Hoxton Life

What's Next For Hoxton Wealth in 2025? - with Chris Ball

• Hoxton Wealth

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Hoxton Wealth has been making waves in financial planning, and in this episode of Hoxton Life, our CEO Chris Ball shares exactly how the firm is shaking up the industry. From record-breaking growth to a bold new brand identity, 2024 was a turning point - so what’s next?

Chris reveals how we went from an underdog to a powerhouse, hitting £2.13 billion in AUM and £20 million in revenue. He breaks down why our company rebrand was more than just a name change and how Hoxton is investing heavily in the next generation of financial advisers. Plus, with five planned acquisitions in 2025, the momentum is only building.

Some see Hoxton Wealth as a disruptor, while others call it the fresh perspective financial planning needs. In this episode, Chris unpacks:

✅ The strategy behind Hoxton’s rapid growth and expansion

✅ How branding, PR, and content are shaping the future of financial firms

✅ Why lifestyle financial planning is key to long-term success

✅ The next big moves for Hoxton Wealth in 2025

This is an unfiltered conversation with the man leading our growth, innovation, and the future of financial advice. Listen now on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform. 🎧

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.

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Speaker 1:

We took more assets on last year than we did from 2018, when I started the business, to the end of 2021. We were trying to oversell ourselves when, really, what you should be doing with things like this is warts and all. We took on and have helped 7,000 clients now globally, which is absolutely incredible. We had a revenue target in mind that we wanted to hit, which was 20 million of revenue. We blitzed that as well, which was absolutely fantastic.

Speaker 2:

You make the step into really putting yourself out there as a business. Have you seen the?

Speaker 1:

benefit in doing that, because I was so concentrated on actually doing it rather than telling people about what we were doing. 2025 is the year of consolidation. That is what 2025 is about is the year of consolidation. That is what 2025 is about.

Speaker 2:

So a bit of a recap, then. What happened in 2024? Because you've had an exceptional year.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, look, we hit our revenue and our assets under management targets. So at the start of the year, we said we wanted to be at over 2 billion by the end of 2024. So we smashed that by 5 percent, which was great. Um, so we ended up on 2.13 billion, um, which was amazing. We had a revenue target in mind that we wanted to hit, which was 20 million of revenue. Um, we, we blitzed that as well, which was absolutely fantastic. So, as a business, in terms of business measurable stats or KPIs or whatever you want to call them, we did really really well. And also, you know, what was really nice as well was is that we bought lots of new people into the business as well, lots of quality members into the fold, um, and we took on and have helped 7 000 clients now globally, which is absolutely incredible. Obviously, being a client-centric organization and clients first, that's super important to me. Um, so, yeah, it's been a really, really good uh, really really good year fantastic.

Speaker 2:

You also made a huge change, didn't you, around your own brand as a business, completely changed the brand around. You've invested quite heavily, by the looks of it um well, you have I know this into content creation as well here. So 2024 is another year as well where you made the step into really putting yourself out there as a business, and have you seen the benefit in doing that?

Speaker 1:

yeah, look, there's a lot. I've seen benefits from last year and actually what I've really noted was the benefit of having something exciting and new going on as well, and the actual positive impact that that makes. So in 2024, we rebranded from Hoxton Capital Management, which was probably a bit old and stuffy, to Hoxton Wealth. We actually decided to do that in 2023. In august of 2023, we came together as a management team and said we actually need to freshen up the brand. So hoxton wealth um is where we got to with the name.

Speaker 1:

Uh, and we obviously you know whole new color scheme, whole new logo, all of the content stuff that we've been doing which has really been projecting the brand and making it a brand. People want to be associated with clients and advisors alike, um, and you know we've really seen a positive impact on that um. You know clients coming back and feeding back to us on how they found it actually encompasses more of what you do and it looks really fresh. It actually fits much better with us now, weirdly enough, um, and advisors being excited that they are part of a dynamic, growing, young business that's really trying to push the limits on what we do, um, and they feel that the brand resonates with that as well. So, yeah, it's really exciting.

Speaker 2:

Well, you can't move from seeing you in the press as well and seeing the business in the press. What part do you think pr has actually played in that? Do you feel like it's a good investment?

Speaker 1:

I feel like I'm massively under egged. When we first started, how much of an impact brand and getting yourself out there really had like really really did and the reason why was I was so concentrated on actually doing it rather than telling people about what we were doing. But then I realized that actually so many people hadn't heard of us and would never hear of us unless we, unless they were able to see the good work that we were doing. So, number one, you need to make sure that you continue to do the great work that you did. You can't forget that. But, number two, it's important that we do yell it from the rooftops and I think we've done that pretty well. Obviously, you've come in and done a done an amazing job on putting us out there and putting us in front of more people and building the brand, and it's you know, it's been a huge upwards trajectory in the brand recognition of Hoxton. Yeah, a hundred percent Fantastic.

Speaker 2:

I'm definitely seeing a trend like the companies that are actually investing into marketing, branding, whether that's podcasting, youtube videos, even just sort of updating linkedin appropriately to talk about what the business is actually doing in a humanized, authentic way.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I see the businesses that are doing that are getting a huge amount of traction, huge, huge, and I think it's just an important thing to do, and financial planning has historically been behind the times on that. So, for me, being involved in Hoxton, especially coming in in 2024, and being, I suppose, integral in that part of getting that brand out there, getting it seen, and for me it's about stories, it's not just about one person, it's about the people within the business that bring that business to life and I think we're doing a fantastic job and it's brilliant to really be part of a business that's spearheading that. Yeah, um, within financial planning, I mean, look, other professions are doing and other industries are doing an amazing job. Right, we're playing catch-up at the end of the day, 100. So it's good to be involved in a business that has that foresight and, um, understanding that content creation is good for, you know, client generation's good for sharing our stories, attracting talent and being authentic. So, you know all good 2024. Any challenges, anything you had, that was a real struggle for you.

