International Career Advice from a Number 1 Financial Planner at Titan Wealth

Should UK financial planners be looking at the international advice market? Andreas Hollas has spent 13 years in Dubai building expertise that has no textbook, and the career it's given him is unlike anything available in the UK.

In this episode of Financial Planner Life, Sam sits down with Andreas Hollas, chartered financial planner and technical advice director at Titan Wealth International, to explore what international financial planning actually looks like, the clients, the cases, the complexity, and the career opportunity most UK advisers don't even know exists.

Andreas came straight out of university into financial services, built the largest client book at HHR, and now supports 80 advisers across Titan Wealth International with the most complex cross-border cases in the business. His clients span from the Dominican Republic to the Republic of Korea. His cases have no rulebook. His answers come entirely from experience.

The result? A career at the front edge of a growing market that is desperately short of advisers genuinely equipped to serve it.

If you're a UK financial planner curious about the international space, already working overseas and wondering what's next, or simply looking for a career path that rewards deep specialisation, then this is the episode for you.

What we cover in this episode:

• What international financial planning actually means and who the clients really are
• Why cross-border advice has no textbook and why that's the entire opportunity
• How Andreas built the largest client book in his firm without being the busiest adviser
• The supply and demand gap in the international market and what it means for career progression
• What the One Titan philosophy means in practice for globally mobile clients
• The two routes into Titan Wealth International for UK advisers considering the move
• Why moving internationally doesn't mean losing your existing UK client relationships
• What the Denmark/Dubai case study reveals about what 13 years of experience actually buys you
• How Titan Wealth's Next Generation Leaders programme is developing the next generation of international advisers
• Why the international market rewards specialisation faster than almost anywhere in the UK profession

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Transcript

Opening Question And Welcome In Dubai

SPEAKER_00 0:00

How does an international financial planner stay on top of the intricacies around technical advice for clients that are truly global? Today I'm joined by Andreas Hollis, Chartered Financial Planner and Technical Advice Director at Titan Wealth International. Andreas has also been one of the top performing advisors in the business. So he brings both performance and deep technical credibility to this role. This is a conversation about what changes when a business like AHR becomes part of Titan Wealth. What it meant to him personally, what it unlocked for clients and advisors, and how his role now supports other financial planners with some of the most complex, high-stakes international cases. We talk about the concierge-style joined-up advice service that Titan now provide across borders, how that creates the one Titan experience for clients, and what it's like working in an environment where expertise is shared, standards are high, and advisors are genuinely supported. Andreas, thanks so much for joining me today on the Financial Planner Live podcast here in sunny Dubai. You've spent quite a few years here though, a little bit longer than me. I lasted a year. How long have you been here for? So I've been here 13 years now. Wow. Okay, man and boy.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

Yes. Yes. Not sure which way around, but um, yeah, because uh it doesn't feel like 13 years ago, and I feel like a lot of people say that it goes quite quickly. I definitely experienced that.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Well, life gets quicker as you get older. That's true. You get used to all the experiences, apparently. This is why when you were younger as a kid, life felt like it went on forever because everything was a brand new experience. Yeah. As you get older, you get used to everything, so that's why it speeds up, apparently. That's what I was told recently. Yeah, yeah, it sounds about right. Right, okay. Tell us a little bit about Dubai then. You've been here for 13 years. Has it changed a lot?

SPEAKER_01 1:59

Dubai's changed a lot in the 13 years I've been here. Um it's rightly or wrongly, I'm not sharing a particular opinion on this, um, but it's definitely become more Western, I would say. So, although among the Emirates, Dubai kind of felt like the most uh Western, expert-oriented emirate across them all, near competitor being that of Abu Dhabi, um, it's even more so become, you know, quite westernized. It's certain things like um, you know, uh Ramadan, for example, was was really the there was a requirement for everyone in country to alter their behaviour when Ramadan was on. Um, whereas that's less so now. Obviously, everyone should be respectful, clearly. Um, but you couldn't even go out to restaurants and things like that, and if they were, they were covered. Whereas now, during Ramadan, um, Dubai kind of carries on as as usual, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

One of the things I really liked about Spa, I'm like, I don't drink alcohol, right? And there's a lot of places around the marina where I live, JBR, where you can go and there isn't drinking. And I actually quite like that.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Because culturally in the UK, you can be around it all the time, can't you? And sometimes behaviour can kind of go a bit crazy, and all you want to do is go out for a nice meal with your family. Yeah. Um, I do find it here, it is geared towards that kind of um sense of uh equality around social life. But there are some really great places to go and have a few beers as well, if that's what you're into. Yeah. Um, and that's what I do like about it. I think it works.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Yeah, it does. You can you can you can pretty much get whatever you want. You can the a lot of the restaurants, I'm sure the majority of the restaurants here are not licensed to serve alcohol um or pork, you know. Um, and you know, yeah, if you want to kind of go out, particularly this time of the year when a lot of people are doing dry January, um, I'm not partaking this year. Uh, but if I was, it Dubai's quite a good place because there's lots of nice restaurants you can go to where you're not faced with a wine menu or you know, a beer tap staring you right in the eye.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Love

Life In Dubai And Expat Culture

SPEAKER_00 3:50

it. Before we get into that 13-year career, because I want to kind of pick that apart a little bit because I think it'll help people understand what it's like to be an international financial planner. Because you weren't a financial planner in the UK before, were you? This is your kind of area where you cut your teeth, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:04

