CHRISTMAS SPECIAL | Inside Hoxton Wealth’s Biggest Year Yet: People, Growth & What’s Next For 2026

From $900M in organic growth to walking away from bad deals... this is the unfiltered reality of scaling a global financial planning firm.

In our final episode of 2025, CEO Chris Ball sits down with Jonathon Jay (Managing Director of Hoxton Wealth UK), Charmaine Lotz (Global Head of HR) and Matthew Morgan (Global Advice Manager) breaks down exactly how Hoxton Wealth hit $4B AUM (up 33% YoY) and the strategy behind our "Big Hairy Audacious Goal" of $20B by 2030.

We dive deep into the wins and the lessons of 2025: 

✅ The Talent Engine: How our newest 4 trainees contributed to 10% of all client meetings in their first year. 

✅ The Hard Calls: Why we pulled the plug on a major acquisition at the 11th hour to protect our culture. 

✅ Culture as a KPI: Implementing the Hoxton Health Hub, salary benchmarking, and removing "anchors" that hold the team back. 

✅ Exam Success: Celebrating the 36 staff members (10% of the company) who passed exams this year.

Whether you are an adviser looking for the right home or a business owner scaling up, this is a transparent look under the hood of a high-growth international firm.

Watch the full episode here on YouTube, or search 'Hoxton Life' on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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Transcript

Setting Bold AUM Targets

SPEAKER_03 0:00

So, you know, the big hairy audacious goal is 20 by 30. So that's$20 billion of assets by 2030.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

I'm sure that's a bit less finger in the wind this time as well.

SPEAKER_03 0:08

Yeah, it has been a lot less finger-in-the-wind than things I've got. People like Mike graining me in.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

It goes back to the recruitment, that's where it starts. And ever since they've come in, they have just been so kind of motivated, driven, disciplined to be the best versions of themselves.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

I mean they're learning the hardest part of what it is to be a financial planner, and particularly as we're taking on clients from positions and bringing them into our business, is understanding uh client satisfaction. Are our clients happy? Would they promote us as a business? Would they not?

SPEAKER_04 0:33

I think for most organisations it's like a tick-box exercise. Okay, well we've we've provided an EAP. Whereas I think we've really done well in terms of encouraging teams. It just really demonstrates that culture that we have to grow teams from within, give people those opportunities.

Year-End Growth And Milestones

Exam Wins And Growth Mindset

SPEAKER_03 0:48

It's been an absolutely fantastic year. I'm really excited to do one of these in 2026. One sign of a great business, the more opportunity you can create for people within it, the better the business will be over the longer run. So welcome to another episode of Hoxton Life, and it's our final one of the year. A wrap-up of 2025, which I'm very, very uh happy with how the year has gone, and I'm very, very thankful for all of the hard work everyone in the business and in our team has put in. And I'm joined with me today by some familiar faces and some some not so familiar faces uh to everyone. So it's always nice to have different people from the business on. So obviously, everyone's uh aware of who JJ is. Um, we've obviously got Matt who runs our pathway program, uh, and we also have Charmaine, who's our head of HR for the group. Um, so welcome to you guys. But kind of key points that we're gonna go over at the moment, it's not gonna be all facts and figures, we're not gonna be talking stats and how many uh meetings have been booked and all the other good stuff. Actually, what I do want to kick off with first is uh some of the exam success. But before we do that, um I will go over the key points of the year, which they've uh which we've done and we're where we've got to. So so far this year or to the end of this year, we'll have uh onboarded about 900 million dollars of organic assets in the year. So that's 900 million uh dollars of assets that clients have given us that we know we've not bought um but that people have trusted us with of their own money, which has been absolutely fantastic. We've done another about 300 million dollars of acquisitions, and there's still some going in from our infinity transaction, uh, and also another one which we'll talk about soon. So it takes up to about 1.2 billion of assets for the year, which is absolutely phenomenal. And we're ending the year at just over$4 billion of assets, which is really, really cool. That's um that's a big jump up from last year, that's almost 33% extra than where we finished at the end of last year. So that's really, really good growth. And yeah, um, a fantastic, fantastic um year it has been. Um but one of the things I think, Sham, that you know, one of the areas that we've been talking about, which has been really good, is the exam success that we've seen so far this year as well. So we've you know, we've had a lot of people pass exams. I think we were totting it up before, I think it's like 36 people um who have uh taken and passed an exam this year in the business, which I think is really cool. Um that's over 10% of the staff. Um, and that's everyone, that's including advisors, that's business development, trainee wealth planners, um admin, compliance. Uh it's super, super cool.

SPEAKER_04 3:26

Yeah, I agree. It just really demonstrates that culture that we have to grow teams from within, to give people those opportunities. Um, yeah, so it's great to see how many have achieved over this year.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

Yeah, it's it's really, really cool. And I think what else has been cool to see is Georgia. Uh big shout out to Georgia, who is uh one of our um power planners um and junior advisor in the making. Uh she was the first to pass uh her Australian uh university degree qualification, uh, which is phenomenal. Um and she's done that pretty much off her own back as well. Study and all the rest of the stuff. It just you know, stuff like that to me. I know exams people can get kind of you know, it's not that cool, and um, but to me that's just people going, you know, embodying one of our core principles, which is growth mindset.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Yeah, and we've obviously supported them very heavily in in doing that, and it's great for us to do like it gives people a lot of um comfort knowing that they want to personally grow and develop, but we're gonna give them that support and we're gonna put the um the the support behind them in terms of covering the exams and helping them with like we give them uh uh extra support with with Rebecca Um who supports them with their uh exams too, so really, really good.

SPEAKER_03 4:36

Yeah, I think the the added um you know having someone there to help guide you through the exams is always nice rather than like there's a book, get on with it. Um and that investment in Rebecca this year, she's been absolutely fantastic. I mean, I think all of the guys absolutely love her as well, don't it make it much easier. They whip her it there, she whips them into shape, doesn't she, Matt?