Speaker 1:

Look, there's always challenges, I think, as with anything. I think what we found challenges with last year was so, when you put out your brand and what you're about, I feel that a lot of people try and oversell it, and I feel, almost at the start, we were probably doing that a little bit. We were trying to oversell ourself, when really, what you should be doing with things like this is warts and all is letting everyone know the good bits, but also letting everyone know the bad bits as well. Like you know, we are not a. You know we are not this. So, for instance, we are not a night or a 10 till 4 organization. We are a 7 till 7. We have offices all over the world.

Speaker 1:

Our, our members, uh, staff members work really, really hard. Um, some of them work on the weekends like people, I think had a different concept of what it was that we were, and I think that that was down to us, because we didn't necessarily put it out there as to exactly what we were like, and I don't think we were trying to be disingenuine or anything else like that, but I think it was more. When you first start these things, you evolve. Wherever your career, life, whatever it has you get better and do better as you go forward. And now we're at a point where I'm really comfortable with who we are and well, I will happily say this is exactly what we do and this is how we do it, and if you don't like it, then it's not for you and that's cool as well.

Speaker 1:

Not everything is for everyone, um, but this is the way we do things and this is the way that we want to be known. Going going forward, um, so yeah, so I think that that was a bit of a challenge that we had. Um, some staff members came into the business that thought it was slightly different to what it was. Hopefully, episodes like this really give people a chance to look into our business and understand what we're about and, you know, are able to say, yes, that resonates with me, or no, it doesn't you know absolutely 100.

Speaker 2:

It's all about being that authentic and sharing the story along the way. There are, there are wins, there are losses, and you've got to be honest about all of them. 100 make those improvements to make it actually better. You invested a lot of time and energy in your own personal brand. How have you found that, as a leader, a CEO within an organization that's growing, putting yourself out there like that on platforms such as LinkedIn?

Speaker 1:

Good and bad. Good in the fact that I've had huge amounts of opportunities come my way as a result of it, and that's not just personally, that's for the business. I've met people that I would never have met before. I've spoken to really interesting people and I love that side of it. That obviously the bad side is is that you know you do get comments that could potentially be hurtful. You do get people say things to you that you know you weren't um, that you weren't, that you weren't anticipating.

Speaker 1:

But ultimately for me, with that it's, everyone has an opinion and actually there's very few people's opinions that I actually value, um, and a lot of the time the people that I value their opinion, you know they're the ones that are actually telling you to go for it and push forward.

Speaker 1:

But again, I think it's that kind of being not disingenuine, but like almost putting yourself out there and then people really seeing what you're like, you're you know people know what I'm like before. I've met them now, yeah, because if they follow me they can understand my personality in the way I think. And again, you either resonate with that or you don't, and that's cool, it doesn't? You know, it doesn't make any difference, but I would say I would encourage and we are encouraging you and I, collectively, people within our business, to be more vocal and to get out there and and speak because it is I mean, it's an insane platform it's. I think last year I had four million impressions on linkedin and that's like me having a billboard on the shakeside road and four million people seeing that on their drive to work every day. I'd pay millions for that on a yearly basis, but, yeah, I can achieve that for free or just time and um, you know the the amount that I pay the people that help me with that, um, for a fraction of the cost.

Speaker 2:

So I see it as a huge, huge positive and especially on platforms just linkedin, because you can be really selective on who you connect with. So if you are targeting a specific type of audience, then you can connect with them, you can follow them and the likelihood is they're going to see your content when you do that. So you can be really specific and really niche as well. On lots of other platforms you can't really do that unless you are paying for it. At the moment, linkedin is, you know you can pay for Sales Navigator and all these types of things, things, but you don't have to pay an absolute astronomical amount to be able to generate a huge amount of eyes on what it is you're doing. You hit the nail on the head. You know four million impressions to say that in this day and age, four million people have seen videos, pictures. Um, your text, whatever it might well be over a year, is just like if you said that to yourself five years ago, you'd be like what? Like it is crazy. But we come to expect it now.

Speaker 2:

Um, and that number within the space of financial planning is is astronomical, and I think anybody who's a leader is willing to put themselves out there, warts and all and be prepared to be uncomfortable. Yeah, because not everybody agrees with what you were saying or whatever. I think it's admirable and I think a lot of people within financial planning is a lot of really great people that I've met that run businesses and I'd love to hear more from them. Yeah, you know, I'd like to hear them step up and share their opinions and be honest and to not be too scared about what to say. Yeah, um, I think it's important you know, definitely it's great.

Speaker 2:

um, the growth you've had in 2024, up against the year before you know, has been astronomical. Really, it's been really really good. Doubled up on AUM, doubled up on AUM. So what? Why? Why did that happen? Let's just give people a bit of an insight. What was the struggle? You know what things have worked and where have you managed to double your AUM?

Speaker 1:

I mean we took more assets on last year than we did from 2018 when I started to the business, to the end of 2021, like collectively. We took on more during that period. In fact it's up to the end of 2022. So over the first five years that I operated, we took on more last year than we did over the first five years and that's because we've got the compounding effect. So what I've really noticed, uh and I noticed last year it things don't happen overnight.

Speaker 1:

We made a shift to enable last year to happen in the back end of 2021. So we shifted what we were about. Typically we were focusing on uk pensions with UK expats living abroad, and in 2021, we said we want to be more holistic. So 2022 and 2023, we really doubled down on changing that. Obviously, there was a big change in the markets. 2022 was a really tough year. The first half of 2023 was also really tough. Back half was good. So it was. You know. It was a change in in how we go out and what type of clients that we were targeting as well. So we were very one track focused before. Now we are way more holistic.

Speaker 1:

So we do financial planning the lifestyle piece. We give obviously the investment advice to clients. We help with tax, we help with legal, we help with property. What we're trying to be is that concierge as you as you uh said on on the last episode that we did um, a concierge service to our clients. People with money that need our service don't want to deal with 50 different people. They want to deal with one person and they expect them to not be an expert in absolutely everything they do, but they expect them to be able to tap into expertise and for them not have to work harder.

Speaker 1:

So I've got a client, let's say, us connected individual assets in the US, some assets in the UK have to file tax returns in UK, us and they're living here. Yeah, that to me is like the prime type of client that we would be helping in our international business. They don't want to have an advisor in the US, an advisor in the UK, someone helping them here and then also use utilizing three other different people to help prepare taxes. They want to go to me and go.