This is the only job I've ever had, right? To be fair. So um, yeah, I came straight out of university. Uh, I joined a graduate program for an alternative firm and uh yeah, came out as a BDM, you know, did my exams, etc., um, and then became an advisor. And then I joined what was AHR and now Titan Wealth International about six years ago. So I've not really done anything else. Right. So I can I can speak a lot to my profession, but comparing it to other things is quite challenging because I don't really have a lot of point of reference.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Well, great, but also as well, you've got a really good understanding of the international advice market. That period of time, a lot's changed, different companies gone, uh come and gone. Um, what a great time to be part of Titan Wealth, formerly AHR. You know, a P back business coming in and acquiring it, turning it into Titan Wealth International. It's a huge opportunity. So let's just start in the present moment today. So introduce who you are and what you currently do uh within the business.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Yep, so uh my current role is that of technical advice director, but I I wear two hats. I'll explain what that is. But I wear two hats, so I'm technical advice director for the group, but I'm also a an advisor, so I have my own personal practice and where I advise on a personal basis. Um, and that looks like you know the kind of traditional financial advice that we would provide in the overseas market. Um my my main role, my main title technical advice director is some people in the the company refer to me as the company geek, and it's not a bad way of describing what I do. So I, you know, where where they have a client or a you know a piece of advice which is a bit more complex, a bit on the maybe the spicier side, um, is not your typical client, then I often get kind of wheeled in to try and help provide that quite specialized advice. I've built over the years um through experience, um, quite a particular set of skills which is really focusing on cross-border advice. Um, the more jurisdictions that you involve in an advisory piece, the more complicated it gets. Because sometimes you could recommend something that works over there, causes problems over there. You know, is the client from somewhere that is, you know, operated by English common law, such as the UK? And are they going to go retire in somewhere like Europe, which has civil law? Well, that can cause a host of problems and things like trusts, for example, work over there, but they cause a problem over here. So that's the kind of thing that's a bit of an insight into the um my sort of sad, geeky day doing this job. Lots of lots of wealth structuring conversations.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Fantastic. That geeky side of the job though, understanding the spicier side of the client experience and the problems that they go through, and I suppose um the advice that needs to be given. Does that is that a really interesting part of the job for you though? I think so.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Yeah, definitely. Um no client is the same, and that's what's quite fun, if you can describe financial advice as fun. Um you know, you you you I'm effectively acting as an advisor to the advisors, so I'll kind of help them with their their cases and you know, sort of, you know, in an on an individual basis, helping them kind of figure out the sort of routes or things we need to be thinking about, then going into into the meeting with the client where where it's needed to try and provide some some advice. Um, although those cases can get really quite complicated, um, and and frankly can can be quite long, quite a long-winded process in a good way because you want to do a thorough job. Um, there's some common themes among those clients, and generally they all kind of have some certain characteristics, like, you know, they you know, clearly they have wealth, hence why they need some some wealth advice. Um, they typically have wealth that will outlive them. So they're really focusing on and and and require a means of making sure that they and their their spouse, if they have one, live comfortably for the rest of their life. But really, they've got a lot of capital that's going to outlive them, and they want to ensure that they put really robust planning that works in all the relevant jurisdictions which are relevant so that they know um when that time comes, their their their kids or whoever they want to inherit their wealth will do so in an efficient manner.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Love it. How do you spin two plates then? Because you said you've kind of got your own uh practice, if you like, um, where you advise clients and then you're supporting and helping a number of financial planners across the business. How how are you managing the two? You always look really tired, but I see you're really knacking because you're going from one meeting to another.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Yeah, I'm just I'm I'm I'm aging double two two days for one day. Um it's it's um yeah, it it's it's challenging, um, but I've got a fantastic team around me. I mean, I'm certainly not doing that on my own. Um got a fantastic team around me that you know, we you know, I I have my personal clients that I've worked with for many, many years. Um one of the ways that that we're built as a business is that we've kind of got a separation of roles and what people do. So I'm not managing money, for example. There's maybe some clients that want something a little bit more bespoke, but by large, I'm not managing the money. We have, you know, our fixed income manager, we've got our equity manager, we've got alternatives. Um those are the things that require daily, clearly, oversight of someone's portfolio. Um, what I'm doing is really putting the structuring around that. And quite often, this the structuring once it's done, and as long as the client's um objectives haven't changed, they're not, they've not changed where they're going to retire, etc. Um, you know, the client may not need any more than their typical annual review. Clearly, we're available for more than that. But it's not like we need to have constant reassessment of what the plans that they've already got in place, because from an investment perspective, that's already been managed by the experts. Now, having said that, I've got a I've got two associates that work with me. I've got um my personal administrator, um, so that's Sophie, Josh, and Sarah, the best in the industry. Um, they make my life a lot easier so I can really focus on the advice, really the the technical piece for my clients and and you know, the advisors' clients, providing that advice, which you know really requires me to kind of be on calls explaining it, thinking about it, and then the kind of day-to-day, more administrative, sometimes time-consuming stuff. I've got people around me that can help.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

So it works. I love

Becoming A Cross-Border Advice Specialist

SPEAKER_00 10:08

it. So building a career entirely in the international space. You touched on the fact that you started as a BDM. Let's just kind of give people who've got no understanding of international, okay? What was your career journey? It sounds quite typical. So I think we'll break that one down. Starting out as a BDM. What's a BDM?

