you know, I came on board and initially set up client services right. So client service is quite a tough role. You know you're dealing with problems and people that maybe aren't happy and you know when you've got 8 000 clients, you'd expect to have a few of those, because you know things do change in situations and whatnot. I set that up four years ago, three and a half four years ago, realized quite quickly that we're pretty good at service. You know everyone can be better. You know they can be better, but overall as a business, the quality of the advisors we you know we we have a great retention with our advisors, but not only that, we have a great retention with our clients. However, as you scale and grow, that's when service can drop. So when someone goes from 60 60 clients to 120 clients without knowing it, they can quite quickly become overwhelmed. Okay, so I'm trying to spot with advisors when that's going to happen. It happened to me 18 months ago. I was doing really well and then one day it was like christ, I've got a lot of clients now and how am I going to manage all this? And I didn't spot that in my own business. So I try and sit with advisors on a regular basis. I'm building into their business plans. At the moment, when are we employing a paraplanner? When do you want a customer service representative? When do you want this? And that is to allow them to continue giving that level of service whilst, if they want to, still onboarding and growing their business.

Speaker 2:

The second thing and we talk about it a lot is technology. So we've built an application which is the forefront of our business. It's a huge tool to us. The application has been built for our clients. At the end of the day, it's their source of truth. It's there. We have all of the tech team and the developers that are working to make the app the area they go to for everything. And we're working on, as you know, the one-day client, which is quite exciting. But that one-day client strategy is a big piece of work. But including that piece of work is lots of parts. So when a wants a service, they can request it on the app. It's date stamped, they can be told when things are happening. They know updates. Things take time. Financial services is not a quick. It's not like buying a car when you walk in, you pay for it and then walk out with the car. You've got to go through a process. There's anti-money laundering, there's compliance, there's checks. Clients don't get frustrated about the time it takes.

Speaker 2:

They get frustrated about not knowing what's going on so if you give them an app with a wheel, basically and Chris refers back to the delivery I mean you can order a pint of milk here in Dubai and track it to your front door. People need that now with everything in their life. Well, that's what whole point of the app. So two things. One is the net promoter score is obviously making sure the clients are being serviced, they're happy, they're doing well, which we know they already are but it's making sure of it and getting feedback from them. But using the app to enhance that experience and make it fast. Speed. Speed works as long as it's done in the right way and it's not sloppy. It has to be done in the right way and it has to be processed the right way.

Speaker 1:

It has to be part of the process. So I love the idea of visualizing the app as being just a business. So if a client turns up or a client contacts us, like they go, the app becomes part of the process and every step of the way, whatever you're saying is documented. Whatever they filled out, is there ready for them to review whatever you're proposing to them? Is there ready to review that they can see how their investments are doing any time that they want? And to me it's just like the app Hoxton app is the business right? That's what it is and it benefits the advisor. So the advisor can manage expectations of clients. They don't have to be kind of heavily reliant upon you know, someone being off, sick or not being you know, or a backlog of work or anything along those lines. And the more we integrate technology and AI into the process to help speed up those situations that build efficiency right. So efficiency is key, like no one.

Speaker 1:

I get so pissed off and I have to wait for things. It does my head in right. Efficiency is massive, and that's the bit that someone's going to get annoyed with as technology becomes more and more efficient, and if we're not keeping up with it, then we're going to lose clients, and that's the big part of it, isn't it? We don't want to lose clients. We want clients to be sticky.

Speaker 1:

I love the whole touching base. I love the whole human interaction, though, because we can buy into this whole AI thing. Oh, ai will do that. Ai will do that. Ai will do that. We still want to have somebody who is human, and which is why these customer service agents are such a big deal, and I love the fact that we're bringing them into them, because there ain't many financial planning businesses out there that focus on customer service. Right, it's always left to the advisor to do it, so I absolutely love that. One of the sort of differences I've seen between the UK and I've seen between Dubai, for instance, right. Dubai, for instance, right. It's a relatively new role in Dubai, which is power planning. Yeah, and power planner role has been out in the UK for you know, a long time not forever, but it's been out now for quite a while.