SPEAKER_00 4:53

But it's the accountability that she provides as well. So when she comes in on a Tuesday and a Thursday, they know, gosh, right, I'm gonna be tested today, I've got to be on my game, so they've got to you know prepare as best they can. Uh and yeah, she's hard on them if they don't turn up with the right sort of knowledge. What I love about her is it's no, oh don't worry, you didn't get like you know, it's she's she's on them, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Yeah, so they all no one wants to get a telling off from Rebecca.

SPEAKER_04 5:16

And uh just to add, I think it's such a testament to each one of these people that have you know achieved over this year because they're all still grafting every day, you know, working hard and taking time out to go and do their studies as well.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

Yeah, definitely. They've they've done a great job. Um, and also they've had their support uh internally as well, which has been fantastic. So yeah, so that's been really, really good. Um, Matt, let's talk about the trainee wealth managers as well. That's you know, for me, opportunity is one thing, one sign of a great business. The more opportunity you can create for people within it, um, you know, the the the better the business will be over the longer run, and it's just a really great byproduct of having a business, you know. Absolutely. And the amount of opportunity that we've created this year uh has been fantastic. So this year's trainee wealth management cohort, I would say, um, has been the strongest course we've ever put in, and that's a big well done to you. Um but also I think it's a testament to the type of individual that we've managed to attract and we brought in.

Training The Next Generation

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Yeah, 100%. It goes back to the recruitment, that's where it starts. The four the four guys that we brought in were high quality, high calibre, and ever since they've come in, they have just been so kind of motivated, driven, disciplined to be the best versions of themselves, you know. So they do a lot of the hard work for us so that when we put training on, when we do things for them, when we provide the mentorship, they just turn up with this eagerness to just get better every day. And that's really easy then when you've got people like that in the room who just want to be good. Um, and those four have just hit the ground running and are you know the future of the business, and they're exactly the type of people that you want.

unknown 6:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:46

And I think what I think that, and that's no no uh kind of no uh no no shade on the others. No, not this point. I think the course has just got better and better and better as we've done it because as a business we've learned how to put on a better course for them each year, and we've taken away the learnings like we've done you know so far, what's gone really well with this course, what can we improve for the next ones that that are starting in January? Um, but it's been really, really well run. Um, and I think it's you know that the guys have gone above and beyond what's expected of them and they've you know really taken it in their stride.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Yeah, I know, but I mean when I came in, Jake and I sat down and we thought, well, okay, how do we put on a brilliant kind of development plan for them? So we structured it, their first month was completely mapped out, they knew exactly what they were going to be doing almost down to the hour of the day. And that gave them a lot of confidence and buy-in to what we were trying to do for them, and we just sort of took it from there. Got a lot of the senior guys involved, or pathway advisors to do some mentorship with them, so they're getting real life experience by sitting down with those people, as well as the more kind of centralized sessions that we were putting on for them as well, which was which was brilliant. They've had a really good blend and mix of training, some real life practical stuff, and then some kind of in the boardroom sitting down, let's have a chat about things. Just been really good for them.

SPEAKER_03 7:56

Yeah, it's amazing. And I think what else is amazing is that they've actually, you know, they've not just come in and it's been a theory, they've been sat around books and have been learning, but you know, they've actually applied the skills that they've got. Most of them have passed their first CISI exam, so they're in there as well, which is absolutely fantastic. They're actually getting on-the-job training. Um, and you know, as a as a junior, being exposed to client meetings, being able to book in meetings and then see them the whole way through. I mean, uh, a few of them have taken on over ten clients since since they've been with us. Yeah, absolutely. Um, which is absolutely phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Well, they've contributed to 10% of the total sat meetings we've had this year. Wow. And they started in May, standing star, never done this job before. Four of them. Yeah, four of them. And they've you know, ten percent of what we've sat this year has been down to those four guys.

SPEAKER_03 8:42

Phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Which is amazing.

SPEAKER_03 8:43

Um yeah, really, really good. Uh, and you know, that they are the future uh advisors of Hoxton, which is really cool, you know, and they're having all these um values and hopefully skills embedded in them early on. They get what we're about, they get what's important, um, and you know, they will become the future of Hoxton as we go forward.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Yeah, 100%. I mean, they're learning the hardest part of what it is to be a financial planner, and that's the ability to talk to people, to ask the right questions, to demonstrate value. They get that opportunity from you know the very first few months, which is which is amazing. Um, and it just sets them up for success.

SPEAKER_03 9:17

Yeah, fantastic. And I'm really looking forward to the other five that we've uh that we've got uh taken on. We've taken on three, I think, more in the traditional trainee wealth manager role, and then we've got a couple uh that are coming in that we're gonna try something a bit different with uh this year, which is more around uh rather than working with new clients, it's potentially working with more of the existing clients, which is gonna be cool. Um so I'm really excited to see how that goes.

Real Client Exposure And Early Impact

SPEAKER_00 9:39

It's gonna be amazing. And look, make it better. You know, we learn a lot from the recent cohort, it's gone really well. Yeah, there are definitely things that I think we can tweak and do better again, which is exciting for these next five.

SPEAKER_03 9:48

Yeah, fantastic, and really looking forward to uh looking forward to that happening as well. Another big thing that happened this year, obviously, we continued down the inorganic acquisition trail. Uh, so that worked really well, and you know, that was um obviously we've added uh to the inorganic revenues that we've you know that we've managed to bring in uh with infinity, that's gone really well. I know obviously you've been heavily involved in that and leading that, and then obviously Haven in Manchester as well, which I think when we were recording the last one that we did on this, it was there or thereabouts, but we hadn't actually officially done it. So amazing to get that office in Manchester.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Yeah, for sure. So very, very pleased to be able to uh obviously we've uh we've announced it public publicly. Um it's been a real learning curve all year about MA, and you know, we've continuously learned from the things that we've done well, the things that haven't gone so well. Um I've taken a lot of comfort from as we're building out the UK business in particular, you know, we've put more infrastructure around our decision making and due diligence and a committee that's involved in making the decisions and coming together with different perspectives on things that we uh things that we all believe in. Um so we we probably started the year with with higher ambitions in terms of bringing on um uh assets under management and the businesses we bring on. But we're not just trying to grab assets, we're not just trying to uh do everything possible to to bring businesses in. We want to make sure they're aligned, we want to make sure there's an opportunity there for us to add value uh and where our team can uh can really get stuck into that. So um yeah, super, super successful uh in that regard, and we continuously learn and look forward to pushing more of that into next year as well.

