Financial Planner Life Podcast
Welcome to The Financial Planner Life Podcast. We cover an intimate and honest account of what it’s really like to work in the financial planning profession.
Our guests share their stories of success, failures and learnings, as well as what to expect from a career in the financial planning profession! We host guests at various stages in their careers, as well as multiple roles to ensure that our audience has a variety each week.
Financial planners, business owners, paraplanners and back-office staff all have their own story to share, and The Financial Planner Life podcast is a platform for them to talk about their personal and professional journey. The podcast covers a multitude of topics, from mindset and motivation, health and wellbeing all the way to diversity and inclusion.
We approach each episode with the idea that it is going to educate and spark a conversation within the industry with topics that may not be openly discussed. So, if you are thinking of becoming a financial adviser, or you’re curious about learning more about this brilliant sector, we urge you to give the podcast a listen.
The Host: Sam Oakes is the host of The Financial Planner Life Podcast. since 2008 Sam has been supporting leading national and global financial planning firms in finding the best talent, he was the director of Recruit UK, a 7 figure turnover financial planning recruitment company that he successfully exited in 2024, Sam now works as the Head of Creative for Hoxton Capital Managment, building out podcasts, YouTube and social content for this fast growing fee based international financial planning firm.
Sam has always had a passion for financial services, starting out as a trainer for leading product provider in the UK, he has been in the industry for over 20 years.
He sees himself as a partner to the industry and wants to contribute useful resources such as this podcast to educate those further who are seeking advice and help about how to push their careers forward in this amazing profession.
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Financial Planner Life Podcast
Global Compliance in Financial Planning: Insights from Paul Tate of Hoxton Capital Management
Unlock the secrets of global compliance in financial planning with our special guest, Paul Tate, the Global Head of Compliance at Hoxton Capital Management.
From his humble beginnings as a financial advisor in South Africa to his influential role in Dubai, Paul shares his compelling journey and the passion that drives him.
Discover how ethics and compliance can positively impact lives across different markets including the UK, Australia, the US, Cyprus (Europe), and South Africa.
Navigate the intricate web of global financial regulations as Paul unravels the complex landscape of multi-jurisdictional compliance and Advice. Learn about the specific licenses and regulatory bodies that govern financial services in regions like Australia, the UAE, the USA, and South Africa. Paul offers his first-hand experience, detailing the challenges faced and strategies employed to maintain compliance while growing international operations. This segment provides an essential guide for anyone looking to understand the regulatory frameworks that shape global Financial Planning.
Explore the future of financial services through technology, with a focus on its role in compliance and client management. Paul discusses how technological advancements are creating efficiencies and ensuring fair treatment for all clients.
Additionally, we delve into the booming trend of digital nomadism, where financial planners can build a strong social media presence and enjoy a flexible lifestyle. This episode is packed with valuable insights and inspiring stories, making it a must-listen for financial professionals and aspiring digital financial planning nomads alike.
interested in joining Hoxton - Check out our careers page here or reach out directly to Sam Oakes
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And today's guest on the Financial Planner Live podcast is Paul Tate. He is the Global Head of Compliance for Hoxton Capital Management. He's based over here in Dubai with me, and today he's going to talk about multi-jurisdiction financial planning and the compliance that surrounds it. We also talk about his own career journey, why he loves living in Dubai and why it's quite cool to be a digital nomad financial planner. You're going to love this episode Cheers.
Speaker 1:So, paul, thank you so much for joining me today on the Financial Planner Life podcast. You are the I think I've got this right Global Head of Compliance. Indeed Fantastic. So I tell you what? Let's kick things off, then, because compliance in an international financial advice firm must be a bit of a head-scratcher at times. It is indeed, yeah. So let's God, it must be tough enough just looking after one firm dealing with the fca in the uk, for example. So a lot of my audience will be from the uk, so this will be really, really interesting for them to understand.