Speaker 1:

Chris, this is my problems. Can you help me piece this all together? Um, and we turn around and go. Yeah, we can, and we make it happen, and that seamless approach has enabled us to start dealing with the higher echelon, uh, in terms of wealth, um, and also enabling us to offer a more comprehensive service to people that are accumulating wealth as well. So it's actually been, um, like a lot of people look at last year and go, yeah, you know, kind of got lucky, but we didn't. That's like two years of hard work to build up to last year and we will do more this year as a result of it nice.

Speaker 2:

And so when it comes to that client acquisition, inorganic versus, uh, organic, is it a combination of both or is one outweighed the other?

Speaker 1:

organic last year was outweighed, um outweighed the inorganic stuff. So we did um organically throughout the business about 600 million and we bought on about 300 million of assets that we acquired. This year I anticipate that we will acquire a similar amount so that we bring on uh organically. We've got a big acquisition teed up that hopefully will be done in the next few weeks. But the inorganic piece was also something that we had to learn Baptism by fire 2023,.

Speaker 1:

We decided that that was a track of the business that we was going to go down and we was going to start pursuing it and we decided the UK domestic market was a good place to start, just due to the age of advisors and due to the consolidation that's currently happening within there, and we saw an opportunity that we would be able to build up a bigger domestic UK footprint to help us to aid the rest of the business that we have and to offer that to clients. So a lot of our clients are still uk expats. Having a big uk domestic presence is great for them because they they see comfort in that yeah you've got a really good uk presence.

Speaker 1:

I know when I go back to the uk you can still look after me. Now we've got offices in liverpool, birmingham and london and we'll probably have one in in scotland as well. Um, going forward, people look at that and they go. Great, that provides me of comfort. Next place I'd love to start acquiring businesses is is the US. That, for me, is the is the. You know it's the golden market that I think is is huge and clearly, with the amount of people and the amount of wealth there that is. But yeah, inorganic organic last year, slightly more organic than we did inorganic this year will be very similar. Naturally inorganic organic last year, slightly more organic than we did. Inorganic this year will be very similar. Naturally inorganic. It's easier to go and buy something than it is to make it from scratch yourself. But arguably for me there's more value in making it from scratch yourself than actually going to buy, because I think that takes. You know, anyone can buy something. It's very difficult to integrate it. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Talent attraction then during 2024. Yeah, what was it like for you and what did you learn in that process?

Speaker 1:

we learned that a lot of people are unhappy and we learned that in terms of other businesses. A lot of businesses haven't adapted as well as we were. A lot of businesses say one thing and go and do another, and for me, business is really simple. It's if I say I'm going to do something, I do it. I won't promise you to do something, whereas a lot of people get caught up in this promising the world and massively under under delivering. I would rather under promise and over deliver, so I'm not going to tell you I'm going to do something if I can't and it's very easy to get people in on the promise that I will do something. If I don't deliver, what chances do I have of keeping them?

Speaker 1:

And we started to see that come unstuck for a few of the joiners that joined us last year. They'd been promised the world didn't get delivered on and therefore they get the, they get the hump quite rightly so and start looking elsewhere. So that for me is is a key part of what we've got to do, which looking elsewhere. So that for me, is a key part of what we've got to do, which is consistently deliver on what we say we're going to do. And hopefully you've seen that I mean you were new last year. We were talent attraction into the business. Hopefully we've delivered on what we said we were going to do and you've seen that firsthand.

Speaker 2:

I've had a lot of conversations with financial planners that are now in the uk, that are now fully aware of who hoxton are and are following our journey. Yeah, and they're watching, and none of them are liking my content right, they're not engaging with it but they're reaching out to me and they're intrigued and they're interested in what we're offering and what we can do. When myself and jj sat down on the podcast and we talked about the intrapreneurial versus entrepreneurial, yeah, the amount of entrepreneurial financial planners that are out there that are either, say, let's say, they're self-employed, they're uh, they're, maybe they've set up their own ar, they could be an ri, they're entrepreneurial but they're struggling to run their businesses. There's a huge amount of you know, compliance gabriel reports. Yeah, everything that's got to distract you away from doing the business, distract you away from what you enjoy actually doing. Um, and I think one of the the other key areas as well is they're struggling to build teams, so they're struggling to attract talent. It's very hard when you run a smaller practice and now we've got I got guys I'm talking to and girls actually I'm talking to that got 80 to 100 million under management. Yeah, as an advisor, but they, they can't progress forward yeah, and they're struggling to hire talent into their smaller practices yeah. So they feel quite isolated and they feel quite numb and they can't seem to get past that next point.

Speaker 2:

So when I talk to them and I explain what we're doing at Hoxton to be able to facilitate somebody that has an entrepreneurial mindset, where they still have the incentive to build a business and to lean into us and actually get the support delivered upon whether that's having a really good business developer in the business right, that takes time, energy and money yeah. Whether that's a good power planner or administrator. Whether that's having some fantastic technology like an app that we have yeah. When I start to articulate exactly how that works and then how we wrap it around them and what the future could look like, even to the sense of look, you know, this is one of the things I love. This might not be for everybody, right, but you can get a double bite. So if someone comes to us and they've got 98 90 million aum and I've got people in their 30s that are talking to me like that they can come across and they're actually interested in the opportunity to sell their business. Come into us on an employed basis to continue to serve those clients and to build more aum for the rest of their career, and then for us to then buy that off of them, yeah, so they get like a double bite, yeah, and they're like, really, I can do that. And then you start to bring in the opportunity that you know you can work abroad if you want to and continue to service their clients. So, for me, this year has been a massive educational piece on the infrastructure and the environment that we have that supports those entrepreneurial individuals and trying to educate them and how they can come into us and be intrapreneurs.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think it's a really, really big thing, and I don't think there's enough companies out there that are really doing that to support those people. And there's a lot of people out there that are quite unhappy in their situation. Well, they don't. They don't have to be unhappy. Yeah, agreed, you know, and I think that's um, something that I've learned in 2024. I don't think I've ever understood that fully if I didn't come into a business and work within it.