Speaker 3:

I think it started gaining traction, probably about 2005, yeah, ish, yeah. When you've seen the early stages of lifestyle financial planning coming in and real financial planning, the financial planning tools yeah, that's when it started to gain traction. Now it's impossible to do your job as a financial advisor without having a power planner yeah, 100, but there are differences, aren't there?

Speaker 1:

you know the role relatively new in the in in dubai office, for instance and I was chatting to dowie and out here in in the middle east, a power planner is. You know, power planner is pretty much like doing a bit of business development. They're doing client experience stuff. They are doing some administration. They're not going as deep as they are in the UK when it comes to reports and how technical it has to be. It's like they are a concierge, it's like they're a support to the financial planner.

Speaker 1:

And I think when we go back onto this NPS score and we think about ways that we can learn from both sides of that business, is is ensuring our power planners are actually talking to clients, that they are putting our clients at ease and they are part of that service and they are being wheeled out. They're not in the back like a mushroom feeding shit, keeping them in the dark. Right, we are weeding them out and we're saying here's the, the team, here's a power planner, here's the administrator. Oh, look, here's a lovely picture of the compliance manager who ensures that you're absolutely looked after when it comes from a compliance perspective. Here's myself and here's the trainee financial planner and all of a sudden people look at it and go, wow, that's amazing. At the moment in the UAE, from my perspective is almost like they have a position there to be an experience enhancer. Would you agree? Are there similarities? Is that how it is in the UK as well? What do you think?

Speaker 2:

I personally think it should be, because I think the other thing we just touched on before is out here. A lot of people start in the business development role to become an advisor. Right, if somebody doesn't like business development doesn't mean they can't be a great advisor. So some of our best pathway advisors take Declan, for example. Declan was Chris's paraplanner. He does not want to be working marketing leads, he does not want to be networking. However, his process, his, his ability with clients is incredible. So I actually think a power planner to an advisor is still a fantastic route because they understand the technical. I do so. They're great at the process, you know. They come and work.

Speaker 2:

So I've got lewis working me at the moment. He's brilliant. Lewis is now co-servicing my clients with me. He's spotting things for my clients that maybe I've not had chance to spot, you know, and it's really important that they're not just sat in the background, because the other thing you mentioned there was ai and technology. Right, a lot of the report writing in the old days was done by power planners. You know technology is going to make that better. So why not have a power planner that's a little bit more rounded and can do the client side as well and becomes the source of truth that works alongside you. It it's about building a team that has the knowledge to do what they're good at. So I might be very good at the going out and finding clients and the client facing. I might not be as good at writing the report and doing the background. I don't have to be. Why should I have to learn something that isn't a strength of mine? Get someone in your team that's good at it and use them to do that as well. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

It's unrealistic I think I'm going to touch on something else at the moment, now away from that but I think it's unrealistic to expect an international business to have the same culture across the world in when businesses are based in, so when sections of that businesses are based in different countries, because different countries themselves have different culture, right?

Speaker 1:

So how do you this is putting out there? Really, because it's on my mind, you know it almost feels a bit controlling to have everything the same, right, and in my head it was like, oh, it's got to be the same, it's got to be succinct, but it's like, well, no, because you can lean into the differences and I want to know what you think about that, because that's on my mind quite a lot, because from a marketing perspective, I'm always thinking about that, and one of the things that I did last year, if you remember, with mike yule was go to france and see what it's like to be an international financial planner from france and how he lives his life and how he um approaches, um financial planning in france while still servicing us clients and uk clients and whatnot. And this year I want to do more of the same, but for me what's exciting is the differences differences are really important.