Speaker 1:I think it'll be really interesting for any advisor thinking about becoming an international advisor and thinking like, well, what actually is in place to protect me and what's in place to protect the clients, because I've heard bad things or something like that. Okay, I had the pleasure of looking under the bonnet. I had the pleasure of meeting you before I joined and we had a good look at it and, for me, I felt satisfied that, as a business, it was doing everything it should do regulatory-wise to protect advisors, protect the clients and do the right things. And the more I got talking to you, the more I started to understand wow, like it's a lot of work, right, there's a lot of moving parts, for sure, there's a lot of moving parts, um, exactly that.
Speaker 1:So let's today create an educational piece for the financial planner life podcast. Let's educate people about what it is. An international firm has to do what you do in your job role when it comes to compliance to make sure you're squeaky, clean, right, brilliant. Well, let's kick things off. So just a quick introduction how did you get into compliance?
Speaker 2:So I actually started out as a financial advisor myself. I was an advisor in South Africa, didn't need to get out of bed to pay the bills A little bit bored. Didn't need to get out of bed to pay the bills a little bit bored. And then an opportunity opened up here in Dubai with, funny enough, one of our competitors. You know I've always been someone that is, you know, driven by, you know ethics and you know have an impact in people's lives.
Speaker 2:One of the reasons why I joined financial planning in the first place is that I knew that I could make a positive impact in people's lives.
Speaker 2:So, you know, that moment you have that meeting with someone, you know their life course changes for either the best, for better or worse.
Speaker 2:Right, and I knew that I could change people's life course for the better and I felt like I wasn't able to do enough of that in my financial advisory role. And luckily, an opportunity opened up along sort of my path to Hoxon that enabled me to go down the route of compliance and I really saw the benefit of the role that that has within the organization for a financial services firm and the impact that you can actually make in people's lives, you know. So instead of touching, you know, maximum of maybe 200, 300 clients, depending on the advisor, I can actually touch tens of thousands of people's lives and really make a difference in whether they know it or not, probably would never know that there was a hand in the background that was interested in guiding the direction of the advice and the quality of advice throughout the entire business. So I'm very fortunate to be in the position that I am to be able to make that impact and I'm very proud of it.
Speaker 1:Fantastic. So how long have you been at Hoxton for?
Speaker 2:I've now been, I believe, five years. Now. This is finishing my fifth year.
Speaker 1:Brilliant. So the International Head of Compliance, I know I keep changing the title of your Director of Compliance.
Speaker 2:Director of Compliance.
Speaker 1:It's very important. I put Director of Compliance in there. Yeah yeah, just give people an insight into the job role. Then let's just quickly You've been here five years, you said Five years. Yeah, five years, okay.
Speaker 2:So pretty much in this inception, because the business has been going for six years, right, so just tell us what you've been doing then. What's, what is your job role? What are you overseeing? So, I think, probably just give you a run of how it got to where I am right now.
Speaker 2:Um, around, um, the sense that when we started out with hoxton, when I joined hoxton, I think I was employee number 34 or something like that and, um, you know, we had an office in Abu Dhabi and that was the extent of it, you know.
Speaker 2:Then we then ended up becoming licensed in, you know, the UK and then here, and then I believe it was Australia, the US, cyprus and then South Africa, being able to jump from, you know, license event to license event.
Speaker 2:I've had to upskill and learn that particular sort of jurisdiction, sort of from the beginning, right, um, so it's not like I've been thrust suddenly into, oh, now you need to know, five different regulatory jurisdictions. I've actually grown with the business which has, um, you know, been beneficial and why I sort of consider myself to be fairly lucky to have been in the position. That I am right, you know. From that perspective, you know, I have a keen understanding and as we've built out the different jurisdictions and we've built out the different back office staff within it, we've ended up deploying, you know, compliance officers and back office staff and sort of support functions within that sort of compliance framework and so, as a result, the burden isn't massive. It's not like I'm a one-man band, that is, you know, pulling the strings in all the different jurisdictions, responsible to every single regulator in every jurisdiction. That's not the case, because we've built it as we've gone.