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Sorry, business development manager. Um, that's quite a broad, a broad thing. So I I guess in a nutshell, my my job was to um source and engage with those that may be suitable candidates for an advisor to provide advice. So there's a multitude of ways you can do that. So lots of going out and networking, um, you know, really relying on referrals. Um, also in the industry. Back then, you know, there was cold calling, um, you know, not so much now. Uh, so yeah, all of that. And you know, I was I was okay at it, you know. Um, I wouldn't, you know, I was I was I was pretty good at doing that. I would say I'm a better advisor than I am of that. I've got a lot of respect for business development managers and and the successful ones. So I did that for um I think about three years, something like that. Did all my exams, then stepped up to become an advisor, and I feel really lucky that um again, no point of reference. I might be good at lots of things, I might be, might I might have made a good footballer, but the only thing I've ever tried to do, I thoroughly enjoy, and I'm I'm good at it. So I'm quite lucky in that respect.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Brilliant. Qualification-wise, then you step down this and qualifications. You're in the international space. Do you need to have qualifications in every single different country? What qualifications do you hold?

SPEAKER_01 11:46

So I'm I'm a UK qualified advisor. So I'm a um a charter member for at the Chartered Institute for Security and Investment, CISI. Um, no, you don't need to be qualified in every single jurisdiction that we we operate in. So we've got various licenses around the world, and you know, the everything will go through the the relevant compliance department of that of that particular particular area. And I think the the the UK generally, slightly biased because I'm British and a lot of our staff are British, but the UK uh regulates the financial conduct authority in you know what you need to provide advice there seen as pretty top to pretty top end. Um so if you have that, then realistically you would be suitable and qualified enough and knowledgeable enough to kind of use those expertise to provide advice in alternative locations.

SPEAKER_00 12:32

The most common theme I hear is very tough in the very beginning to generate clients. And that's why often those that actually can stick it out as a business development manager and be a success in it do tend to go on to be very successful financial planners because they know how to prospect, they know how to win new client relationships, which is gonna often the hardest part, and it's the hardest part in the UK as well, right? Financial advisors are, you know, um they're not out there uh selling because selling is a dirty word almost, you know. But selling your services, selling who you are and what you can do, what your business does, how you can solve problems is a big part of the job, right? And turning stones over prospecting people and finding people is really important. How sort of important was that early exposure to lots of different expats, lots of different people that you were talking to in shaping the man you are today as a financial planner?

SPEAKER_01 13:20

That's a good question. I've never really thought of it like that. Um but for sure I wouldn't I wouldn't change anything, that's for sure. Um it's helped me understand how to help and manage BDMs as well, yeah. I would say, because I've kind of been there and I've done it, and I kind of know know the the the problems that they have um and you know how to help them. Um and I guess the other the other thing I've kind of learned from that is is to is resilience being a little bit thick skinned. Um something I don't really experience too much now because now I'm kind of doing something quite different where you know we're we're kind of anyone that I meet now is really seeking advice, really solidly speak seeking advice. Whereas these individuals are kind of engaging with with um potential candidates for advice uh or prospects, um and they may not know that they need advice, and they may not need advice to be fair, but they may not know that they need advice because they didn't know about certain things, and there's a lot of rejection that they these those guys would experience along the way. So I definitely experienced that. Um, and I guess that only just you know it's um it was an interesting, it makes you quite resilient, I think.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

Yeah, good. Um the clients that you're dealing with, you mentioned there like your UK qualified, chartered, great, that's good, right? If you're out here and you're chartered and you're dealing with um UK clients, does it mean obviously it's it's uh they should hopefully understand that chartered is a is a good thing. We hear chartered accountants and all that kind of stuff, right? So it's a good thing. Does that mean you're only dealing with with with with the UK expats that are in Dubai or the UAE, or are you dealing with people that are still in the UK? Uh do people go back and forth again? Just kind of explain that. Just if someone doesn't really un quite understand. Because sometimes I get people say, Well, if I go to Dubai, does that mean I'm just dealing with Emirates?

SPEAKER_01 15:01

Yeah, yeah, we uh our our entire business model in the international space is built around providing advice to expats. So expats could be, you know, a French individual living in Dubai is still an expat, and there's things that we can do for those those individuals. And I I have um, you know, without exaggeration, truly, I've got clients from uh Dominican Republic to Republic of Korea and everywhere in between. It's it's probably easier to to um you know sort of cross out the places I don't provide advice, and this is only because we've got um more localized expertise. So, you know, people that are onshore in the UK, goodness me, we've got a plenty large enough business in the UK, so they don't need me. Um, you know, the US, etc., um, I don't provide advice in those in those locations, but Europe, um, GCC, you know, other Asia, um, you know, a lot of a lot of the advice that we provide to those individuals, um, a lot of it can be surprisingly similar, although I say there's no client is the same, and I mean that, but generally speaking, it could be quite similar. So if you've got if you've got a um a British expat working in in Taiwan, of which there are quite a few. I say this just because this was a case recently. Now, this individual is working in Taiwan, he's not gonna retire in Taiwan. Um, this individual is gonna go back to the UK. So the things that we do with that individual for the kind of repatriation planning piece is the same advice, largely, is the same advice that I provide someone here in Dubai, because they're still gonna go back to the UK and still be part of the same taxes, still have the same problems, the same concerns, they've got kids, you know, all those things are quite similar. So, no, we can provide advice, you know, that you as a business, we can provide advice. Um, you struggle to think of places that we can't provide advice, either personally, myself or or with other advisors.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