Speaker 2:

Um, and also, it's coming to a business that actually has built what I would consider to be like mini practices. Yeah, within it, you know, you can come in and be employed, but doesn't mean we treat you like an employee. Then you have the ability to build your own business, as large as you want to do it, yeah, and that we actually truly do have the training and development and support, even down to a pathway program where there's people that are coming through that might well benefit that individual's business yeah, are being trained from start about how to generate clients, for instance. Yeah, some of the some of the struggles that people actually have. So that for me, was it was an eye-opener and that's where my eyes opened up and I thought to myself wow, that's what I learned in 2024 about Hoxton.

Speaker 1:

It's very lonely, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

It's lonely as a business owner because you don't know. Unless you can like within a business, you can see what great looks like. So as a business, you can actually see what others are doing and you can go, oh great, so-and-so's doing this, I could go and copy that. Or so-and-so's doing that, I don't want to do it that way. And you pick the good bits and the bad bits and you and you continue to grow in a business yourself. What typically happens is you see great success in the early years when you don't have that many clients and you can go and take on a lot. Then it becomes less about you and more about the others in your team. So it goes less on what's your ability, more to the abilities of your team, less on how well you can manage clients, more how well can you recruit. And that was a big lesson for me, which was how well can you recruit and the ability to attract amazing human capital. Again, cliche here. I mean this is not saying anything revolutionary here at all. I massively got in 2023, it was not last year in 2023, the impact that really good quality human capital can have on your business and how much that will excel you going forward.

Speaker 1:

At Hoxton, we try and knock down the barriers for people looking to go from that. You know they're suppressed, they're like I can't move. I've got you know I can't're like I can't move. I've got you know I can't do this myself. We do that with technology, so empowering them with the tools that we've created. You know we've got 25 developers in-house, the, the leaps that we've taken forward last year and the leaps that we will take forward in 2025 with the technology that we've implemented. So this year it's all about one day.

Speaker 1:

Client. It's how can I as a client, how can I as a client, say yes, I want to move ahead and there'll be hardly any barriers to me becoming a client. If you imagine the process at the moment uk advisor or even international advisor client says client says yeah, I'm looking to work with you, okay, so they probably speak to a business development manager. After they've spoken to business development manager, they get booked in for a first meeting with an advisor. After the first meeting, they'll then probably have a presentations meeting. After the presentations meet and then they'll probably have a fact like the. The process is so long. Whereas people want things now, they want things quickly and after you, after someone said, yes, I want to go ahead. You then got to do a suitability report. You then got to get compliance checked. You then got to do, you know, maybe three or four weeks before they've actually managed to execute in a.

Speaker 1:

In an age where I can go and I always say that the delivery, where I can order a pizza and track it all the way to my house in 20 minutes like why on earth is there barriers in financial service? So, creating that one day client where it's compliant and where it's in the best interest of the client to do so, we shouldn't be giving them barriers to do it. And that is what 2025 is about for me, with the technology that we are developing is how can we bring people on in a smooth and seamless and automated fashion as possible? Clients want to deal with an advisor. They don't want to deal with a robot in the background, but they want all that stuff that the advisor takes their time over and is clunky for an advisor to do to be quick and done as quick as possible. You're obsessed with efficiency, right?

Speaker 2:

Yes, you are obsessed with efficiency, and that, again, is great. So when I do talk to those financial planners, I can turn around and say are you obsessed with efficiency? And that, again, is great. So when I do talk to those financial planners, I can turn around and say are you obsessed with efficiency? Do you like administration? Do you like how long it takes you to write business? Would you like somebody in the background investing time, energy and money in testing ways to make this better for you? Most of the time they're yeah. That sounds amazing. Right, right. Well, that's what we're doing at hoxton, for instance.

Speaker 2:

You know, we are a company that's making that investment and you talk about the app and everything and the one day client and you know, when you explain that to somebody, it lights their eyes up, because the one of the biggest barriers is the time it takes to do things. Yeah, you know, and and and unfortunately, financial planning is a little bit behind.

Speaker 1:

It's hugely I mean not even a little bit, mate. I mean let's put it like it's like we're operating in. I mean we're operating in the 1980s I don't know.

Speaker 1:

Some people say that about me, about my prospecting, but, as we said, I'd like to think I'm progressive with that. Yeah, these guys out there are just like. It's just well. This is the way we've always done it. That that doesn't mean it's right. Yeah, you need to be improving processes. We live in a world now where everything is quick. People want things immediately. Having to wait four minutes, four weeks or 10 days even for something to be checked and all the rest it's rubbish. Like we need to work on that as a profession. Great.

Speaker 2:

So, reflecting on 2024, then let's look for, let's look forward to 2025 okay so what are you aiming to do this year? What's on chris's agenda? What's?

Speaker 1:

on chris's wish list yeah, uh. So I want to be as close to 30 million of revenue as we can get to um. I believe that we will. I believe it will do that over three billion of aum. We will, I believe it will do that Over 3 billion of AUM. We will finish the year on and continue to develop our technology stack, as I've discussed For me this year.

Speaker 1:

It's so we operate and, as you will know, on more, better, new yeah, more better, and only then new. People get so distracted. But I need to do this, I want to get, I want to do more and I want to do better of what we're doing at the moment. There's infinite ways that we can do more and there's infinite ways that we can get better with what we are currently doing, without getting lost and chasing shiny objects. So 2025 is the year of consolidation. It's the year of making sure that the businesses that we acquire are integrated well, taking on a few extra acquisitions, and doing that. It's about making sure that our advisors are operating at the highest levels, making sure that we're providing the best service that we can for our client and building on that.

Speaker 2:

That is what 2025 is about yeah, oh, fantastic, you mentioned about america. Yeah, is on your wish list. Yeah, is that in the 2025 plans Are?