Speaker 1:That's really good. So have you got a growth mindset then? Are you the type of individual if something you know? Hoxton's a growing company, right? Like you know, it's been going for six years. It's doing exceptionally well and, as you've mentioned, it's now multi-licensed, multi-jurisdictions, different countries, different regulators. You've come on in and you've built a team, right? I think you have to be a certain type of individual as well to want to do that. Are quite a growth-minded individual. Are you thinking, chris, slow down, you're killing me here?
Speaker 2:I mean, um, I think compliance by, uh, nature is like, well, let's just get the puzzle pieces in place first before we, you know, go um, you know, full on um you know. I think that what's nice about um you know chris as a leader is that he has he brings that balance right. So, like he brings that balance right, so like he brings that balance to me where I'm like slow down, put the brakes, let's get this, you know, done, whereas he brings out that go, go, go, that drive, drive, drive, you know we'll, we'll get it right, don't worry.
Speaker 2:But don't stand still pondering, right yeah yeah, as a catalyst to the growth of the business. It's definitely been down to to, to chris um, I mean similar to football team right, like you'd have a manager and ordinarily a manager would have been the big, influential sort of person within that football team. But now in the modern game, you'd have to have sporting directors, you'd have to have back office staff, you'd have to have the supporting the manager so that you can actually focus on the things that he's really good at. I think what Chris has done really well is as that sort of driver. He's put people that are good at what they do in you know, the appropriate departments to help them drive that sort of business. So, you know, from a growth mindset perspective, you know I do like to move things forward, but chris has definitely helped enable that sort of for me personally, as a person, as a professional, so it's been a good kind of counterbalance.
Speaker 1:Fantastic, Obviously, looking out the window here we've got a pretty insane view of. That's the marina in the background, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yep, it never gets old. I actually lived just around the corner at one point and it was lovely to be able to sit on the couch on a. Friday afternoon because it used to be weekends Friday to Saturday. Here they on a Friday afternoon because it used to be weekends Friday to Saturday. Here they have now shifted actually to a Western work week kind of a thing, but to be able to look out over that view, it's still mind-blowing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's great. The city, obviously, is massively growing on me and when you see it from different perspectives, it's great. You can spend too much time in one area and think this is horrible. I don't like this at all. There's too many cars, I feel like I'm on a bloody motorway and then five minutes down the road get a bit of elevation and it's like, oh my god, like when I first came here, I stayed on marina and like had a balcony on the marina overlooking the marina and I thought, wow, as I, you know, during the day, I went and sat on the balcony and just was blown away by how beautiful it was and I this is definitely where I want to be.
Speaker 1:And then, obviously, nighttime came and all the lights came on and I was just like this is insane, like it was so cool. And then from the marina I walked across the road and I was on the beach. I was just like but then you've got the hustle, bustle and energy of a city. I just think like I didn't come out here to Dubai and I'm moving here in August and I'm working for a Dubai financial planning company. So my question to you is why Dubai? Why do you position yourself in Dubai as a compliance manager that's global? Why choose Dubai?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's a little misleading saying that we're a Dubai financial planning company. We're a global financial planning company, okay, yeah, we just happen to be here in Dubai as a headquarters because of the fact that we obviously sort of sort of skirt around the edges here. There's tax benefits of being here and that we don't pay personal income tax, which is great, but there are pros and cons with everywhere you live. Right, it's also from a time zoning perspective, so I get into the office in the morning and I can speak to Australia in the morning and then the US in the evening, so I can speak to all the different jurisdictions which we operate in within the same sort of calendar day, which is very beneficial from an operational perspective. So, yeah, that's essentially one of the key reasons. I mean, obviously, on top of that, it's a really safe city. It's a really nice place to live.
Speaker 2:I remember going back home and needing to pick something up from a grocery store on a Sunday and then going out and everything's closed and being like what's going on here? Like everything's normally open in Dubai? I can get whatever I want whenever I need it. You know you also have the benefit of um if you want to do something on any given day. There's always something to do, no matter what time of day, what time of the day it is. You can find something. I mean you can go to Cirque de la Seille or you can do you know different um, yeah, there's all kinds of like opera-esque stuff that's on the go. There's something happening within the city all the time, which is really exciting, particularly for someone who came here single. Now have a family.