That's it, and that's the multiple jurisdiction you hear. That's that cross-border advice, that's the licenses in each of these jurisdictions. There's different regulators, for example, to take into consideration. It's interesting because I think when people think about it, they think they've got to have qualifications, they've got to be covered in every single country that they go in. But the one thing that I'm understanding is that collectively as a business, you've got experts, right? You've got all these different people with all these different skill sets, all these different qualifications, which means collectively you can work together as a team.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Yeah, definitely. Yeah, we're we're we're doing that, we're doing that daily, more so than than ever before. Um,

Building A Collaborative Global Team

SPEAKER_01 17:15

the the industry in the overseas market has been has been um in hindsight a bit unusual, and then it it felt more like it was a a group of self-employed advisors um with the same branding on their business card. Um, and some were more experienced than than others, naturally, because some people have been doing the job longer than others. Um, and there was maybe a bit of a competitive environment there. And I think that even under AHR, we were we were one of the better ones for this, but I'm speaking kind of broadly for the industry. Um, whereas now what we what we've built, and we we've got a real kind of collaborative uh mindset. Um, I mean, most of my job personally, to make it about myself, um, is spent helping people. So that you know, that's kind of really majority of my day. Um, and if I don't know the answer to something, you know, no doubt there'll be someone else on the floor. You know, if I've got a client who's moving to the US, I'll bring in one of the US guys. Um, so it's a real culture of collaboration and and helping one another and celebrating others' success and sharing success, noting that someone has helped you and you know, uh, and really kind of creating that culture which you would think would be obvious, but actually for reasons beyond me has not been the case.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Yeah, I know. Hyper competitive it has often been in the past and still can be in some companies, you know, in in today. And I think, you know, in the present moment, if we talk about where you currently are at the moment, it's a business, Titan wealth, and that one Titan philosophy to be a number one international business out there, everybody putting in the same direction, being able to support and help. I hear some fantastic stories on the podcast from investment managers, financial planners, and the private client side where somebody has left the UK, right? Seriously big clients and have ended up coming over to the UAE. Isn't it fantastic? You can work together to put you know, provide that kind of red carpet concierge service. So you did a beautiful analogy yesterday. I'll let you explain it about Emirates.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Yeah, yeah. So the you know, sort of one Titan idea. Yeah, it's the it's the idea that um, and I use that Emirates as you know, the first thing that came to my head, it's it's you know, I do quite a lot of travel, some personal, some um business, and um, you know, you may be in somewhere that feels a bit um less familiar, let's say, but when you get to the airport and you see the emirates branding and you check in, it's the same experience, same feeling of ah, I know this. So wherever I am, I kind of know I've got that. It's very cheesy, and this is not a plug for Emirates. So I am a bit of an Emirates um fan. Anyway, but uh um similar ideas what we want to try and create, and really I think we have is that you know, wherever the client is and wherever life takes them, all that of their beneficiaries, that kind of long-term relationship, it's the same Titan, same brand. Um, you know, we're really a group of localized experts with a global presence. Um, some things remain exactly the same, like it's you know, we have our you know, Ian Wood who manages our equity portfolios, we've got Pete Docht who manages our fixed income portfolio, none of that changes. All that changes really is the kind of maybe the structuring and maybe the face that you're dealing with for regulatory reasons locally, but it's the same quality of advice so that now when our clients move country, there's lots of complexity that comes with that. Just frankly, personally, um, we can maybe take one of those concerns away from them is the financial affairs. They don't need to start again looking for someone that's local that doesn't understand what they've got in the previous country. You know, we can really continue that advice and make sure that we, you know, we really successfully executed any planning that was done in another place before they arrived in the their new place.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

Fantastic. So AHR was the name of the business before it was acquired by Titan Wealth. How long were you involved with A AHR? How long were you? Yeah, six years. Six years. Yeah. Long time then. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

So when I when I um when I joined AHR, um, some people thought I'd started my own company because it was Andre, you know, Andreas Hollas. But no, uh AHR um six years ago. And yeah, it's been um it was the best thing I've done in my career. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Just tell us a little brief history then, like over that six year period. How did it, you know, how how has that been? Because we're gonna you're gonna lead up to the point of becoming Titan Wealth, and that must have been quite a shift for you, which we're gonna get into, right? But just tell us about what you gained, the experience that you had, because the people are still here, right? This is still there's still the people at AHR, the names changed, yeah. Uh the opportunity's grown. Yeah. Same people. So tell us a little bit about that journey.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

It was joining HR um was quite refreshing, and being part of that brand, um, like we've continued that now. It's a very strong brand, it's a well known brand. Um, you know, we sponsor and continue to do so. Um, one of the major golf courses, probably the most famous golf course here in the in the UA. That as an example, you would see people walking around with a AHR golf hat and things like that. Um, so the where the how we created that and how I benefited from that was that the the reputation was very strong because it was only really good quality advisors. Not saying that there aren't, you know, I'm not saying that other companies have bad advice, I'm not saying that, but it's it's maybe for want for a better way of putting it, it's quite an elitist firm. You know, we're only really interested in dealing with us working with established advisors that know what they're doing, um, so that we can really protect that brand. And we've done a lot of work to try and keep that. And you know, thankfully we continued continue to keep it. I benefited from that, certainly. Um, it made my job a lot easier, whereas I could go out and provide lots of lots of advice um and you know, our presence and you know, if the company name got brought up around social circles or they looked online, you know, we we're we're a very solid company. So that's helped me evolve a lot. And then through that, over time, um, I kind of naturally ended up being brought in to assist other advisors, but more on a kind of can you help me out, mate type thing. Um, you know, you know, I know you've worked on cases similar to this, so I'd kind of help and say, well, this is what works, and you know, facilitate whatever legal opinions or whatever we need to do if it was quite funky, the advice. Um, and then naturally, organically, I kind of end up just doing more and more of that, firstly under the HR brand, but now we've continued it. Um, where yeah, I'm I'm sort of, you know, doing the majority of my time is is spent doing that. Love it. So, how many of just give some context?