Speaker 1:

you expanding in? Yeah, I mean America for me is the biggest market for wealth management on in the globe. You know it's. There's 400 million people that live there. More wealth there than anywhere else in the world that would be open to wealth planning. Like, why aren't we operating? There is the question um, so we already have an operation there, we already have a business there. It's about making sure that we now are utilizing it and we are doing more there this year. That is, america is more, more, more, more, more, more, more, um, and I think it's a really interesting market. I think the quality of advice there is fantastic. I don't think that they're too aggressive with regulation, um and nannying. Uh, I think that they are open for business and they want you to do well, um, and I'm super excited about it. I mean, as can tell.

Speaker 2:

I mean, I think there's 260,000 financial planners or financial advisors in America and actually when you put it in comparison to the population, it's not far off the numbers that we have in respect of the population here in the UK. It's not far off in comparison to how many advisors to clients. So there is a huge opportunity there, huge. There's a huge amount of welfare, way more wealth than anywhere else in the world, right? But they also have an aging population of advisors as well.

Speaker 2:

They do so? That's another thing I looked into. There's a huge amount of them, like it is in the UK, that are approaching retirement and not enough younger people are actually getting involved in it. So again, the opportunity there to to excel is huge. I mean, you mentioned previously, you really admire a company in america, don't you called creative planning? Yeah, creative planning, like just tell me why you admire them and what it. What is it about their journey that makes you feel like there is gold in america?

Speaker 1:

um number one. I like what they're about. I mean they're about long term investing, doing right things by their clients, like not trying to get caught up being all things to all people. They're very specific with what they do and who they target and how they grow their business. They were the kind of pioneers, I suppose, of lifestyle financial planning to the masses. Obviously there's been individual people you know as a business they've really adopted that approach and that whole goals-based approach is what really resonates with me. I I get it and I understand it and I can. It's logical what they're saying.

Speaker 1:

It's led by a guy called p Malouk um, hopefully I'm pronouncing his surname right, um, but he is, you know again, very level-headed, very um. He's not brash, he's not flashy. He is still advising clients within the business. He goes around and sees all of the people within the business. I heard he even calls up everyone in the business on their birthday and wishes them happy birthday. I don't know if that's a myth or not, but to have that perception from the outside looking in to me is what I really want people to look at hoxton like and see that. So that resonates with me a lot. Not to mention that they're nearly 400 billion dollars of aum. Um, they've grown exponentially every single year. They bought goldman sachs's wealth management business.

Speaker 1:

You know, I could have to keep off really enough facts, off the facts for facts, but it really really boils down to me is I love what they're about and I love what they do with clients, and I think that that's the gold standard, um, and that's what I want to try and emulate with what we're doing. I don't think, like so many people get, when you need to be new, you need to do this and you don't. Actually, you just need to see what works. Yeah, and copy, it is one word, or, you know, try and match it and, me, add your own spin on it. Financial planning is not a new profession. It's been around for years and years and years and years. What I do is, and the way I do things, is not too different to what most people do, um, but I just do it my way and that's what. That's what I want to do with that great lifestyle.

Speaker 2:

Financial planning, then, is a. You know, there's a big word at our kickoff conference this year jonathan j gave a you know a fantastic presentation on that lifestyle financial planning. Why is that so important to you in 2025?

Speaker 1:

it's. It's it's been so important to me all along. I think, and I think that you get so caught up in your own way of doing things that actually sometimes when you take a step back, you go this is actually how I want to do things and what it's really meant for me is that, looking at it from a business point of view and then looking at it from a client point of view, to be able to help clients with achieve their long-term goals means that they will be long-term clients of the business, which is clearly great. Yeah, um, from a client's point of view, you're not getting someone coming and talking to you about are your investments done this or trying to push product down view. You're getting someone who actually understands what you want to achieve and why you want to achieve it and then helping you get there.

Speaker 1:

Like that's what financial planning is. It's not. I've got a pension. I want to get two percent extra a year from it. Well, why? Like what? How on earth does that fit into what you want to achieve with your goals and your life? Starting with those goals and understanding that and then working backwards from there is what's really really important, and it's taken JJ to come into the business to really be pushing that internally and championing it. Um, that's made me really sit up and get behind it. So he's doing it already with cash flow modeling and all the rest of this stuff. But having read huge amounts on it now and submersed myself into it for the past 12 months or so, I you know I really get what it's about and that's really what I want us to be about it's interesting actually, because I kind of went through the process myself.

Speaker 2:

Um, bobby sahota who's who's now joined us, which is fantastic. I get on with her really well, yeah, um, she's very much into vision boards and visualising what you want out of life.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I've always struggled a little bit with putting a roadmap to get to somewhere. I've always been someone that is a bit of an activist and just learns as I go. Yeah, and if you ask me to put an actual figure out there of what I wanted to achieve or where I wanted my life to go I, what I wanted to achieve or what I wanted, my where I wanted my life to go I never actually have done that. So I never had a fixed plan or a fixed goal. Obviously, I had a vision in my head of what I thought, but sometimes that vision can be like a fantasy, yeah, you know an idea of it being ah, when I get there, that's what it will be.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, whereas actually, when you sit down with somebody and you can actually talk about what some might consider the fluffy side, it for me it was really beneficial. So to be able to actually visualize and pinpoint exactly when I would like to retire, but what I would like to do and what I think I would need to get there to live the life that I wanted. But to also live the life that I wanted up until that point me living in the world where I'm talking about goals and somebody is working with me to listen and help me articulate clearly what that vision is. She then went away and then she just put a plan together for me and come back and said what you want is actually really achievable, yeah. So she did all the numbers and all the how I get there, which is a bit I'm not strong on, yeah, and all of a sudden I was like wow I know what I'm working towards.

Speaker 2:

I know what I'm working towards. So for someone like like me and I guess like entrepreneurial business owner or I haven't really ever given myself the time and energy to sit down and get out the spreadsheets it's brilliant, yeah, and I love that. So bringing in the visualization and bringing in the goal setting side of it, I think it is it's like flipping. It's like flipping on his head. It's like some people almost expected to go see a financial planner. You should know what it is you want yeah, actually that's the bit that's really hard sometimes to articulate, to articulate.