Speaker 1:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:You have that full scope of something to do for people who are single, all the way through to kids. It's a really nice place to raise kids.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fabulous. I bring my wife over here and I bring my daughter over here, who's eight fingers crossed. I'm going to hear back today about um acceptance into a school called arbor, which like an eco school, and they've got a galacopus galacopus tortoise not platypus giant giant tortoise.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not even gonna bother.
Speaker 1:Darwin, his name is yeah, really cool school with all these like eco domes and I just I was blown away when I went in there just by the quality of the school. Right as they were showing me around I was just like, oh my god, it just felt lovely. It was calm, it was clean, there was a huge amount of focus on their well-being, the children's well-being. It didn't feel like a school in england. So when we talk about the tax, right, and you ever hear you gotta pay, don't you, for schooling, I was kind of like in my head. I was like I don't care, like I'm happy to pay for schooling. If her schooling is this way, I'd rather pay for it than go be in england and the public school not being as good. Does that make sense? I'd rather not pay the tax in the uk and pay for schooling here.
Speaker 2:It makes total sense to me. Well, the tax here is schooling, right, you know we were mulling over the. Do we go back to the UK? Do we stay here? You know, because there's that, you know, essentially calculation that's running through your mind the entire time of tax versus schooling. Tax versus schooling, yeah, and I think you're right in what you're sort of saying, in that you know, in the UK you just hold into the potential catchment area and the school that sort of is there and the postcode right, whereas here you do have a lot more consumer choice and freedom.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, from that choice perspective, a lot of people think it's an authoritarian-esque, you know state. You don't have freedoms. You do, we really do have a lot of freedoms that I think potentially aren't really there even in democracies.
Speaker 1:Do you know what? One of the things that I found quite interesting is the old LGBTQ plus stance out here, right, and there's a massive amount of a lot of people I know that are LGBTQ plus. What are you going there for? It's terrible.
Speaker 1:There's two ladyboys that I saw I mean, we've got lgbtq plus people around us in hoxton. It is here and it's not hidden. And I was just like, oh right, okay, so it's not what you think or what you're told. You know there isn't um. You know women walking around in bikinis down the beach. You know, I the perception that you have for it being really like strict. It doesn't feel that way.
Speaker 2:I think there's a. It's generally one of those ones where, if you don't flaunt it, yeah. Right. I mean don't get me wrong there are laws that are in place that outlaw it. But there's an element of tolerance here around that that as long as you don't flaunt it and flaunt the laws, you're accepted. You're welcome. If you ended up trying to, even though they're ladies in bikinis on the beach, if you end up trying to go nude on the beach, you're going to get caught. That's flaunting it. That's throwing it in the face.
Speaker 1:Thanks for warning me, because because that's my thing I was panicking. Is it a regular thing? Oh yeah, I was up for that.
Speaker 2:You're hoping for the soft sand and cobbled beaches in the UK. Right, Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:Right, okay, cool. So just tell us a little bit about jurisdictions, the regulatory bodies that you're having to deal with, licenses, these are all words that you're sort of using. Um, let's just break it down for those that are listening. Okay, so what sort of regular, what regulations are we under as a global business? You mentioned licenses. What are they? Where are they? What do we have to go through? Jurisdictions, that sort of thing, fire?
Speaker 2:away. So I'll start. Um, let's go from east to west, um. So I'll start in australia, where we are licensed with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission for providing financial advice Across the business. We do not do discretionary, we are advised only. Don't hold client money. It's not within our sort of scope at this point. I think there are discussions around future sort of plans of what we do. Do we, you know, open an asset management sort of branch? You know of the business and all these kinds of pieces, but that's you know for the future.