SPEAKER_00 23:32

Like how many advisors are in the business today? Uh, I believe there's 80 advisors. 80 advisors. So do you feel like in the that's just Titan Wealth International. Just Titan Wealth International. And do you feel like you are accessible to all those advisors? To to to the best of my ability, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Yeah. Um yeah, I mean, I I create whenever I've asked been asked to help anyone, I know it sounds really simple, but it's very effective. I'll create a WhatsApp group with said advisor and my team, and then they've kind of got that as a channel where um you know they they know to come and ask any questions or whatever. And it could just be like really simple things like, you know, whatever, not client-specific. What does this, this, and this mean? Um, so I think so. I think pretty accessible. Um, my diary's never been busier, so spending lots of time in in meetings and trying to help with um, you know, our sort of our high net worth clients. Um, but my team are also very knowledgeable as well. So they've gained a lot of experience by kind of shadowing me and spending time with me and helping um prepare advice reports, etc. So I think as a collective with us and Rebecca Ellis, who's head of our head of our advice, I think our advisors have got um really virtually anything they would need to try and assist them, to try and put them on a platform to go out and and um effectively operate as an advisor and provide good advice. They're not alone, yeah. You know, um, and that's not a reflection on the advisor, it's not a case of we, you know, you don't know what you're doing. No, I mean uh sometimes you get thrown some some weird and wonderful cases or a or a request from a client or a client circumstance, which is really quite unusual. Um, and there's not many things now through my job, what I'm doing now, and and that of Rebecca plus you know, Will and Tyler over the years, it's not really many things we haven't come across before. And if it is something we don't know the answer to, you know, we're regularly involving um tax advisors, you know, UK, if it's UK-related IHT planning or whatever, or not here because we don't need it here, but if it's Europe, we've got a really a panel of um chartered, you know, or equivalent of chartered tax advisors for relevant countries. So I think we we as a proposition now um are really we're very well equipped to deal with and and and assist uh wealthy individuals that have really truly an international lifestyle. So they need solid cross-border advice and making sure that we've dotted every I and crossed every T and thought about and figured out solutions for problems they maybe didn't even know they had.

SPEAKER_00 26:01

Yeah.

Career Paths For International Advisors

SPEAKER_00 26:02

What about UK advisors sitting at home right now? They're thinking about, like, you know, I'd like to go and live in Dubai and become a financial planner. Is there an opportunity for them at Titan Wealth where they could come over perhaps to work employed or to perhaps follow a pathway that you have where you know you can build, say, a practice underneath a practice essentially, where you can build um the opportunity to have a capital event?

SPEAKER_01 26:25

Yeah, yeah, for sure there is. And thankfully we've got those two models now. Um, so we've got a you know, a global wealth department, which um these are a group of um, you know, I mean, everyone's employed, but I understand what you mean, you know, salaried advisors with the opportunity to earn more um based on performance. Um, and these individuals are uh you know effectively given a book of clients to manage to help with um for any advisors that are retiring or leaving or whatever it might be. Um and they've got the opportunity to go and seek seek new clients. So that's a quite a um, for want for a better way of putting it for a UK advisor, that's quite a soft landing because it would look and smell a little bit more like what I understand the advice business or being an advisor in the UK would look like. And then we've got the alternative route, which is the more traditional route, actually, for us, and certainly something that I followed where um that's not the case and you um are not necessarily paid a paid a salary in the same way that you would you would you would understand it in the UK, and you need to go, you know, you you find and establish your own your own book of clients. Um so we've got both options, really, and you know, no one is better than the other. And we're at least we're we as a business, we have that first option where you can be part of the global wealth department because that's really quite a um really a luxury in our industry, actually, in the overseas market.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

100%. But what are you doing to support, say, an advisor that um needs to build their own client book? Uh they need to go out and win new client relationships. As a business, like how does an advisor lean into the business to be able to help support them? Look, they're not going to feed you absolutely everything. There's no company out there that would really do that on that type of model, right? That's the whole point of it. You're meant to eat what you kill type mentality, right? But what's what what's what's Titan Wealth doing to be able to support advisors to to help them generate new client relationships?