Smart M&A And Walking Away

SPEAKER_03 11:28

Yeah, it's been fantastic. And I think one thing that I've been, you know, obviously we can talk about the successes about the ones that come off, and that's great, but actually it's also important to talk about the ones that didn't come off. Um and as you said, you know, the processes that we've been put in place to make sure that we, you know, any in in my view, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, anyone can acquire a business as long as you have the money to do so. It's very easy to go and say, I will give you X for X. That doesn't mean that it's gonna work, and it doesn't mean that it's uh you know what you're buying is any good. So you have to be really, really make sure as a business for the longevity of the business on what you're buying is a good asset, because if it's not a good asset, it can erode the culture, it can erode um, you know, that it it's a lot, a lot of extra work trying to make it good. And why do you want to buy something that's damaged when when you don't? And we had that experience this year, didn't we? I think we were 95% uh there, uh very, very close to completing on an acquisition early on in the year that we thought that we were uh going to go ahead with, that we'd put in our plan, and we ended up pulling out. It would have been very easy for us just to kind of ignore what was you know what what the uh issue was with the with the business, and I know I'll just say it was a tax issue um that we we couldn't get ourselves comfortable with, but then we therefore chose to walk away from it. We could have you know done that blind eye, like you know, easy just well, we get the revenue in them, we'll worry about that if it ever happens, but to us that wasn't something we wanted to do, was it?

SPEAKER_01 12:53

No, for sure. Like there's there's two aspects to it's the there's the potential financial liability, which we definitely don't want to take on. It's not insignificant amounts of money that we're investing in building out the team and taking on the assets that that we are, so we don't want to get tripped up on something that we could have avoided and we've spotted. Um, and then look, there will there will inevitably be some issues that come up uh down the line, uh, and that means remediation and that's uh that means uh potentially increased headcount and and projects where you didn't expect and resource where you didn't expect to need. Uh so if we can avoid any of those things that take away from what we're trying to do, which is to build one of the best financial planning businesses in the UK. The best. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Uh, but yeah, we don't want anything to detract from that and to hold us back from that. And um, yeah, look, um it was actually a couple of deals because there was one at the end of last year as well, and and there was one this year, and you know, uh, we're making the right decisions for us, and even if it means um look, that does mean that that's less revenue coming into the business than we originally anticipated, but um we've got to make the right decisions and uh and and move in the right direction.

Building Diligence And Integration

SPEAKER_03 14:00

Exactly. It's all about uh so well, it's not all about it shouldn't be all about short-term pain, long-term gain, but sometimes you have to make decisions that short term aren't great, but you know for the longevity of the business that it's m it's much better. And it's very, very easy when you have a short-term mindset like some businesses do, to get caught up in those short-term decisions. Whereas we are always thinking 10, 15, 20 years ahead, um, you know, I I definitely want to be here for as long as possible, and therefore we don't want to be clearing up a load of rubbish in five years' time when things haven't gone to plan because we've we've not done our our our due diligence and we've made bad decisions. So, you know, really happy now that we didn't. At the time, obviously it's it's not easy, but you know, that it's important to take learnings from every year, and it's important as a business that that we make sure that we uh that we look at things and uh go from there. So, accountability um has been another has been another really interesting one. We've obviously employed across the business um dashboards. Now everyone is gonna say, well, this is typical Chris because it's my gremlin's buttons, and uh apparently that's what I've got a bit of a name for, which I don't I'm not I'm not particularly thrilled about. Um but maybe you could talk us through some of the accountability points that we brought in to add transparency for everyone to to make sure that um you know that they are um that they're there and they can see everything good and bad and what that looks like.

Accountability Through Dashboards

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Yeah, I think that's um so look from personal experience and we've talked about this previously on other podcasts, the start of the year was really tough and um we we weren't having the success that we wanted to in the UK uh initially. I think globally as well. I don't think you've got uh but for me personally we introduced uh Pow BI and the uh the dashboards and visibility of all the things that we were trying to achieve and where we were against those benchmarks. When that was introduced in April, we suddenly had this visibility of what where we were against those benchmarks and what we needed to uh to achieve to get back to where we wanted to be. So it helped me a lot to be able to articulate to the team look, this is where we're at, this is where our goals are, we're a little bit away, we need to really get stuck into the things that are holding us back from it, what can we do to improve to get us back to where we need to be. So that helped me. And then um obviously we've started to introduce that um as I've had more management in the business in the UK, and then now uh giving those dashboards directly to advisors so they can individually see and take accountability to themselves and to management for where they are against their KPIs and benchmarks. It's not micromanagement, it's visibility and accountability, it's just uh giving people an idea of where they are, and then it gives you an opportunity as well if if people or teams are not doing the things uh or achieving uh what we originally set out, it's an opportunity to sit back and go, okay, so what are the things that are stopping me from getting there? Yeah, and then you can plan and then you can build um so yeah, I uh for me, super super useful, and I'm sure it's the same across the team. And what are the KPIs you're looking at? Um, yeah, so lots. Uh annual reviews is super, super important for us in the UK. Also, as we're uh particularly as we're taking on clients from acquisitions and bringing them into our business, it's understanding uh client satisfaction. So we've got net promoter scores, and that that gives us a real good indication as to are our clients happy? Would they promote us as a business? Would they not? Um, and look, we definitely get people um who who uh as they go through a transition from one business to another, it's a point of friction, it's an and uh and people don't always respond particularly well, but we know that they're not happy and we can get in touch with them and see why and work on it. Uh so we've got net promoter score, which is really useful. Uh, we do have revenue targets that that we want to uh achieve, but it's that all-encompassed um oh sorry, and integration as well. So where are we in terms of integrating those acquisitions? So we take on these books of business as we take them on. They've all had different styles of looking after clients, and we need to make sure from a consumer duty perspective that we have a consistent approach across our book. Yeah, um, so integration into our proposition and what we do is really important as well. So we monitor all of that and our revenue targets and uh and everyone's very aware of what we're at.