Speaker 3:

Um, you need diversity of thought. You need different people from different backgrounds all coming together. Different offices might have a slightly different approach in terms of culture, but you need to have your core principles. So we've got our three core culture principles, or three core values no ego, hardworking and driven ambitious. So people who want to grow, people who are willing to do the hard work to get there and people that don't bring an ego with it. If you focus around those things, you could bring different people from different backgrounds who offer different things and um like so.

Speaker 3:

On the power planning point, if you, I've been a power planner and it was a really good way for me to become an advisor, because I spent what I did is. I used it to my advantage. I did all of the technical stuff in the background, got really comfortable with that. Then I would sit in the meetings with the advisors and got to the point where I was ultimately started off by contributing to meetings, ended up leading the meetings. So by the time I became an advisor, I'd sat over 100 meetings with.

Speaker 3:

We talked about it four and a half years ago on our first podcast. That's how I became an advisor the para planners for me that there's a spectrum of para planners. Some are more technically focused and they never really want want to speak to clients. That's fine. But we will have some para planners who maybe have ambition to become an advisor in the future, that are really keen to be able to spend some time being a liaison for clients being able to pick up the phone, or clients be able to pick up the phone to them if their advisor's not around, and things like that. So it's about building a team with different skill sets, because those guys who are focused more on actually becoming an advisor might not be as motivated about being super technical. Yeah, so you just build a skill set with different people for different personalities.

Speaker 1:

It's refreshing to hear that, because I know it works just on that, though.

Speaker 2:

So I suppose the one thing that we we do need to talk about is ai. Yeah, ai is coming in, it's coming in fast and people call it's taking my job. Ai is never good well, never is a strong word, but not not in the near future is going to be able to deal with the emotion with the client. Okay, clients sometimes need to be taught and and and made to feel what it feels like if they don't do things right. And power planning the technical side could be taken by ai and it could be ding.

Speaker 2:

But that emotional and that working with a client and helping them lifestyle planning to understand the goals and something I talk to a lot of clients about is, yes, you've got to save for the future, but you've also got to live along the way. You know, as you know, I lost my parents quite young. You know they worked for all their life and didn't get a chance to spend their money. Technically, they would have been told to save, save, save, save, save, because you could live until you're 90. It's about having that emotional intelligence to work with clients and that's where that client relationship comes in. So that's why I think it's so important that we still have that interaction and that's why I get all the power planners, if they want to, to speak to clients.

Speaker 3:

I think, the technical knowledge is massively important, and then the connection between the advisor, power planner and the client. I think because, while we're on the subject of power planning, yeah, and to to give a really good example of the collaboration between the uk, yeah, and people think that hoxton's only been in the uk for five minutes. We haven't. Hoxton have had an office in the uk since the beginning and most of the assets in the business sit in the UK because we've had a lot of expats that have repatriated back to the UK. But that was kind of so. There has been, until very recently, two parts to the UK business. You have the international advisors who look after expatriate clients UK expats that have then moved back to the UK, and then now we last year started building our UK domestic business.

Speaker 3:

We've done a huge amount of work since I joined on process, building out a power planning team, being able to support the advisors, being able to get stuff done quicker, building out the compliance team and the functions, all that sort of stuff. So we've done loads of really good work. We hadn't done the same for the international advisors doing uk. So what we've spoken about very recently is actually and very soon we're going to combine the two so that international advisors doing uk work will be able to use our power planning team, tap into that technical uh team. We'll be able to benefit from all the processes and the speed that we're getting through.

Speaker 3:

Things get consistency we've built, we're using report writing tools with our power planning team and it's really important what you said about ai and replacing power planners if you are a business that does very transactional work and you don't do the lifestyle piece and and you're just selling products and solutions and your reports are really templated, you're probably, as a power planner, at risk of that, because it's pretty easy for an AI tool to be able to do that. Where you're not at risk is if you're working with advisors and teams and businesses that are really committed to the full holistic piece, which is why we spend a hell of a lot of money on our app developing that which is a lifestyle planning tool and will be developed into that, that which is a lifestyle planning tool and will be developed into that um. But we are bringing those two things together to you know that collaborative piece, so that the international guys one work with our uk team and we work together and we have a consistent approach and we improve the quality and consistently refine it.