Speaker 2:In the UAE we have an entity that is licensed by the Securities Commodities Authority. It's an onshore regulator. And then we then are currently applying for licensing for the Dubai International Financial Centre, which is the DIFC, and their regulator within that financial free zone is the Dubai Financial Services Authority. Once again, category 4, retail endorsement, advising and arranging being the sort of permissions that we would be having there. And it's important to sort of acknowledge that there's different regulatory, a very unique regulatory landscape here in the UAE in that there's five different regulators. You have the two free zones being the DIFC, as I've previously mentioned, and then you then have the Abu Dhabi Global Markets, which is regulated by the FSRA I can't remember what they stand for again, forgive me on that If anyone's from there listening, I'm sorry and then you then have onshore regulators. So you'd have the Securities and Commodities Authority, you'd have the central bank and then the insurance authority, which has been essentially bundled into the central bank, so quite like a fragmented regulatory kind of landscape, which is unusual if you're coming from the UK. You'd have the Financial Conduct Authority and then the Banking Prudential Authority. You'd have those two regulatory authorities. It's unique that you can do certain things in certain territories onshore and free zone. The onshore regulator is the regulation is drafted in Arabic, so that's a unique kind of element for them as a regulator and it's unique dealing with them because of that Arabic sort of tilt to it, whereas the Dubai International Financial Center has something that one would feel a little bit more used to coming from the UK, in that the laws and regulations are actually drafted in the similar vein as that of the FCA. So it's a lot easier to understand when you're coming from that environment and mindset. So we're looking forward to having that license within the stable so we can have that element of continuity, and I think that it's a real badge of honor to be licensed in the DIFC and we're really looking forward to building out that element of the business focused on the GCC element.
Speaker 2:Then you also have the Financial Sector Conduct Authority in South Africa. So that's a recent license addition Office in Cape Town stunning place, I'm assuming. As a South African I'm naturally going to be biased towards that Amazing place to live, amazing sort of food and so forth. So we're looking at trying to once again empower a vice force to be able to assist British expatriates that are living there or South Africans that are looking to immigrate, and that being the sort of target market area there.
Speaker 2:And then moving into Cyprus, where we have our separate entity, which is authorized by the CISEC, which is the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission. There we have a license for advising as well as receipt and transmission of orders, based upon the MFID framework, which a lot of people in the UK would have been aware of and privy to prior to Brexit. I mean, it's still in place, but in a limited scope, with the UK, obviously, or the FCA being a primary driver within that legislative push being miffed within Europe. So we have passporting now across Europe off the back of that, so anyone on that Cyprus license, can actually service clients across Europe through the freedom of service, I believe.
Speaker 2:Then we also have, obviously, our UK firm, which we are really putting a lot of time and effort into to sort of grow, expand, you know resourcing.
Speaker 2:You know we're really growing and from a compliance perspective, we're also really putting a lot of effort into sort of the growth of that business as we see it as a a lot of effort into sort of the growth of that business as we see it as a key part of our business going forward. Not to mention that you know the standards come from there, right, it's, you know, what we collectively hold ourselves to. The vast majority of individuals in Hoxton come from the UK, so there is that sort of standard and then that expectation. That's the standard that we ordinarily follow, considering also that our clients are from there. And then also then touching on then the US, finally, where we started out as a state-regulated entity with the Texas State Securities Board, and then we then hit the certain AUM threshold, which then we were considered a large firm, and then we then had to flick into federal regulation and registration, being with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US, and that's quite a mouthful.
Speaker 1:Well, it's lucky that you my jaw hurts from saying that it's lucky that you built it out, isn't it? Imagine having to come in and have to deal with all that. You wouldn't. No one would do that, would they? You would be one at a time and you'd kind of grow as you go. Thank you so much for that overview, because I think a lot of people don't probably understand all of that. So I think that's a really great educational piece for those listening, and it and it also shows that we hold ourselves to a high standard. We are being regulated here at Hoxton and that's hugely important because there's an image in there and a view, if you like, of international global advice. It's just a load of people knocking out products in their bedrooms. That's not the case here. There's a whole team dedicated to the compliance side of things as well. Tell us about that. Where are your team based? Who have you got working with you? How many people?