SPEAKER_03 18:12

And then, you know, I think a lot of people say, okay, great, that's the UK, but actually, Matt, we look at very similar targets, annual reviews, MPS for everyone.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Yeah, we do, and it makes the one to ones that I have now so much more powerful because the guys are more prepared when they come because they've got access to it, pull it up on the screen, and we can walk through the trends, the patterns, how where they're doing well, where they maybe need some improvement and all that sort of stuff, and we're both looking at the same thing. And my feedback then and our conversations that we have, we just align a lot quicker because we've both got the same set of information, we're both looking at the same thing. Uh, and it's just yeah, it's excelled the impact of the one-to-ones, I think, having that visibility and just the data to our to our grasp that we can just go through together, yeah.

Measuring NPS And Reviews

SPEAKER_03 18:55

Definitely. I think I think as you know, anyone, if you want to do really well in something, you always need to measure yourself against it. And I think if you don't manage to measure yourself against it, or there's no way that you can actually see what's going on. Like it was someone say to me, if you don't track it, you don't care about it. So the things that you care about you should always track. You know, if you're trying to lose weight, most people will get on the scales once a week. If you're really into it, you'll get on the scales once a day. Uh, and you'll track and you'll look and you'll monitor it and you'll plot the graph over time and you'll and you'll see how it goes. Um that accountability and that you knowing where you are against your goal is is super, super important.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

No, a big thing for me as well is getting the guys to believe that you are running your own business here. This is your own part of Hoxton, you're part of the group, but this is, you know, it's down to you to run your business in the way that it should be run. And I think a lot of them have learned a lot more about what they do. Yeah, not they're not kind of day to day anymore, right? I'll turn up, I'll do this, I'll go, you know, they'll they'll come in and they're now much more structured because they've got that visibility of gosh, those are the trends that I was having where I didn't realise I had a bit of a dip kind of consistently. This part of the year, now they can better prepare when they didn't have the information perform.

Culture And The Health Hub

SPEAKER_03 20:05

And also, I think it's key to say we don't beat people over the heads with it. No, no, no. It's for those people that are do really want to look at it and and do see it as a key part of their growth journey. You you have these things available, like the transparency is there, whether you use it or whether you don't. Uh, like I say, it's like coming to university, isn't it? If you want to do well, then you'll uh apply yourself and you'll look at the things that matter. If you don't, you'll sit in the uh in the uni bar um drinking uh drinking all day and not really caring, but that's up to you. You you you apply yourself as much as you want. So it's trying to create that culture of you know, you can, you know, high performance, you can, you know, if you want it, it's here and we can give it to you. See that kind of like knee knee uh that leads nicely onto our uh culture, well-being, and also something else, the Hoxton uh health hub that that we've been looking at as well. So I'm really uh, you know, that's been another real positive for me this year, how that's all gone down. Um, you know, I I feel that the Hoxton Health Hub has been absolutely fantastic. That's been a great uh key directive that you've put in place uh and you've and you've seen through. So maybe you can talk a bit about that.

SPEAKER_04 21:12

Yeah, absolutely. I think definitely in the latter part of this year, um, there's been an absolute focus on culture in the teams, how do we make teams feel supported? And that's where the idea for the Hoxton Health Hub came into play. And it wasn't only about sort of mental well-being, we also looked at sort of physical well-being, how do we connect teams internationally? So, in terms of well-being and mental health, we rolled out the EAP, which was a phenomenal success. You know, you don't really know if people will engage with these type of things because it is quite confidential, you know, they feel vulnerable. And when we got the stats back, you know, our stats were off the charts, which really means our teams are feeling comfortable and confident enough to be able to engage with these. And then from a physical well-being, you know, we rolled out the in-house the Hoxton Hub in-house uh screening at the in the UAE office. We're looking to do that now in the UK in January. And then um we had the 30 by 30 challenge, which was Dubai driven, but we managed to roll it out to our global teams and we had such engagement from all of our teams. I mean, our top four was Dean Elliott from the US, we had JJ representing the UK, um, and then we had uh Danny and Rems with our UAE team. So, yeah, very much a success and feeling that you know culture is really being driven this year in the teams.

SPEAKER_03 22:30

100%. So I wanna I want to talk a bit more about the the Lyra um analysis and you know how that, you know, how like what exactly that is, because I think a lot of people don't well, you know, who are listening to this might not understand the you know the levels of support that you can get on that. So as I understand you can get things like therapy sessions, you can get um yeah, you can't so you can get in-person therapy sessions, which is really great.

EAP, Lyra, And Global Wellbeing

SPEAKER_04 22:55

Doesn't always come with an EAP. Uh you can get online therapy. So what is an EAP? Sorry, just for those who don't know Yeah, it's an employee assistance program whereby you know employees can actually employees and their families can reach out to Lyra in terms of gaining mental health support, financial support, uh or advice rather, legal advice, depending on which country. And you can even reach out to dietitians and nutritionists within your regions as well.

SPEAKER_03 23:20

It's fantastic. And we've seen a big uptick in it, haven't we? I mean, obviously Lyra don't show us this person's had this, this person's had that. Obviously, it's completely confidential. But I was shocked when you were telling me how many people have actually engaged with it. Because at previous companies that I've been at, people, you know, it's kind of like, well, I know that's there, but I just don't bother using it.

SPEAKER_04 23:38

Yeah, and and I think in most organizations it's like a tick box exercise. Oh, okay, well, we've we've provided an EAP. Whereas I think we've really done well in terms of encouraging teams. I've even had teams um, you know, where families were um affected by the typhoons in the Philippines who asked if their families could reach out. So we are really seeing the team engaging with us, which is really, really good to see.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

Yeah, it's great, it's great engagement. And that's obviously been led by by your good self, which has been fantastic. I think the you know, the 30 by 30 challenge as well, it was really cool. Um, you know, I think seeing everyone engage and talking about it. And I know you you were leading the walks on uh the Wednesday lunchtime and taking everyone out and getting everyone out of the office. Yeah, which as many people as would participate.