Speaker 1:

It's great as well, because we've got head of power planning now that sits in to buy who looks after UK domestic business. So you can start to see that synergy actually happening in that crossover. And what I also love about the fact that you two are in the roles that you're in and how closely connected that you actually are. It's just how you both think you don't sit on your hands and go well, that's working for me, so I'm going to keep it that way. You both have the mindset similar to me in the sense that you're always looking for ways to connect things. How can I connect things? How can I make things better? And you're not afraid to take one from one area and move it to somewhere else.

Speaker 1:

So you've got an advisor who's based in Dubai tapping into the UK side of things to make sure that the quality of service and delivery is a lot higher. So that is a lot higher. So that only not only benefits the client, but it benefits the advisor. So an advisor out here thinking I want to go. You know, I want to be doing a more domestic work now. I've got power planners here in my mickey mouse financial planning business that isn't hoxton, yeah, thinking well, this person's not good enough. You can join hoxton. You can tap into a team in the uk that are dealing with domestic clients and are trained well and experienced well doing deep technical work. Bang, all of a sudden, the quality of your work goes through the brief, doesn't it?

Speaker 2:

think about like that though. So like we're so lucky that we've brought jj in and we're building out that uk presence right, I've been here 12 years. I'm not rushing to go back to the uk yeah, not going to happen. However, what happens if in a couple of years, I need to go back to the UK, right, and or one of my advisors wants to go back to the UK? And if we didn't have that office and that structure in the UK, there's a good chance they'd probably go and work somewhere else. You know, at Hoxton we're all about retention clients and retention of advisors. We want it to be a pathway from, as we've talked about before Sam, you can start with us straight out of school and you can retire with us and sell your client back to the business. If someone decided next week I want to go live in the UK, perfect, straight back, jj. We've got offices there. We'd let them go straight across transition in JJ and the team could take them up. Equally, if it's someone in the UK that started and had the desire to move abroad, they'd come over to me and we'd just swap, and that's why it's so important that we know each other's people. That's why I want to go. I don't want to go to the Liverpool office to do training sessions, I just want to get to know the people. I learn off people. Everywhere I go. I'm always learning. I've learned off JJ from you.

Speaker 2:

If I go back and spend time with theresa I mean theresa does a lot with the farming community in the uk. Yeah, I've got a huge family. My stepdad is a is a agriculture, an agronomist. You know it'd be great to hear what she does and tell him about it and get him telling and I might be able to help her business. You know, we can all help each other if we're willing to learn. And the big thing at hoxton and you've said this before we're so open. Yeah, you know, we'll tell each other everything. It's it. Yes, we all. We're in an environment where we want to do well and we're all. You know we have a bit of competitive. You know we want to do and do well, but we do it together. It's no egos, and it's that. Chris calls it no dickheads, doesn't he? But you know, it's no egos and it's about giving back to each other.

Speaker 1:

Yes, collaboration, not competition. There are two things that I've noticed since I've come in. There are two things, sorry, I'm really excited about since coming into the business. Right, one is you are an open business, you're not a closed book and you actually care about others outside of the business learning what it's like to give good quality international financial planning and kind of make sure that the international financial planning uh industry is always kind of known as is actually a profession out here. It's taken seriously on an international basis and I think, um, we're doing a really good job of educating um the financial planning community, especially within the uk, that we're a proper outfit. You know we're into difc this year. You know that's going to be huge out here.