Speaker 2:I think, close based. Who have you got working with you? How many people? Sure, I think um, close to 12 direct reports now, I believe um.
Speaker 2:So we try and operate similar to, like the emirates um, emirates airlines, a kind of a hub and spoke kind of a model in that um. You know, we have a large chunk of our sort of technology, you know, built in and and, from this perspective from here, a lot of the administrative back office resources here and then that's then sort of farmed out to the individual entities and each entity typically has a compliance officer associated to them. We've also started to grow out those functions to support the individual compliance officers in those jurisdictions. So, as an example, people in the UK would ordinarily be familiar with file reviewers, quality assurance officers, to try and maintain the standard of advice that is going out the door to clients, and we've now essentially duplicated that model in Australia, which is also of really high standard and expectations around advice and the suitability of the advice that's being given there. So as we expand in the different regions, we have to then obviously resource it appropriately.
Speaker 2:I've luckily also brought on a chap who understands the international environment on par with me and really helps to support those little moving parts that happen here and there. And then we've also recently hired a new SMF 1617, so Senior Management Function for compliance and AML, or MLRO in the UK. So really looking forward to getting her in and help that massive expansion project that we have on the go in the UK.
Speaker 1:Fantastic Good. So lots of well-qualified, experienced, intelligent people used to being able to manage multi-jurisdiction and licenses in different countries.
Speaker 2:I would definitely say that compliance personnel within our organization are definitely some of the most qualified within the business. Even if you look at the quality assurance individuals, they tend to be pension transfer specialists, kind of qualified to be able to, you know, review and understand the suitability of that advice and even train right. So you'd have the first and second line of defense and you know the um, you know feedback loop that's involved in that um, you know, from the file review perspective to the advice and power planners yeah, it's full on.
Speaker 1:I couldn't do I understand what compliance dude I? Just I find it's like on I couldn't do. I understand what compliance did I? Just I find it's like there'd be so much responsibility like on your shoulders, like it would keep me awake at night. I don't think I could do a job like that. It would stress me out. What do you do to, like, chill out and not let it stress you? Is there a certain way that you think, because we talked a minute ago, didn't we? We talked about head and heart, didn't we? Do you follow your head? Do you follow your heart? How do you get through those types of Well, it can get stressful.
Speaker 2:I think probably the most stressful was when we had ASIC in Australia, the FCA, the SEC in the US, as well as ESCA here running concurrent supervision, you know, supervisionary visits. That was really really sort of stressful, trying to sort of manage all the moving parts for that, the deadlines, you know it was quite intense, you know. But it's one of those ones where I think you have to have a naturally sort of you know, tough sort of skin and also sort of dogged determination and drive to sort of drive that forward, almost water for ducks back kind of a thing. When it comes to compliance, ordinarily one does need to be very analytical and technical and logical, but at the end of the day we're also human beings, right, we also have our own wants and desires and aspirations, and you also have to make wants and desires and you know aspirations and, um, you know you also have to make decisions with heart, right, um, you know with yeah, spot on, spot, spot on.
Speaker 1:And I think you know having that um regulatory scrutiny that you went under is only going to make you stronger when you come through right. You know you learn a huge amount about yourself and the business and the people around you yeah, I, I mean definitely it's.
Speaker 2:I mean, whenever we have regulatory inspections, and I mean compared to our first one, which you know I remember going through and that was really stressful because you didn't know what to expect, right, you know, having never been through one before particularly, say, with the FCA you before, particularly say with the FCA You're now having been through it, I kind of see the purpose and the reasons for it.
Speaker 2:You know it's not to, you know, ha caught you out kind of a thing and you know we're not going to, you know, snap you around. It's like trying to keep the firms honest, right and to learn and grow and develop and change their systems and controls. You know, keep that oversight. I mean that's what regulation is Supervising the firms right, same way that you would have a supervisor in an organization. You're the manager. You're going to have someone that's got an eye over you. Are you doing the job correctly? Yes, make some corrective changes here. That's essentially what it is. It's just the countries are trying to protect, know, protect their financial systems and and their citizen and and the residents, and that's how they go about doing it does sound like a bit of a regulatory.