SPEAKER_01 28:13

We we have a very robust and detailed um you know um marketing strategy, which is built on providing clients with or potential clients with valuable information, variable content. Um there's certain things that we know from experience that are the most commonly asked, or FAQs, if you want to think of it like that, of of expats around the world. And we've built content which is really designed to help with those individuals. And as part of that process, they can input their details so they can request you know contact. So these are really meaningful, um, you know, high-intent meetings, and anyone can participate in that. So we we as a business, um, which you may think this is the way it works normally, but historically it's not been. Um, more often than not, now I'd say the vast majority of new clients come to us, which I wish I had that as a business development manager. Yeah, um, because it was not that way before, as anyone living in the UA would would understand. Um, so that's been a game changer, absolute game changer of really high-intent um individual seeking advice. We've got great quality content out there, which hopefully is very useful. And then obviously, the the kind of call to action from that is you've downloaded this guide and do you need any assistance? And it's working very well.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

Love it. What about the other side though? You've got somebody that's maybe been out for a while, international, they've built a lot of clients up, but they're kind of hitting a bit of a ceiling, they're becoming really, really busy. They're doing less of the things they really enjoy doing. So it might be prospects, it might be winning those new relationships, spending time with specific types of clients, and maybe they need to be in a situation where they reduce their client book. What options are available for somebody in the international space, whether they're working for somebody else, or whether they're part of the ecosystem here at Titan Wealth?

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Yeah, we've got that, got that as an option. I mean, that's the that's the global wealth department. So um, you know, and many of our advisors have have have have done that here, myself included, where you know, my hand has kind of been forced, and I'm very glad that I've done it. Um, the feedback's been fantastic. Where, you know, someone like me, I've been in the job for 13 years. So I've you know, I've built up the the largest book of clients and certainly an AHR. Um, and that is quite a time-consuming thing to manage. Um, and some clients that you've built up over the years, frankly, don't need advice anymore, is the reality. Oh, sorry, that let me rephrase that. They don't need the same amount of touch points, and frankly, they're not interested because the planning's kind of done. Some of these people are retired and they, you know, they don't really need a lot of continued advice. Or if they if they do need continued continued, everyone needs advice, but if they do need continued touch points, um maybe I'm not the best person to do it anymore because my set of skills are are you know have become what they are, and actually a better use of my time is going out and working on these quite complicated cases, it's not doing a change of address form on a particular product, right? Um, so we've got a client, uh Global Wealth Department that can help with that. And if there's advisors out there that are really kind of facing that that issue, it's the law of diminishing returns, isn't it? Where you've kind of putting loads in, not really getting much more out because your time doesn't allow you to. It's a great option. Come here. We've got a great brand. Um, Global Wealth Department is very well um manned. Uh, you know, there's lots of staff in it, and you know, they can really help you, and then in turn, it helps your clients as well, actually. Um, because it kind of ensures that they're getting the right level of service that that effectively, I'm sure they were promised from day one. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

You mentioned you've got the probably the biggest book of clients. Um, where's certainly when you were at AHR, is that still the case where now you're at Titan, now it's Titan Wealth, and you still got the biggest book?

SPEAKER_01 31:51

Um it's it's a difficult question to answer. Um, so as part of my new role, um, and you know, I've I've I've moved away from some clients in that they've now gone to the global wealth department. My time doesn't afford me to still manage that same level of book. Um, now do you you know, do you class new new new new cases that I'm helping uh clients with in my book? No, because they're they're with the existing advisors. So no, I would say that I don't. I don't anymore. Um, and it's freed my time up to go and um provide the more bespoke and complicated advice, which there's there's less people that can do that than can do just general account management of most clients, if that makes sense. So it's kind of trying to use people's time efficiently and and ultimately what is best for our clients collectively.

SPEAKER_00 32:44

Okay. There's so many people when they when they when they get into their financial planning career, they they they really want to be in a position that you are, which is like number one in the business when you were AHR and you had the biggest book.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

But you know, what's the reality of getting to that position?

Experience-Driven Planning And A Case Study

SPEAKER_00 32:59

What do you what could you teach somebody about how to get there? You know, let's look at it as say um first of all, appointments, right? How many appointments uh how many appointments do you have do you have with clients or did you have with clients every week? How many firsts, how many seconds, how many thirds? How busy were you as a financial planner to get yourself to the point where you've got the biggest book of clients?

SPEAKER_01 33:22

Um not as busy as you think, okay, weirdly. Um not to repeat myself, I'm I'm still doing that now, but in my personal practice, I've always been trying, purposely trying to find um clients that were high net worth, who doesn't in our industry, but we were pretty effective at it, and I kind of had from experience an idea of what their pain points were. So we as a team were quite good at sort of getting in there, and we were very good at referrals as well. So do your job well, and you should naturally get referrals. So I would say that um the number of new clients onboarded numerically per head was nowhere near the largest, right? But the the types of business that we were doing um was the largest for sure, and still is the largest. You said I was number one, I still am number one. Even on my personal book. I'm joking. I'm not joking about that, but I'm uh jesting David Brent. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

So do you think the detail of knowledge around what you do day in, day out, the client scenarios, um, that's the thing that really positions you well as an international financial planner, the knowledge that you have about the scenarios that they're gonna go through. So you can start to have those conversations, preempt the problems they might be coming up against, turn the stones over on the things that other advisors haven't because they're too busy just trying to maybe push a product or something along those lines. That true proper financial plan.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