SPEAKER_04 24:21

Yeah, it was really good to see the well, I mean, also take the heat into account, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:25

But even we engaged with our UK teams, they were also doing uh the walk out Wednesdays is what we called it. And there was some good banter, um, you know, a bit of competition between the team members, which is really good as well.

SPEAKER_03 24:36

Yeah, it's always good to it's always good to have that, isn't it? And and like you said, the global leaderboards. Anytime you put a leaderboard up with anything, yeah, it will always encourage competition. And being financial planners, a lot of the guys are highly competitive and are trained in that environment. So it was uh yeah, they would always everyone will always try and win those things, wouldn't they? I can vouch for that. Yeah, yeah. But interestingly enough, it was uh operations and the research team. Like Danny in operations uh is an absolute animal anyway, but uh he uh he uh he topped that, which was which was great to see as well. Um but yeah, I've been you know, like from where we were at the start of the year to where we are now and like prioritising things like mental health and making sure people have the support around them, you know, that they don't have to go to their manager and that they don't have to, you know, maybe put themselves in the you know, speak to someone that they think might think badly, or you know, like obviously that wouldn't be the case, but it just provides that environment for them that they can, you know, speak openly to someone. And you know, I've been super chuffed that we've been able to do that this year.

Pay Frameworks And Fair Progression

SPEAKER_04 25:36

Yeah, no, and I absolutely agree. I think people don't want to talk about things with their managers or within their business because they think it'll influence their roles, um, which obviously it wouldn't, but it's nice that we've been able to give them the safe space to sort of go and the screening as well, when you got all of the uh the screening tests and everything in the office, that was really cool as well. Yeah, it was a bit chaotic for the day, but it was really good. And the thing, you know, I think the teams really loved it. I mean, we even had the opticians come out, we had the lenses all over the counters, people could purchase their lenses and their glasses on the day. No, it was really well received, and I look forward to rolling it out with our global teams as well.

SPEAKER_03 26:11

Yeah, in the UK next as well, so that'll be uh that'll be fun, organized and all that uh across the different offices. It's not as centralized in the UK as it would say we'll have to we'll have to figure that one out, but that's uh that's cool. Um, you know, another thing that I think was worked really well as well this year, which you know, again as a scaling business, you know, you kind of you don't think of these things. I remember when I started the business, I I was saying um it was me, Christine, Kane, Alan Tess, Matt in the UK, um, and that was it. Like there was you know, five, six of us, handful of us, and you don't think about benchmarking of salaries and all the other crazy stuff that you know, not it's not crazy, but all the other stuff that goes along with this, and you obviously learn it. But that's but that was another really nice thing as well that I think we did this year, which was going, okay, what kind of clear pay framework can we put in place? What kind of benefit structures can we put in place as we start to scale? Um, and you know, the salary uh salary benchmarking uh at the year as well. So that's been fantastic too.

SPEAKER_04 27:11

Yeah, I think that's been a really good thing that's also come on the back of this year is being able to look at our organization, look at the structure. I mean, I remember when I started with uh Hoxins in January, I think you had about 80 people reporting into you. Um and then we looked at the structure, um, you know, we redesigned the organization and then we looked at the roles that each person was doing. We graded those roles, we were able to benchmark internally and externally to now have a solid framework, you know, and this is really good currently in terms of being transparent with employees and consistent in our approach, but also as the remuneration committee, when you're looking at salaries and budgets, you've got a much bigger control. And then when we look forward um and integrating new teams and going into new regions, this really sets, you know, we've got to set a framework to go in with rather than guessing our way through it.

Hiring Specialists And Leadership Layer

SPEAKER_03 28:03

Yeah, rather than finger in the end. Or what used to happen, which was people used to collar me in between meetings and go, Oh, I I want a pay rise, and then I'd be like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, fine. And then they would go to see Charlie and try to be like, what have you agreed to this time? Um so yeah, so it's much more structured and much more clear and much more fair. Yeah, exactly. Which is which is super important. And people, you know, like whenever you join a business or you want you want progression, you want to see that your, you know, that your efforts are going to be rewarded, and you don't want to be wondering every year, am I gonna be, you know, am I am I gonna get something? Am I not? You want to know. Like it's you know, like a lot of people uh want security and that and they value that. And I think this means that everyone knows that we are looking at this constantly, that there are specific dates that when people will be, you know, have salary increases or that we'll look at promotions and stuff like that. And you've got this whole remuneration committee, which obviously you've headed up and and put together, which has been fantastic to look at things like that as well. So it's it's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 28:58

Yeah, I agree, yeah. I think also when you look at sort of being transparent with the teams um and setting that expectation, what the benchmarking also allows you to do is to understand what it is you need to do to go to the next level. It isn't a case of, oh, I've been here for five years, but I'm still doing the same job, but I deserve you know that next level increment. It's about giving people that clear pathway. So yeah, very proud of that too.

SPEAKER_03 29:23

Very, very proud. And I'd you know what else another thing I've been really proud is the quality of talent that we've managed to attract this year too. So obviously your good self at the start of the year, Matt. Obviously, you've joined us this year as well. Um, JJ, you was you know, it feels like you've been here forever, but it's been you know been over a year now. Uh so you were 2024, so we can't give you a shout out. I'll take it.

SPEAKER_02 29:42

Yeah, take it, mate.