Speaker 1:

I mean that's going to be fantastic for us in the business, but it's just ensuring that people who are on the outside looking in don't have this idea and perception of the cowboy days of international planning we're doing a really good job on that, so that I'm really pleased with and the fact that chris had the foresight to also say let's get a podcast out there and let's get communicating that message and was open and up for that was hugely refreshing to me, because there aren't many financial planning companies in the uk even doing what we're doing at the moment and I've banged that drum for quite a while. I think this year we will start to see it and I think we'll see that because of the whole Trump situation Trump going on all those different podcasts and how it's managed to get him straight into the White House again it's clearly obvious that long-form podcast content and collaboration and education is key. Business is going to look at that and they're going to invest quite heavily into that. We're ahead of the game and I love that. So for me, that's really really important. A byproduct of that is you two sat on the sofa right now me here we're having this communication right, so people within the business no longer look at dubai as being this office over there you have no idea of and every now and then, some you know simple bit of social media comes out, but you don't really understand what's going on there. The podcast like this and the youtube channel that we're creating is bringing it to life. You know it's bringing it to life.

Speaker 1:

So from an internal culture perspective, it then becomes easier to relate to other people within the business and to learn from other people within the business. How many people have you had come up to you say, oh my god, I didn't know that about you, or you didn't know that about some of the people that were in your team? So we're all learning from each other from that cross-collaboration. Collaboration, not competition, no ego, no dickheads. That is massive, really really big for me and I love that. And that is going to just grow. It's just going to go over the next couple of years and that is what's going to help our business absolutely accelerate, because it's a learning tool, it's a collaboration tool, it's a culture tool.

Speaker 1:

One of the other things you said was from school all the way through. There ain't many companies out there that are setting up a community for free for anybody internationally that wants to learn about international financial planning. Oliver gorman has set that community up. It was international advisor this week. So if anybody's listening to this now thinking I want to become an international financial planner. You've got no experience. Join that group, because we're going to put extra content into that group. We're going to educate you and what I love about that is that we're giving back again collaboration.

Speaker 1:

It doesn't matter if you work for us or not, or you're going to get that information and you're going to come into that ecosystem. Now, if you come into that ecosystem, we're going to nurture you right and you might end up in our business. What's wonderful is, as this business grows, you might end up in mexico city, because we just opened an office in mexico city for business development managers, which is absolutely fantastic place to go and cut your teeth as a financial planner. You might end up in the USA. You might end up in Australia, which you're hiring for South Africa, the GCC in the UK it doesn't quite matter, but what we're doing is we're educating, and that, for me, is hugely important. And you wait because that will just go boom, it will just grow, and it's good for us internally, but it's good for us externally. I love that definitely we spend.

Speaker 3:

we spend lots of time. We talk about it all the time. Speak about it with chris as a leadership team. We spend a lot of time looking out at the financial service landscape us, uk. Look for different examples of what's being done really well.

Speaker 3:

We're really good at pulling in the stuff and taking inspiration from others. We know we don't know it all and haven't got it all figured out, which is really important. That's where the no ego thing comes in. We also spend zero energy worrying in a negative way about what other people are doing. So we don't get concerned by competition because it's important and there's always a benchmark there and we try to push ourselves above that benchmark. And yeah, it's a really exciting business, but the no ego thing is super, super important. And then the platform we are sharing now together. People see that me and Jacob, leading the two different businesses, are working really closely together, have a good relationship. We don't have egos. We're willing to learn from each other. We don't think we've got it all figured out. We are competitive, for sure, but that's also important, but not to the point that it gets in the way of us being collaborative.

Speaker 2:

The other thing now in collaboration is you said it before what works here might not work in the UK, what works in the US might not work here. However, there will be something that works in the US, there'll be something that works in Australia, there'll be something that works in India, there'll be something that works in the UK. And, as a business, because the leadership team's so close-knit, we can sit down in a boardroom, talk about what's going well and go. Would that work in the UAE or would that work in the UK? And over time we can build each location and take the best bits from all of those other jurisdictions and bring them to that location.