Yeah, correct. And there's no textbook for it. There's no textbook for what we do, or certainly what I do. Um, we, you know, I our advisors are all qualified, um, but there's no there's no exam, there's no textbook out there that will help provide advice for you where you've got a Brit whose wife is Danish, who wants to retire in Portugal and they live in Saudi Arabia. Doesn't exist. So although we become we become knowledgeable in each of these jurisdictions, what we're what we're doing, and we've got the right you know tax advisors where we need them for each of these different things, our job is to put the pieces of the puzzle together because it doesn't exist. There's no roadmap for it. And frankly, a lot of it is through experience. That is the way it goes. And making sure that any advice that you that you provide is robust, you've got the correct opinions in each location, you marry it all up, you show the client exactly what it is that you can do, probably comparing it to the situation if they do nothing. So this is what no planning looks like, this is what we can do. Um, then you have a you know a vastly, hopefully, what should be, a vastly superior outcome. And there's one example that comes to mind actually, which this is just fresh, um, where uh one of the one of our advisors um had a client that has a client, I think he's working for a while. Um, he had different different investments with us as a company, and he lived in Denmark, and he was once to retire in Portugal, and this was going to happen relatively soon. And met with him, you know, I I do a lot of planning for Portugal, um, so it's an area that I know very well, I know the structure that we need to do. The problem was that because he lived in Denmark, in order to not to get into advice, none of this is advice, but the the problem is because the client lived in Denmark, the in order to pursue the structuring that works in Portugal, it would have caused him pain in Denmark, right? Right now, after a call with the client, and we were sort of stress testing, what about this, what about that? Everything, every kind of route came with a bit of pain in order to get to the structure that he needed to be that worked very well in Portugal. So I kind of just said, look, have you considered coming to the UA for a year? Or actually, it's not even a year, it's six months. And the answer was no, he hadn't considered it. And he lives here now. And we're now just in the process of kind of doing the planning and structuring. Um that planning for that client has completely changed his life without exaggeration. It's changed his kid's life or his his one daughter that he's got's life, you know. And and you know, frankly, if he had the appetite and there was enough incentive, financial incentive to move here just as a stepping stone to kind of use this place as a as a vehicle to restructure wealth and then go on from there, um, he wouldn't have done it because he didn't know about it. Yeah. And there's no textbook out there that would have said, aha, but the answer is you go to the UAE doesn't exist.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

That's this is all for for experience. And what about that knowledge being shared amongst everybody within the business? It's always been like said that it's hyper competitive in the international space. How are you educating those that work within the business so they're on the same page as you? Is it within your um advantage to do that?

SPEAKER_01 38:06

Yeah. I think every everyone's success is our own success because the better we do it as a business, um, the better we are, you know, the the the the more established we are, the the better the name we've got, the better the brand that we've got. So you want all of your fellow colleagues to be doing well and providing advice, because ultimately they're only doing well as if they're providing good advice, right? Otherwise, you know, no one nothing happens. So um there's always going to be a bit of um individual competitiveness, and actually I I think that's a good thing. So you want a bit of individual competitiveness because um you know you want um people to remain motivated just to you know to to get up in the morning and carry on. Um and I try to instill that in myself. Um, but we're very, very good at you know celebrating others' success. And we go for once a week and uh on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. we have a training session, um, mainly led by me or or or Rebecca. And quite often it's just case studies of obviously remove personal information, but just generally case study. What what you know what clients did I help with this week and which advisors, and you know, these were the things that we looked at. And the idea is that that's then gonna give ammunition to the to the advisors when they go out and meet you know potential new clients or existing clients, they might go to that session and think, well, that's actually relevant to Dave. And um so you know, trying to do everything we can to try and help each other um to go out and be successful because the more that we do that, the easier their job becomes actually. We've got a great reputation in the industry and it's only getting better and better.

SPEAKER_00 39:50

If an advisor in the UK right now is thinking, wow, brilliant, I want to come over here to Dubai and I want to work with Andreas, sounds like that sounds a great place. It sounds like I can build a business within a business essentially and and do really well for myself. If they've got an existing client book in the UK and they're moving out here to the UAE and they perhaps they're moving to Dubai or maybe even somewhere else where we've got licenses, right? Does that mean they can continue servicing those UK-based clients?

SPEAKER_01 40:13

Uh yes, if that's what they want to do.

SPEAKER_00 40:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:16

Okay, well, that's really super interesting for people to know they're not going to lose their client relationships if they come over to Dubai if they decide to do that and make in you know, Titan Wealth their their new home. And I always like this thing, this phrase like try tirement. There's lots of uh you know, advisors, you know, average age 56 in the UK, and they're probably thinking, I won't mind trying out what it's like to maybe go and live in the sunshine somewhere, like Europe or something along those lines. And I think the international space does allow that to actually happen. They can continue their relationships with their clients and see what it's like to say live in France or to the UAE or something along those lines, which is quite nice. Yeah, definitely. Um okay, so AHR, they were acquired. You

From AHR To Titan Wealth

SPEAKER_00 40:55

were the top performer there. Did that make you nervous in any way at all?

SPEAKER_01 40:58

Like, uh yes, very, yeah, yeah, be honest, very nervous. This sort of attitude of don't fix what isn't broken, you know. I mean, I was doing well and was very happy. And um to hear that that was something along that was changing and we were getting bought over, um, just because I was already so happy, you know, I the natural perception is all there's change coming, this can only be bad for me because it's already so I'm already so happy and the way it's going. Um thankfully that's not been the case. Um, you know, by by large, day-to-day wise, nothing's changed really. Um same clients, same advice, um, you know, the well, the ability to provide the same, the same, same advice in what we do. Uh, but it's it's it's refreshing to be part of a bigger business where selfishly um there's more career prospects as well. Um so AHL is a great company, but you know, where did I go from there? You know, career progression, um, there wasn't really any, whereas there is now. We're we're a we're a very large business, probably the fastest growing IFA in the UK, um, and certainly already one of the biggest IFAs in the UK. So there's loads of career opportunities that can come in that.