Speaker 2:

And when you sit down there and you do it and you bring it all out, that's where, like, it becomes actually a really beautiful experience so you can connect. Then you get more excited about the plan, so you get more excited about the investment side of it, you get more excited about how much you can put into your pension and why, and all of that kind of stuff and and I like that. So the fact that you're gearing and edging towards that lifestyle financial planning for me makes total sense yeah, huge, huge.

Speaker 1:

I've got two really nice examples of that as well. So one of my clients he came to me, uh, four years ago. He's been a client of mine for nearly a decade now and he, um, he wanted his son is living in his house and he wanted to gift the house to his son. But he, he was, he was really concerned about gifting it and what actually meant. And when we actually sat down together and discussed, actually it's much rather it's much better for you to gift with a warm hand than a cold hand like why, why don't you want your son to live in it now and you can see the joy that that's going to bring to him, his wife, the kids, providing them that stability. You don't want to live there, it's too big for you now. Like you, you want to live somewhere else. So why not gift that now and why not put that in action like it was? It was, it was kind of almost like. He came to me, it was an idea we planted over a little while but it it grew, and that is nothing to do with your pension, that is nothing to do with your general investment account, but actually that's super sound financial advice because as long as he lives for seven years. It's now out. It was, you know, 1.5 million quid house. It's now outside of his estate for inheritance tax. It's always going to go to his son anyway and you know like great he's. He's been able to see them enjoy it, which was going to happen, which was going to happen anyway, and it saves probably a lot of stress for the son in the meantime.

Speaker 1:

The other one is is with a set of clients. They came to me and they were looking to sell an investment property and we were just talking about it and they they've got a house in hong kong as well as london. Um, and we sat in the house in london and they were, you know, saying, oh, we don't want to pay all this tax, and this is like stressing us out a little bit and we don't know what to do. And I was like, well, you know why? Um, sorry, the house they were selling was in hong kong. Why actually don't you go and live in hong kong for a bit? Why don't you go and spend some time there and make that your primary residence for a few years and then, if you do want to sell it, then then great, you can. You can potentially sell it.

Speaker 1:

It's opened up their whole world to different possibilities. They're currently going on a six month round the world cruise they would never have done before, from some of the money they will save from the sale of their house in hong kong. That's not, that's not an asset that I manage for them, but these are the broader conversations that actually mean things to people where you actually, as a client, our relationship is much deeper now, like we are, I actually am in tune with what they want, yeah, and they're getting more from me because I'm, you know, they're getting the advice that they want and they need to live the life how they, how they do. You know, they've told me they're infinitely happier now that they've made the decision to do that than they were before and that's what I love.

Speaker 2:

So that's the bit that I love because because it weighs on your mind and I think, as also people get older, it weighs in the ways on their mind even more. I can see it in my mom at the moment. She's like 70 years old. My dad's the same age. They are approaching that final stage of their life, right, and there's a short amount of time that they have really to be able to go off and do the things that they always dreamed of doing. But now they're kind of almost locked in. So they're considering selling, selling their house to free up the money, to be able to then do some traveling and to rent as opposed to own their property. And I want to make that dream a reality, because time is ticking.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And it's not a rehearsal, no, and I think the sooner you kind of establish what and really picture and really put a plan together of what you think your life is going to be like, as early as you possibly can that things change in life.

Speaker 2:

Granted right um, but also people have these preconceived ideas. I loved what you just said about giving with, gifting with a cold hand and giving with a warm hand. Well like, why, what, what? What was going through that person's mind that made them feel that perhaps gifting a property to somebody whilst they're alive perhaps isn't the right thing to do and you should wait until you died, it's like because you're worried about losing control. Normally, there we go, so and and there we go, and then you start to challenge those behaviors. Why do you need?

Speaker 1:

control over it? Yeah, are you enjoying it at the moment? Yeah, it's like. These are the things, and I think it's understanding that psyche of people and understanding what makes them tick, which, again, I massively underestimated before. Behaviors, isn't it? Yeah, it makes a huge difference.

Speaker 2:

The human condition yeah, um, I'm really excited about all of that. I'm working closely with you around that, and it ties also in with my vision of we, as a financial planning firm, need to be able to articulate what that actually means. Right, it's really important. So I think doubling down on that and us understanding that and understanding our clients even deeper is really important. But we also get that from bringing our clients into our world.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so for me this year, it is like I'm I'm excited about bringing my in-house videography team in right there aren't many financial planning companies that are hiring two videographers, two editors and building a studio and creating things like documentaries so I can go out and those great clients and those great stories of success, I can talk to them it's to get these stories out there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because ultimately the problem that you have as a client is you always feel that you are the only one in that boat because you don't know like you don't really discuss other people, we don't really know like, so you don't. You don't know what you don't know. Yeah, and actually articulating these stories and helping people see the art of the possibility, then your mind expands, you, you get that. You, this might be a possibility for you. Do you know that? Another you know this is what normally happens, especially with high net worth people is they die. They are frugal throughout their life. They save their money it's been ingrained into them and then they end up passing and then the money goes to the kids. And I've seen it time and time again with clients that have passed, where the kids inherit a lot of money. Now what do the kids do with the money?

Speaker 2:

well, they can spend it. They go and spend it as quickly as possible they don't save it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so if you're going to give it to them, give it to them now.

Speaker 1:

Enjoy, let them not have to go through hardship sometimes, uh, and I know you know, like, if they're going to get it then and also, but that should also mean that you need to learn to enjoy it now. You giving them four million versus two million or a million versus 500, it's not going to make a huge difference to them overall, and actually it's much better. They would probably prefer you to enjoy it, unless there's something seriously wrong with them than for you to uh, then for you to be leaving as much as possible to them so they can go and blow it on a house or maybe get divorced and and lose half of it, and you know like all of these things can happen as well. So it's super important that people do enjoy and really, like I said it before, life is not a rehearsal. No, you need to enjoy and not rob your partner of the experiences just because you have no plan around it, and that's what it normally comes down to Life is not a rehearsal Sounds almost like a series to me.

Speaker 2:

As I'm talking to you, I can now visually see how we bring these stories to life. So it is really, really important. It's a combination, I think, within financial planning. When it comes to marketing, I think it has to be story-driven and it has to be relatable. So it's a bit like when you look at my financial life podcast now, the hoxton life podcast, right, someone's thinking about joining us.