Speaker 2:

So we have the advantage of learning from like the US leads the way in certain areas of financial planning. In a lot of ways, the US wouldn't lead the way in a lot of areas, but not everything. But we can learn from the US. But we can also give back to the US, and that's where this international business and that's why the importance of this is so important. If we just siloed everyone off and it's like well, who's he over there? I don't need to worry about Jonathan or JJ, it doesn't work. It's that collaboration again.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm loving it. I'm really looking forward to this year to go to the different locations, like I did with Mike Yule. I want to go to Australia, I want to go to the States of Africa, I want to go all around India. I want to go to these different locations Southeast Asia, liverpool, liverpool yeah, can't wait for Liverpool.

Speaker 3:

Summer, summer for Liverpool yeah, that list doesn't sound like it. But, it's God's country.

Speaker 1:

It's God's country. You're very welcome, Sam. It's a Bristolian place. I don't think I've ever gone north of Birmingham.

Speaker 3:

I have, but I try not to Make sure you bring your passport.

Speaker 2:

Bring my passport. Yeah, sunny day in Liverpool, mate, you'll have a cracking day out Fantastic.

Speaker 1:

One of the one things I want to just know. Like I'm interested in joining hoxton, um, I'm kind of interested in international. I'm thinking about maybe not being in the uk, or what. What do you? What would you say to a financial planner? Right, so they're looking at us from the outside, looking in, they're thinking they want to become a financial planner within our business. What is the best approach to actually coming in and understanding how we actually operate outside of the podcast? And then how would you two work together? How would you work together to make sure that advisor isn't a bum fight to try and get some fantastic financial advisor that? How are you guys working together to actually make sure that you're positioning them in the right place for the right reasons for that advisor to get the best out of their career medium, short, long term, whether or not they want to go international, as in live abroad?

Speaker 2:

Suppose from myself in the international advising, the UK has got clients. The first thing he wants to do is speak to Jonathan, speak to JJ, sit down with JJ, talk about what can happen. Can he keep his clients, does he want to sell his clients? And then, off the back of that, I can then talk to him about the international business. As far about the international business, um, as far as I'm concerned, we work in collaboration, like we said all the way through. If he wants to go into the uk first, come over here. If he wants to come over here first, whatever works works. But I would just have a conversation with both of us. We've done it a lot recently actually, and we told them about both sides of it and it works well.

Speaker 2:

The other thing I always say to everybody that's joining the business don't make a decision, jump on a plane, come meet us. You know I'll, we'll line up the managers in's joining the business. Don't make a decision, jump on a plane, come meet us. We'll line up the managers in the business, like we did with you, like we did with JJ. Come and kick the tyres, come and see what we're about. We're not scared to open the doors and say come on in and have a look, because it's a big decision and the last thing I want is you to move all the way over here and decide it's the wrong decision. So, yeah, it's, it's, it's collaboration. But I mean, the first thing is speak to both of us, find out what works and if a good advisor joins hoxton, they join hoxton.

Speaker 3:

It doesn't matter whether they're in the uk or in the uh, in the uae or anywhere else, it doesn't matter. We but we need to. Um, what we need to be careful of is people making career moves for the right reason and doing the right thing. So, again, because I have the experience and know the uae and know the market I don't know as much as well as jacob, but, um, I do understand what it takes and how difficult it can be, particularly if I don't know.

Speaker 3:

If you've got a young family and like it's an expensive place to live over here, if you've got a young family and you've got to pay for school fees and we don't want people to make the move and then be struggling and we need to avoid that.

Speaker 3:

So we can help someone for example, if someone's got ambitions in a few years or kind of, maybe they want to do it now, but we can help them do it over a couple of years is join us in the UK, build up a critical mass, build up an earning that can support you uh in the UAE, and then you do it with comfort and you know that you've got things covered and then you can start to build in the UAE knowing that you've got the client bank in the UK that you can continue to service and look after like. There are options and we can explore all options, but we need to make sure that we're definitely not a volume business, just loading ourselves with as many advisors as possible and hoping, hoping some of them do well and stick. We want to make it super clear as to what it takes to succeed in the different markets and we just put people where we believe their best position now and then any stuff in the future we can sort of figure out does it matter about the advisor whether they have assets?