Speaker 1:What compliance headache, really having to manage all those different jurisdictions and all the clients that are moving around as well, because obviously you're dealing with locals within those countries and then they might become an expat. So you might have a us client that then becomes an expat of the us and moves to the uk and then goes and moves to australia or whatever. Right, that's an example. How are you managing that? And they're moving all around. You're having to ensure that the advice is given is correct and everything can understand that. But tech, wise, do you lean in technology as a business to be able to help support you on?
Speaker 2:that I mean. I think that technology is going to be an ever-growing component of our business, as well as the industry. To be fair, I think that if firms you know there was always an argument that technology would never replace you know the human-to-human relationship that you know exists within you know financial advice, right, what we view it as, yes, you know, particularly for the high net worth sort of individuals. That's very true. But we can also, we can, augment that with technology. We can augment that relationship. We can create efficiencies. We can, you know, provide insights, you know, that are that are quicker, more easily accessible. But then you can also use the technology to service the individuals who might not have a large chunk, that sort of can't pay a minimum fee of £1,000 a year. It just doesn't make sense, right? And is that treating them fairly in regards to consumer duty sort of element? Probably not.
Speaker 2:So is there scope for potential simplified advice using technology? Yes, and similarly, we look at how we can use technology within the business itself from a compliance perspective. How do we make it easy for advisors to deliver good quality advice, with checks and balances that would make us comfortable having that advice go out to a consumer? Is it appropriate, how do we make sure that it's appropriate, and then also how do we decrease costs and create efficiencies within the business from that sort of perspective. So technology has a massive, massive place, I think, in our industry going forward where are you stepping into next?
Speaker 1:where's the next sort of place you're going, where your new bit of learning is going to be coming on board, maybe a new country? Is there anything exciting on the on the cards?
Speaker 2:I really hope that we consolidate what we have at the moment. You know, I think that we're really well positioned at the moment to really take advantage of what we have. You know, I think that when we identify something and a new license, you know, a new opportunity, we'll definitely sort of, you know, pull the handbrake off and, you know, really go for it. You know, whether it be asset management, you know whether we decide to, you know, hold client money and create a platform. You know, whether we, um, yeah, look at canada or singapore or new zealand or hong kong, um, you know, those are all I think within the scope.
Speaker 2:Um, I think that we're in a consolidation phase of saying, okay, well, well, you know, how do we really drive value for ourselves, our, you know, internal and external sort of stakeholders across the business? How do we drive that sort of value? How do we increase our value proposition sort of that we give to clients? And, once again, we're investing heavily in technology and I think that that's going to be a big driver for us going forward in the service that we offer to clients. I think that's the frontier that we're going to be pushing into. Is that through our technology solutions such as Wealthflow. How do we enable clients to learn from the insights and action, the insights that we give them through that? That's the next frontier, I think.
Speaker 1:So financial planners listening to this, now they're in the UK, right From a compliance perspective, you understand what they can and what they can't do. So what's like a benefit to a financial planner in the UK joining an international firm but, let's say, remaining in the UK Run through really what that opens them up to in respect of opportunity?
Speaker 2:One of the elements that we've looked at and understood, having spoken to other firms in the UK, is a lot of them actually end up having books of clients that they can't actually even service. Right, because the clients have now moved offshore to, like I said, Dubai, and legally they can't service those individuals because they're based upon residents, right. So now they're receiving fees they can't service, they have to switch off the fees and now they just have these clients that are sat there that they can't do anything with, whereas our proposition, it actually started more from here. Where, you know, we, where our advisors, would you know, hold up a book of clients and then, you know, suddenly they the transient nature of the uae, the clients are moving back to the uk, you know, and so, but surely, over time, your book of clients is essentially going to, you know, dissolve in front of your eyes.