Speaker 2:

They, they can. They can listen to the recruitment consultant. He's telling them how fantastic it is. Or they can listen to 30 people sharing their personal experience of working within a company and what they did and how they did it, and all of that, right? So people relate to that and they start to relate to a person as well. So someone might relate to you more than they might relate to Jacob, and that's OK, because that's like a personality type thing, right? So you need to bring all these multiple types of personalities to the surface and all these multiple experiences to the surface, and no one's really actually putting the client at the forefront of any kind of marketing when it comes to financial planning. It's almost like we do a great job for our clients and we'll tell you why. It's like no, no, let's hear it from mr and mrs smith.

Speaker 2:

What did they actually learn during that process and has it had a positive impact on their life? Would they have wished they'd done it sooner? How did they feel when they were sitting with some uncomfortable thoughts around gifting, et cetera? How did it feel to be able to go on that amazing cruise or that amazing round-the-world trip, instead of waiting, instead of hearing the horror story of something? When I hear the successes and the wins and that's something that I'm very, very interested in and just having this conversation just brings it again to the surface which, again, was super excited about having the team in house, because it allows me the flexibility and the freedom to go out and create the stories that I think that really, really matter, because those are the stories that somebody is going to relate to.

Speaker 2:

if they're sitting there and they're unsure what to do but Mr and Mrs Smith have articulated it perfectly they'll go. I need to speak to Hoxton Wealth. You know, especially with this. I love as well when you bring it into an international firm as well. People are moving around 100%. You know, so many people are leaving different countries, so it's like we've got the ability to actually bring to life a client who might be living in dubai yeah, but move from the uk, and how did we help them in that transition? Or somebody from the usa who's moving over to france how did we help them with that transition?

Speaker 2:

yeah, and I think that's really really important because it brings almost a a romance to the yeah, to the scenario as well, and a relatability not just money, because actually money, when you think money, it actually conjures up a lot of anxiety and it makes you kind of like quite tight because it's like, oh, I haven't got enough, I haven't got enough, I haven't got enough that's usually the thing that comes to mind first of all. So how do we break down that perception, that conversation of money, in a way that is actually a release, cool, good, I'm glad we had that conversation on the podcast. It's nice when you have a brainstorming session at the same time it is for sure, and that's always kind of hit that home for me.

Speaker 2:

2025. Right, you got. Deep sea came out, everyone's, everyone's now like whoa ai is really going to take off and it's going to become a lot cheaper. Well, you know, technology is a big. We talked about technology a lot and we talked about this one day client right. How much of an investment are we making in it and why is it? Why is it? Seven figures a year? Seven?

Speaker 1:

figures. Technology, yeah, um, I won't give exact amounts, but we spend a lot and it's because you've got companies out there spending hundreds of millions, billions, you know, and actually in the financial planning space I was really spending a lot. Um, I feel that with the, to catch up what we've done it's going to take someone a while and a lot of investment, which not a lot of companies want to make. We've laid the foundations for that and we give people the opportunity to build on that as well. So ideas that we get from the guys, we implement, we make changes, we develop, we adapt, we grow it forward.

Speaker 1:

But the purpose of technology is it's an enabler. It shouldn't replace you. Ai may well replace financial advice, but I can't see that happening during our lifetime. But it will enable you to, instead of look after 250 clients, it'll enable you to look after a thousand instead of a thousand. It might maybe enable you to look after 5 000 with a team underneath you and things like that. So you need to think of it more that way is how can I use it to my advantage as opposed to? It's going to replace me and you know I'm not going to have a job and I don't want. I'm going to shy away from it.

Speaker 1:

Such a narrow mindset you need to like it's happening whether you're on the bus or you're not. Um, the train is leaving the station and you need to get on it quick and we've embraced that since we started and that's part of that growth mindset value. It's making sure that you see these things as they're happening and make sure that you're utilizing them within the business. I mean, so let's take ai. So how are we using that in the business at the moment? Well, and these aren't all tools that we've developed. The developers use it to help them write more code, so we're developing at quicker speeds and being able to get out more.

Speaker 1:

Advisors are using it to help with their meeting notes and recall conversations with their clients to make sure that we're compliant and speed up the the client journey. We use it in acquisitions where we have had clients that have come. We have had sorry advisors that have come to us that have got handwritten fact finds hundreds of them. We've scanned them in, taking the information out and populated it direct into the system in a couple of hours. That would have taken days and days, maybe months of time, for people to do so.

Speaker 1:

You see where I'm going with this enabler, as opposed to a, you know, as a kind of I was going to replace, replace my job. It's about quick, get things done, move, move, move, um. And it's about efficiency, automation, and that's what we need to embrace with it, and I think it's I'm so excited about what we're going into. We're at an age now where we're at the forefront. It's almost like the industrial revolution. You know it was a huge movement. It will. I think we'll look back in history and go it was the ai revolution massively 100.

Speaker 1:

We're already in it, it's happening I mean you use it within what you do. Yeah, all the time I use it all the time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely love it. Um, looking forward then, okay, so we've looked over 2025. We, we've looked back, so we're looking at 2025. That is obviously looking forward. We've looked over 2024, but you're a big picture thinker, you're always planning ahead. You're a growth mindset individual. What are your plans then for the years following? Where do you see the business going?

Speaker 1:

I mean, look, I'm 38 years old, I want to do this all day, every day. I want to do this all day, every day, as long as I can, and if that means up to I'm nine to 100, then that's it. I've got a lot of years of compounding growth ahead of me. I would love for us, at one point in time, to be the biggest financial planner on the planet, but I appreciate that's not going to happen over the next year or two. So you know, our goal by 2027 is we want to get up to five and a half billion of assets in terms of people that we're helping. That's our kind of next milestone that we really want to hit and we want to get there. We've got a plan, we've got a model. We've got we know how we're going to get there, what we've got to do to get there. We've broken it down to teams, to managers. Everyone is aligned on our goal and what we want to do. So 2027, five and a half billion yeah you can hold me accountable to that.