SPEAKER_00 42:18

What sort of career opportunities have opened up for you? What's the One Tyson group, if you like, um done for you?

SPEAKER_01 42:25

So I I've been spending more and more time in the UK. So we're going over there. So I'm part of the um the Next Generation Leaders program, um uh, which is effective, they've taken um people that they believe are um good in some way, shape, or form at what they do. I don't know why I'm on there, um, from different areas of the business. We get together, you know, periodically in London and we go for kind of leadership training and um we've been given a project to do together. Um, so it's it's nice to be a part of that and kind of recognized. Um and you know, I truly believe that they're sincere and that you know, we andor the other the next program when it launches is the people that are potentially can be leaders within the within the business in the future. So that certainly wasn't something that could be done in HR. There was no, you know, we were we were a great company, but we were much smaller than Titan, well, for sure. So yeah, it's great to be part of a wider, wider business um from that perspective. I love it. Can you talk about the project you're getting stuck into? Is that something you can talk about or not? Um seeing as no one's listening, yeah, I don't mind talking about it. Um

Next-Gen Leaders And One Titan Vision

SPEAKER_01 43:29

it's uh we we've we've been tasked with um putting together a a robust in you know international UK inclusive, I mean by that, so truly international, um uh high net worth proposition. So in our in our space, in our industry, so this is not Titan Wealth International, this is just kind of everyone, right? So UK in particular, where you know we we're kind of in that space between uh retail uh and sort of mass affluent, right? So, you know, and that that's great, and we're good at that. But then the the step up beyond that, um, a lot of those individuals, kind of really, really truly high net worth individuals, um, would typically go to a private bank quite a lot of the time. Um, and I could talk all day about that and some of the horror stories I've seen with that, where these, you know, there's lots of good private bankers out there. I'm not saying there's not, but um, I don't think that most clients know or understand what a private bank is, because they're not typically there giving going to give you advice anyway. So we're trying to capture and have a better proposition for that. So it's an ongoing thing, it's gonna be rolled out. So watch watch this space.

SPEAKER_00 44:35

Um uh yeah, so really kind of focusing on that. It's a hugely exciting time for you to be part of the business to go from AHR into all of a sudden being this fast evolving, like you say. I mean, it's like 35 billion plus under management within four years, 1,300 roughly employees, and you know, that's only gonna grow, and the opportunity is only gonna grow. So when it comes to those career opportunities, at 34 years old, the success you've had so far, you're already stepping into the next phase of your career, which for a lot of people within financial planning, just especially internationally, just never would have um that opportunity. They could be big fish in small ponds, you know. Yeah, it's quite literally you are entering into an ecosystem that not only is kind of supporting you to push forward, but you can't stop it almost, right? It's it's just opportunity for ambitious people like you. It's a it's a wonderful home to be in, right?

SPEAKER_01 45:28

Definitely. I I feel again, no point of reference because it's this is all I've known, but I I get the feeling that the the opportunity to um fast track and excel quicker you know in a shorter period of time in the overseas market is is is better than that of the UK. Um and I've thought a lot about this. I think I think it's something to do with supply and demand, in that um if you spend the time to really upskill yourself in this area of advice, which, as I said, there's no textbook for it. So if you really spend the time to get good at that, there's not a lot of people that are. So there's your kind of supply constraint, and there's a lot of demand. But goodness me, it's getting bigger and bigger, the amount of Brits that are leaf in the UK. So these people need some real solid, robust advice. And there's not, we're not a flush with advisors that are truly well equipped to to deal with those types of clients and to provide you know robust advice to them. So if you spend your time and invest in yourself and you know, spend the time to really upskill, you know, upskill yourself, then yes, you can you can really progress in this industry very quickly and get to a good good position.

SPEAKER_00 46:39

We've been really pleased to be working um with Time and Wealth. I've been uh privileged to be able to get involved in strategy meetings and just see how uh many super intelligent people are part of this wider group and that the opportunities that are actually there over the next few years. What from the outside could look like a consolidator just hoovering everything up, it isn't. It's a really progressive company. And for me, it's really exciting to be honest with you. And for it to step into that international space for a P-backed, first P-backed acquisition, it's like it's huge. It's like it's a huge opportunity, and it's something because I've been in the international space now, working in it and seeing it from inside. It's nice to see this level of professionalism coming in, and it's needed. You know, people are moving more than they ever have done around the world, whether it be for jobs or retirement or tax or issues or anything. So it's it's just really beautiful to see it. And I love that one Titan philosophy, you know, it's one Titan, one business, one international business, and to be part of probably the biggest and fastest growing international business ever is a privilege. Yeah. What does one Titan mean to you?

SPEAKER_01 47:55

Question. Um to me it's it's having a uniformity of experience, regardless of wherever you go. So that's kind of sort of same um white glove, red carpet, kind of con you know, concierge type service, um, regardless of wherever you go. So we have experts in most things in most places around the world, and wherever you end up going, you should get that same level of service. So, you know, when you if it if one of our clients was to move around, um they don't need to be concerned about their financial affairs or the financial planning side of things because they're already dealing with a company that can continue to assist them everywhere they go, provide the same quality of service, global business for a global client.

SPEAKER_00 48:41

Yeah, perfect. Andreas,

Final Takeaways And Thanks

SPEAKER_00 48:43

thank you so much for sharing your financial planner life. Really appreciate it. Thank you.