Speaker 1:

don't have assets. Is that a big deal for you? You know, should anybody really apply to Hoxton? Come into our ecosystem and perhaps there's somewhere they would fit? Or are you looking for a certain type of of individual?

Speaker 1:

Now I've got opinion on that, you know. I think if you're going to come out to somewhere like the UAE you touched on it it's right. I think gone are the days where companies are trying to convince people to come out here and hope that they're going to do well and stick them on a self-employed contract. I just think that's totally dishonest and totally wrong. I think you know if you're coming out to somewhere like Dubai and you're going to become a financial advisor here, you really need a client bank, right? You've either got really great connections here and you know you're going to do business, or you've got an existing client bank, say in the uk, that you can lean into and actually take an income from, because it is expensive and it's going to. It's going to be tough. So that's my, my personal opinion on the international space there as well. Um, what do you, what do you think? And is that? Does that sort of? Is that the same across the uk and this will be different I think.

Speaker 2:

I think this will be different, but internationally, I think there's two things that work. First thing is someone's got assets, obviously, but not someone's got assets doesn't want to grow. I mean, if you're early in your career, got a little bit of assets and don't want to grow, we're not the business for you. Okay, if you're late in the career, got a big bank of assets and want to, you know, be at a company you know you can be at and manage those clients and think that's fine. The other one is if you haven't got assets, you've got to have a growth mindset. You've got to understand this is an apprenticeship. You're coming in, you're going to have to work bloody hard, but if you do work bloody hard, it will work for you.

Speaker 2:

Hard work is the only thing I can't teach people generally. If they've got something about them, you're not going to come in, sit at your desk and people are going to start ringing you asking you to come and give them advice. That's not happening. So you either need something behind you or you're going to have to grit, get stuck in and do very, very well. That's the international side. Uk will be slightly different, but that's my thoughts on the international business.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and UK. We had a whole podcast on it but two types of people. We're spending a huge amount of financial resource on acquisitions. Those acquisitions we will bring service advisors either career service advisors, people who are very focused on service, not necessarily growth. They like to look after clients and do the long-term approach with with clients or more inexperienced advisors that don't really have the skill set yet to go out and drive their own business and build their own business. So we got the servicing element and then we got the entrepreneurial advisors with books of business, that sort of stuff. Uh, that will also come and help us grow organically.

Speaker 3:

Um, I think, I think actually on both sides there will be changes in the future. As we go grow, get bigger, we free up cash flow, so obviously we get spent. Again, we're spending a huge amount of our financial resource on acquisitions. That means that we we need to manage cash flow. In the future, as that gets freed up, we might be able to take on more senior advisors, support them for a few years before they get up to a certain level of assets in the uae in the uk we'll have more free cash flow for academies and training. Um, training plans for for advisors, bringing in more junior advisors and giving them a few years to get to get going. But I think right now we we know the sort of people that we want to come into the business and need to come into the business fantastic, and we still do support trainings as well.

Speaker 1:

So the training wants to start in the uk. They can start in the uk. We support them with a salary and everything, and if they ever came out to dubai then we would know in the uk whether or not it's going to be the right fit for them. And some of those has gone through. It's not a foregone conclusion. You're going to go and work into buying something don't actually want to, so I think you know having the option is amazing. It's just not a foregone conclusion that that is the process and that and that is if where you're going. Tech focused, right. Lifestyle planning, international financial planning, connected. These are all these words now that actually sum up what hoxton Wealth is all about Innovative, marketing-focused, lead generation Words that you don't really attach to financial planning, right? I think we are creating something relatively special here.