Cultural Fit Over Headcount

SPEAKER_03 29:43

It's all right. Um we've also brought Mike in uh on U CFO, he's been fantastic, Catherine, who now heads up our Global Compliance. I mean, I couldn't be happier with her, and then two new joiners, Rob and Claire. So Rob is a general counsel, uh, which I know has been great for you as well in in HR, and also Claire is our new head of tax. So, you know, the senior leadership team, it's not like we've just been putting stuff in the bottom. We've actually been really trying to, you know, in my mind, build a really strong management layer which will enable us to scale uh further. And I think what we've got to a point now, and you see this with every business, and it doesn't, you know, it's it's it's not a bad thing, but what you see is is that people that were jacks of all trade at the start, where you had to be good at all the jobs, now become a lot less. And actually, what you can do is go and hire great people uh in those roles in those roles, you know, like Rob has had had his own legal practices and and he's in his very successful himself. Claire has run head, you know, Claire's been head of tax at a multi multi-jurisdictional uh business as well, and you know, managed uh you know seven-figure uh revenue tax team. Um Catherine, you know, was part of an extremely fast-scaling business. You know, all of these people are bought in so much, um, you know, and obviously everyone else uh has got fantastic experience as well. But that that's been you know it's been really great to see. And I think as the business evolves, it's important that we continue to attract great talent. And then obviously, not to forget Jamie as well. So Jamie in the UK joined us from SJP, he was managing an 11 billion pound AU office there, uh, which is insane. Um, so that's been great as well. But we've moved away from giving the people a go to hiring proven specialists, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Yeah, I well I can speak for the UK in particular, where at the beginning of the year, you know, we've we've spoken about it before, me and Charlie having to get stuck into compliance and uh put a lot of infrastructure in place in place there. But as we've grown that business out from uh was nine people when I first came into the business to over 50 now, um, you know, we we need to kind of decentralize a little bit away from uh originally we were getting a lot of support from Dubai as the team gets bigger and as there's more things to do, that's not uh scalable and it's not uh it's it's not um yeah, you need to bring that resource into the into the UK. And as I've um as as the business has grown out, having Stuart and Jamie that have helped out with management of the team across the advisors, we've got David running the power planning team, we've now got Rob, who's uh our uh conduit for uh operations in in the UK as well, which is really important. And I've helped that most recently as we're we're going through two office moves uh coming up very shortly in in the UK. Um, so yeah, it's uh as you bring in and and they are specialists in what they do. Uh so being able to get them to just purely focus on that and level up constantly has been really good.

SPEAKER_03 32:37

I remember someone telling me when I when I started the uh business, it was it's really important that you should always try and get the best quality people that you can in your business because your that is what your business is. We don't make goods, um, we don't make Apple's Macs or uh you know or iPhones or anything else like that. We are only as good as the people in our business because they're the people giving advice, they're the people running the business, we're a service-based business. So therefore we need to, you know, have the deep expertise um you know that that these that these people have. Um but yeah, I mean it's been really good, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04 33:11

Yeah, no, I I agree 100%. Bringing in people with the knowledge and the exp and you know, many years experience, industry experience really you know gives confidence in terms of what the future looks like for Hoxton because you've got the right kind of leadership to sort of take us to that next level. And that's what these new new highs have been, definitely. And I think you touched on it, but I'm you know, I was so happy to hear when Rob was coming on board to have that GC, to have that sounding board, you know, on any employment issues that we have, or rather relations, you know, going into new regions, having someone to sound board off against to have that health check is just absolutely amazing.

Autonomy, WFH, And Performance

SPEAKER_00 33:49

Yeah, absolutely. I think the way in which we recruit as well is brilliant. I've seen it firsthand, obviously on the pathway side. You know, they get a real insight into what the role is going to be about before they join, and then they can make the call, is it for them or not? And you end up just attracting the right people, the ones that want to be a part of what we're doing here. Yeah. So I think that process and how it's been modified over time has made a big difference as well.

SPEAKER_03 34:10

100%. And look, and I think that's another thing that we'll we'll cover off as well. You know, ultimately, we've had to make some tough calls this year as well. Again, with hiring, firing, all that kind of good stuff, and people leaving. It like just because it doesn't work doesn't mean that it's an absolute catastrophe. And and what I think, you know, a a business is an entity, and hopefully that's uh an entity that goes on for a long, long time. And it's like with anything that you hold custody of. You hold custody for a certain period of time, you hopefully have value, and then you know the thing moves on and you move on, and everything happens, uh happens well. But one thing that I've noticed this year, it's super important to make sure that people do align culturally, and that's why we go to so much effort at the start to make people very, very aware of what kind of culture we have, what we're looking to do, how we're looking to do things, it's why we do things like this. It's not to you know wax lyrical about um how great we are, it's so people can get an idea of the business um and they can come to Hoxton knowing what the culture's like, knowing what we're about, knowing what our values are, and therefore if those values align, then you have um you know you you you you will tend to work very well together. If there's a clear mismatch in your values right at the start, you you thought this and they thought that, it's never gonna work. Um, you know, and and over the you know, over the over the year we've we've let people go, um, some people have left. And ultimately that's because you know cultures haven't been aligned. And you know, I don't sit there and have any negative uh any negative thoughts about that at all because it's not for them and it's not fair on them because they want to further their careers and they want to do well in an environment that they can thrive in, which is great, and then also it's not right for us. So we want to put our time and effort and invest in people where it is right and where you know they they can remain. Um but I you know I I think this trying to create a place for absolutely everyone, that every you know that you're never gonna do it. Um and you've got to be true to yourself sometimes and go, this is this is what we're like unashamably, and this is how we've done really well. I you know, I I look at the I look at the figures on the business and obviously the stats and you know how um how you know much revenue and how much AUM and you know general sentiment within the teams. Uh and I see it as you know that's all really positive and that that's all really good. But you know, uh along the way people come and and people go, don't they?

Onboarding Fixes And 30-60-90

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Yeah, for sure. And you it personally, I just don't think you can tolerate maybe not the right word, but I use it. Um you know you cannot you cannot allow for misalignment in culture. You cannot allow someone who detracts from your culture and takes away from the things if someone does not believe in what you're trying to achieve, they're only going to take away from it, which impacts the people around them. They they are they won't be happy, which impacts the people around them. We we have a a group of people that are now, after we've gone through these exercises and and cut, I'll call it uh culturally leaning out, it's not financially motivated, it's making sure that we've got the right people in the business and the people align with what we're what we're trying to achieve. Everyone does better by having that and not having anyone that's it's like an anchor. I always describe it as being like an anchor, it's holding you back and it's stopping you from uh going at full tilt. So I think it's really, really important. And like you say, it's no bad thing. You you've got it can feel uncomfortable at the time as you're having the conversations, but ultimately it's for the best, it's in the best interest of that individual and the team.