Speaker 2:

Now I've said it. Okay, chris. Fantastic recap of 2024. 2025 looks absolutely awesome and beyond, yeah, but we're going to need some serious talent to join our business. So let's just talk a little bit about the types of people we would like to come and join hoxton wealth and, really as well, what's on offer to them. You know, if we're pushing forward and we're growing the business, we want them to come with us.

Speaker 1:

So what we're doing to incentivize them to stay for the full journey yeah, I think, ultimately, that there's, you know, various different talent we need across the business. I think there's 120 roles ollie recruited for and uh, jamie and uh, ollie's team and michaela um, I'll get it all out in a minute. All of them, uh, last year and that was across everything from power planning to advisors to compliance staff to marketers, everything, um, and that's massive, like the breadth of talent. But there's three core values that we look for hard working like we we, we don't want to work with people that aren't hard working like that. That's just not us as a business. We want to work with people that don't have ego, that can get along with everyone. That you know. Let's call it for what it is and not a dick um. And then the last one is a growth mindset. Like even the top performers in our business are constantly looking to grow and to do more and to be better. And how can I? That's just. It's not just, oh, I need to do some extra qualifications. It's like how do I go as a person? What can I do better? How can I become more efficient? Like you know, those three things are what we're looking for as a business. We will provide endless opportunity, as you hopefully have seen from what we've just said.

Speaker 1:

Now we are not looking to stand still. We're not saying you come in, do things our way or bugger off, you know like, and this is the way we've always done it. So this is the way that we're going to do it going forward. Actually, what we're saying is we're investing seven figures a year into tech. We've got global license capabilities. We are looking to go out and acquire more businesses. We are looking to expand as a business. With expansion comes huge amounts of opportunity for people within that business. So if you like, you know, if you kind of take it, let's take that out of it. So just career progression and all the rest of the stuff, like, numerically, what does it look like as well? I believe we pay really well.

Speaker 1:

As an advisor, let's say, because that's normally the track that people will come in on and all want to join us on, they get paid a split of the fees that they generate. We do, obviously, have salaried role as well. For the servicing based roles too, they will be able to have a buyback. So this is for the people that are organically generating business. They will be able to have a buyback of the income that they generate on a year on year basis, which offers them a huge capital event at the end. There is a long-term incentive plan that we put in place for our staff members so they can benefit on the equity side of the business as well.

Speaker 1:

So you know a lot of people. For a lot of people, the amount of money that they earn is important. But again it kind of comes back to this lifestyle piece, which is something that we try and do with. A lot of people is like why do you need to earn that much? Like what are you actually doing it for? And helping them understand that so we can work it back and make sure that they have what they need at the end to live a fulfilling and great life. And that mean might mean they end up stop working at 40, could mean that they go. And you know I've got one guy that and I won't name names he wants to go and drive the uh, tesco um vans delivering shopping. He wants to. He wants to build up his client book at a certain amount of time and then bugger off and go and do that in the uk, that and live uh work work three days a week.

Speaker 1:

That's that's what he wants to do, but he knows he has to work super hard now to be able to go and do it. Like I'm not saying that's his dream job, but it's. His dream lifestyle is to just be able to go to work. Forget about what I'm doing. Do a task which doesn't involve a lot of brain power. Yeah, spend as much time as I can with my family, travel around the world when I want, and that's the like I'd still want to do something. Yeah, and I don't know how he got to that role, uh, so don't ask me out, but, um, that's what he said he wants to do. So you're like, but we will enable you and help you get there.

Speaker 2:

Perfect, we've obviously as well. We've had huge success with the pathway, which is our in-house um academy essentially right where we can take somebody without any experience all the way to becoming a financial planner and beyond, wrapping a team around them and obviously eventually reaching that point where they can sell their business on an internal basis and walk off into the sunset with a, a nice lump sum of money. We are a through business. You can start with no experience all the way to the end, which I absolutely love. So we've had huge success with that pathway. We're constantly refining it.

Speaker 2:

We're developing school, our school community as well. So our hoxton life school community, where we're constantly refining it. We're developing school, our school community as well. So our hoxton life school community, where we're educating people that want to get within into financial planning. We're saying come on into our community, we're going to teach you some stuff about it as well. We're going to educate you on what it takes to be a great financial planner. You're going to learn a bit bit more about who we are, what we're doing, where we're going. So, when it comes to that investment in the next generation of financial planner as well, I'm I'm pleased to hear that hoxton are so involved in that. Yeah, I'm committed to it. Um, and want to make sure that there is a pathway that isn't just self-employed, that there is a pathway that's employed, that can take you all the way to becoming a financial planner, right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it's. That whole kind of self-employed model is, in my opinion, kind of like flittering off in the distance. It's like you're employed but you get a split of the revenue, and that's what you want, which is why you become self-employed anyway. But you get it? Unfortunately they're not, but it's super important to invest in the next generation for a number of reasons. Number one if you're not doing it as a business, your business will, yeah, will. The flames will get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. You want your flames to burn bigger and higher, and the only way that you can do that is by putting more wood onto the fire and building that up, and really that's what we're doing with the juniors.

Speaker 1:

The pathway program within our business is not only are we helping them, we're also helping ourselves. Like, let's face it, we are a business, and that's one of the reasons why we do it, or one of the main reasons why we do it. The, the ability to give back is fantastic, though. Uh, you know, as as I've, as I've grown with the business, I've realized that there's things that are really important to me, and one of them is creating opportunity for others and, to me, giving someone a career that they can go on and support their families on and potentially their family's family as well with, is an amazing prospect, and helping them develop those skills so I'm really in tune with what they need to do. I've done it, I've been there and I want to provide the right pathway for them to be able to become future leaders of our business and lead the you know the ongoing chapters to make our business a success for the longer run. It shouldn't just die with me, it should continue forever.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely Great, chris. So many exciting things to look forward to for the future. Thanks for the recap of 2024. I for sure know that I'm in the right place. It's an innovative, creative business that is going places, and anybody listening here today that's interested in finding out more, they're more than welcome to reach out to me or Oliver in the recruitment team, and we can certainly give them an insight into a little bit more about life at Hoxton. Definitely Great.