Speaker 3:

It's okay to talk about lead generation and growth.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, some firms have lost that they've lost it yeah, and I think it's fine, like, and also it's okay if you're, if you run a business and you have reached the point the way you're happy and you're running a lifestyle business, as in a lifestyle business, and it suits you and your lifestyle as a business owner. But that's not us. We want to grow, we want to build the, the not just the biggest, but the best global financial planning business and that's fine for us to shout about it.

Speaker 2:

There's nothing wrong with that it's probably a bit disruptive as well at the end of the day, there's no point following the trend. You know, chris is quite vocal about not following the trend and we've done a fantastic job of it we do right for clients we do right for advisors.

Speaker 2:

We retain people and we grow and at some point you know we might have grown big enough and we'll be happy, I mean. But right now that's not not not stopping and if you want to grow and you want to be around that environment, you know it's infectious.

Speaker 1:

It is infectious as we end this podcast now, I want to know one thing each which was super excited about in 2025 we in the uk, um, have built the foundations of something special.

Speaker 3:

I'm excited to um build out a really uh, so build on that. I'm excited to build on that. Build a really strong. I think by the end of 2025, we'll have a really strong, credible, sizable team in the uk, uh, and we'll look forward to where we take it well, jj, you've done a phenomenal job since you've been here.

Speaker 1:

Like, you've absolutely smashed the uk and, as an introduction into the business from myself, I'm super proud of you, man.

Speaker 2:

I think you've just absolutely nailed it and I'm very good at this part, but I think I think everybody else- would say that as well.

Speaker 1:

So like if anyone's coming into this business, going to be working in the uk and they're going to be working with you. It's night and day, I was told. Yesterday, tom told me the acquisition guy is night and day since jj's joined night and day. So well done, mate. Feedback is absolutely spot on and with you at the helm, we're gonna fucking smash it, mate. So well done, my man.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, jacob so for me, obviously, dubai the international business turned a huge corner last year. Um, we really really set ourselves on the map. Um, more of the same. I'm really excited to open divc. Obviously that's a huge, huge thing for us here in in the uae. We didn't really focus on the uae. Um, we're going to hit the uae market, we're going to really make a stamp here this year with the divc and the events we're doing. And then I suppose I mean you said one thing um, I'm going to think I'm excited to see the other areas grow as well. You know I'm excited to watch the US. You know, I know Chris is going to focus quite heavily on the US this year. Mexico, uk, australia, europe you know the list goes on and on. So for me it's more of the same doing it better and then just seeing where we go from here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, fantastic, doing it better and then just seeing where we go from here yeah, fantastic, mate. Well, look, short time that I've been here. Now it's nearly coming up to, hopefully, nearly a year in a couple of months time. Right, you've been a phenomenal part of my journey, so supportive, everybody talks positively about you. Paul martin's been in the hospital, isn't he right? You're out there raising money for him, helping support him.

Speaker 1:

We had that younger chap from the bdm team that was in hospital over christmas with his bad back and you were the man who went and visited him.

Speaker 1:

He probably one of the most empathic and kindest people that we have in this business, and that's what a business actually needs as well.

Speaker 1:

We need leaders that push us and grow us and make us push forward and keep our comfort zone, but we also need a little bit of compassion and kindness, and you're one of those really great guys and, again, anybody coming out and working with you and working underneath you, that is going to just drip down into the culture of the business and it's one of the things that has drawn me into you as a person and it's drawn me into the business and you were one of the reasons that I joined, so anybody coming in into that international space is going to love it. I'm going to echo everything that you said, because the harder you guys work, the more work that I get, and what I get to enjoy is telling everybody about what a wonderful company this is, how we can connect it across the world to become the leading international financial planning business. To keep up the great work with you and your teams, because you're giving me work to do and I'm super pumped to bring this story to life here at hoxton wealth love.

Speaker 3:

Thanks, sam thank you, sir.