SPEAKER_03 37:44

Yeah, definitely. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Yeah, it's what it is. You know, there's no there's no hard feelings, there's no need to be bitter or anything else like that. It just doesn't work. I think one thing that I've learned this year as well, uh key learning for me, has been being more flexible. Um before I was very rigid, maybe in my views or on things, and you know, that's actually been working with the likes uh of JJ and Shammain as uh coming in, you know. We've one thing I am actually very proud of is is that we offer people the opportunity to work from home uh one day or two days a week, depending upon their on their role, um, especially with the senior staff. Um and senior people being given autonomy, let's say, from the planning side, it means it does feel like their own business. It means they it doesn't feel like that they are getting, you know, that they're getting whipped and you know, and and putting them in a situation that they that they that they don't want to be in, ultimately.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

Yeah, no, absolutely. And it's trust as well. You know, they get given the trust, they get given the autonomy, and people are motivated by that. People like to have freedom, they like to structure their day in a way that's going to work for them to get the most out of them. So I think providing that to all of the planners this year, senior planners especially, I think we've seen it's made a big difference to to their output and what they've done. Yeah. Uh and their general you know, happiness levels, you know, when they come in, they're buzzing to be there, but then you might not see them for a couple of days because they're out having client meetings, doing different tasks, etc. So it's no, I think freedom is is a brilliant thing to have.

SPEAKER_03 39:07

Yeah. It's definitely not trying to be restrictive, but also I feel like junior people they do need more structure. Um, you know, and and trust is earned, it's not given. Absolutely. Um, you know, it's you know, we focus on productivity, we're not focused on clock watching. I think it was one of the things you said to me early on, which was, you know, I don't really care where my guys are as long as they do what they say they're gonna do. Yeah.

Global Mobility And Personal Goals

SPEAKER_01 39:28

You need to prove concept first, you need to prove that um that you will do the things that are expected of you. And obviously with the accountability and the the dashboards and stuff, we we've got that in front of everyone and we can see exactly what everyone's everyone's doing. So look, if someone's super productive, achieving great things, I'm less concerned about it. If someone is underachieving and they still want to spend time out of the office, which is an environment where they can get back to uh the things that are important, uh then then that's what we will discuss. But like we've got a a policy in the UK with uh you can work from home one day. A week, uh, but from a team perspective, you have to be in on a Monday and have to be in on a Friday. That's cool. Uh, which is we start the week together, we collectively come together, so we have we have team meetings on a Monday to to understand the things that we want to achieve and want to get done that week, and then we discuss on a Friday, did we do that and close off the week together? And I think I think that's important personally, yeah. Um, but people have got that freedom, uh freedom during the week. Uh which look, if you're in an office like London, commuting is not easy and commuting's expensive, and it gives people the opportunity uh to kind of take back some of that uh commuting time, so we give that flexibility, but always focused on team getting together, the collaboration between people and learning uh from each other because it's sharing best practice and you can understand if if you're struggling and you're sitting next to someone who's doing well, you can have a chat with them and see what they're doing well and see what they're doing well uh to try and implement yourself. So I think there's loads of uh loads of benefits from being together, but agreed.

SPEAKER_03 40:56

And that's why it's so important at the start of your career to to have uh office time, isn't it? Like it's you you massively underestimate how much of a sponge you can be, and that's also why we do try and encourage the senior guys to still come in because we've got so many junior people within the business that they they need to learn from these guys, you know, the stuff that they can impart on them that it you know goes a long way.

SPEAKER_00 41:17

No, absolutely. The amount of questions I get asked on a daily basis from our juniors is incredible. There is no way that they would be as quick a learners as they are if they weren't in the office. You know, teams is great, but it's very rare that if you've just got a quick question, you're not going to team someone. You know, you get if you're in the office, you can just turn to the person next to you on the answer to those. So development is just slowed down if you've got you know all your juniors working from home. Um yeah.

From $5B To 20 By 30

SPEAKER_03 41:40

And I think well, I think another thing that's been really cool as well this year is like the leadership team, how everyone's kind of running their own teams in the way that they want, and people run them differently. Um, you know, look, we we would we've not been able to have bought uh bought on$1.2 billion of assets if everything had to go through myself. Um, you know, as much as it pains me to admit that. Um, but you know, it's it's super uh it's super what super impressed me is is that you know how you run the UK and you've obviously put your teams in place. Matt, you've been been out the pathway with Jake in kind of your way. Sharma, you've been rolling out these initiatives and you know getting on with it. It's like you know, great leaders of teams don't need to be told what to do. Um and I think you guys have you know done really, really well.

SPEAKER_04 42:26

Yeah. I think it comes down to the concept of managing to performance and not to time, right? Everybody, like you say, in the senior leadership team knows what they need to do and get it done, and if it's not being done, then we can have a look at you know sort of where it's going wrong.

SPEAKER_03 42:39

Yeah, and it's and it's and it's and it's really good. And look, I I love being kept updated. We have our kind of weekly catch-ups to discuss where everyone is. Um, but yeah, for me that's a that's you know a really nice chance to see the progress along the way. And then every week I kind of step by and go, well, we're you know, we're more forward, we're closer to where we where we need uh where we need to get to, which is which is awesome. Uh another great thing has been people being able to move around the the world uh with this as well. So obviously um, you know, you've uh you've matted moved over here into into Dubai. JJ, you've relocated from the UK. Yeah, over to Dubai. This is not trying to get everyone to Dubai. We're gonna talk about some people moving in other places. We've managed to get three people um into the US this year with their their E2 visas. So we've got Dewey, we've got Dean, and now Matt as well. So he's over in the US at finally being able to be with his daughter and his wife. Uh his daughter has gone to university over there, which has been absolutely fantastic, and I'm really excited to see how that US business grows. But it's like supporting people's personal goals as one as well as their professional ones, you know, like great, it's good for us for you to be in these different places, but actually a lot of the time it comes from I would love to live there. How can we make that happen? Uh, and being able to, you know, being able to facilitate that has been another really nice thing.

SPEAKER_04 43:58

Yeah, and I definitely think the teens appreciate that. And you do get more out of people when you sort of lean, you know, more forward leaning to what affects their personal lives as well. So it really has been good. And I know that they really appreciate it too.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

Yeah, awesome. And I'm happy to share that. My motivating factor wasn't necessarily um a person, well, it was personal, but it was um, you know, you know, I was struggling with my my son and support in the UK, and there was better support here. So that's that's ultimately why why we made that move and having that global platform and the opportunity to to look in different places to get that support is obviously uh very appreciated and uh and was uh and has been fantastic and uh and it's going well. But um yeah, it the motivating factors aren't always just lifestyle and things like that. You don't you don't know what it what they might be. And uh, you know, we spoke about it for a long time and we all got comfortable with it before before it happened, and ultimately that's what we want. You know, if people do want to it, that's an aspiration for some people, it's having that discussion and uh what do we need to do uh together to kind of everyone get comfortable 100% uh before it happens.

SPEAKER_03 45:03

It's not I want to move on this date to this place, that's that's not how it goes, but it it's you know it's I think what's nice is that people can have those conversations and we actually do make it happen. Yeah. Uh which is which is which is really cool. Um, you know, look, we'll we'll kind of um we'll kind of head on to you know a few things that um you know I think have gone I think that we've done well to to um you know to shift during the year as well. So we had some onboarding challenges earlier in the year that we've managed to that we've managed to get a much clearer path with now. I know regularly it feels like every week I have someone sat in the boardroom which is next to my office, which um you know is getting, you know, the whole onboarding process has got much liquor.

SPEAKER_04 45:47

Yeah, definitely. I think in the beginning of the year it was quite disjointed. Uh us all being in different regions. I think now we've got to a point where we've been able to reach out to local teams. We've got managers who are a lot more forward-leaning in terms of the onboarding process, which has really helped. And Janeve's absolutely, you know.

SPEAKER_03 46:04

She's done a great job.

SPEAKER_04 46:05

Yeah, she really has.

SPEAKER_03 46:06

Another new joiner this year.

SPEAKER_04 46:07

Yes, another one.

SPEAKER_03 46:08

Another new joiner this year's done really well. Um, and you know, I think the other thing as well is being able to set expectations when people come in. So we now do like a 30, 60, 90, then we said what's expected in the first 30 days, what's expected in the first 60 days, what's done in the next 90 days, and that again helps the person understand, okay, great. Well, I'm coming in and I want to do really well. What do I need to do? Rather than, you know, I think you know, people's perceptions looking at going, okay, well, I think this, and just because I think this doesn't necessarily mean that's what this person wants or this person thinks as well. So actually being very clear with your intentions early on has has helped a lot, hasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 46:46

Yeah, and it avoids the sink or swim. Yeah, we don't we we don't just chuck people into the deep end and say, uh, see how far you can go. Like we make it, we want people. We obviously we we've spoken about how much time and effort we put into recruiting uh uh and we want that to go well, and we want everyone that comes into the business to succeed. Uh, and just setting those expectations is not um, as we were talking about before, my it's not micromanagement, it's this is what we've we've been through. This we uh put lots of structure around this, this is what you need to do to get off to a fast start, and then we can start to really chuck uh rocket fuel on it and support your career. Uh it's it's just avoiding the opportunity for as much as possible for people to not do well.

Closing Thanks And Look Ahead

SPEAKER_03 47:27

And that's it. We want people to succeed. Like it's in our interest for people to do really well and and to succeed. If they're not happy and they're not succeeding, then we've done something wrong, you know, and that's and that's it. Um but yeah, I I I've been super, super happy, and I'm I'm super as always always uh looking forward to where we're going and and what's gonna, you know, what's gonna go on. So obviously we set a five billion target um by uh 2027. Um so that was fast approaching, and um, you know, we were up to four billion dollars uh four billion dollars this year, that was five billion service at seven and a half billion dollars. Um and I remember when I set that target actually in 2021, I was sat at my kitchen table, actually very similar to this, and I had Nabil and I had Matt uh with me. It was actually in the UK, and we were joined on teams by a few of the others in the other offices, and we plucked this number out of thin air, like, and then it was kind of working back, and you laugh, but to me that's how the you know, so that a lot of the time these kind of crazy plans are kind of put together, so we you know throw something out there and then we go, all right, well, how old would we actually get there and do that? And actually, we will hit that and we will hit it sooner than than we thought, uh, which is really cool. Um but I think you've got to put you know, you've got to put things out there. So you know, the big hairy, audacious goal is 20 by 30, so that's 20 billion dollars of assets by 2030. That is the next goal that we're all going to be working for, and I know that's kind of scary to a lot of people, but you know, I think again, if you don't put these big lofty expectations in place and try and hit them, then you you know you'll constantly be uh uh mediocre and and and not get there. But um I'm sure that's a bit less finger in the wind this time as well. Yeah, it has been a lot less finger in the wind. Then things I've got people like Mike reining me in, it might have been 50 by 30. But um, but yeah. Um but yeah, look, I think it's been an absolutely fantastic year. I'm really excited to do one of these in 2026 at the start of it and set our expectations and what we're what we're gonna plan to do for then. I I love doing these because you can look back at them and go, Oh yeah, we said this at the start of the year, and did we hit it? And we said this, and you know, like it's it's cool to do. So thank you very much for coming on. Thank you so much as well for your lovely Christmas jumpers as well. I'm sure people have been very appreciative of them. Matt and Shaman Matchin as well. Uh newbies to the podcast, we thought we'd put a uniform on. And JJ looking like he might melt. Um he's got a very, very nice thick jumper on. Um, but yeah, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for for listening. Uh to everyone who listened and who's worked in the business, you know, chance for me to say you've done amazing. I'm super, super proud of what you've achieved in 2025, and I'm really, really looking forward to uh to a massive twenty twenty six. So thank you very much.