Speaker 2:Um, so it's a constant in having to find new clients, whereas if you're in, say, the UK, typically it would be very sticky as long as you're servicing your clients correctly. How do we prevent that scenario from happening for advisors here and how do we protect their books of business? Well, let's open up an office in the UK. So there's a continuity, you know, for our advisors, but also sort of for our clients, right? I remember when I was, you know, when I told my dad I was joining the industry. You know he was a bit hesitant. He's like oh, financial advisors you know, Unfortunately, sort of.
Speaker 2:Even back then, you know we had a bad rep kind of a thing. But I think it's generally a historical thing of you know, mis-selling, I think, across you know, the Western world, you know from the 80s and early 90s kind of a thing. But you know he went through so many financial advisors, right. You know, if you find one, you want to try and keep them, no matter where you might be in the world. Right, and you know what we then offer then for a UK advisor is oh, you know, your clients are moving offshore. You know they might not want to stay in the UK. They might also want to, you know, expand their horizons and see a different you know world, have a different life, you know, but you now have that opportunity to continue to service them right.
Speaker 2:And for an advisor living in the UK, you know, but you now have that opportunity to continue to service them right. And for an advisor living in the uk, you know if, if you also wanted to expand your horizon, you could do the same thing. Right, become licensed in the us and, you know, start dealing with brits in in the us. You know you might bump into a you know us individual in, you know, london. You know they might have us assets which you know, and pension assets which which they they can't even manage because the the advisors in the us don't have the ability to do so, you know. So it's about creating a kind of an ecosystem where you know it empowers the client to stick with an advisor and have continuity and empowers the advisor to really expand their horizons.
Speaker 1:I like that. Yeah, you're a financial planner in the UK, why not be an international financial planner in the UK? Yeah, it's kind of like it's just growing, isn't it? It's growing your client base. It's growing your opportunity. It's moving in the way that the world's moving, which is people are moving around. Um, we're better connected. It opens up your connections so you can be it's what I like moving to dubai working for hoxton international. Someone like me is like whoa, because it's just my brain just opens I'm already doing, doing stuff.
Speaker 1:I'm doing stuff in the US already with professional football players, and then I'm going to go bust into professional sports in the US because I've learned about the P1 visas and about the amount of visas that you can have for professional sports or entertainers in the US per soccer team, for example, or basketball team I think, it's like seven. I even learned that they can trade those visas between teams. So, for example, if someone's coming from the UK to play soccer Football for our British Football, for our British dudes, yeah, if they come over there and do that, then there's an opportunity for me to go right. Well, what are you doing after football? Do you want to become a financial planner and come and work with us over in new york? And that's exactly what I've done. And now I've got this kind of cool footballer who's got really great connections and I'm really excited about helping him be a trojan horse for getting into soccer, professional sports out there, not only to give advice but to also attract talent into our business. And that would never have happened.
Speaker 1:And in my head I've always had an idea in my head I love the idea of smashing into the US. I mean, it's a huge opportunity in the US. It's massive, the wealth over there is insane and also the average age of the advisor out there is the same as like it's dropping. So like 50% of their advisors are dropping. So it's because of the age. So the wealth is insane, the opportunity out there is insane. So when I started delving a bit deeper into that and speaking to like bradley out there and chris about it, their eyes lit up, my eyes lit up and it was like, oh man, like a whole different part of my thinking was there so I think if you're an expansive thinker, you're a growth mindset individual.
Speaker 1:I think going international and just building it out and building out your knowledge and building out your opportunities is only going to be exciting. Yeah, and also, I could have worked for a uk-based firm right, and it would have been uk culturally, from a financial planning perspective, the uk isn't. It's a bit there. I say it's come, it's not coming across well, I feel it's a bit flat right, it needs a bit of energy, whereas internationally I could take a photo of that. I can take a photo of me on the beach. Yeah, you know, I could fly out to new york and take a photo in new york, south africa, cape town, whatever, and people are going to be like emotionally connected to the journey because we intrinsically want to explore as human beings, right, and it's like exciting so for the story and the brand is exciting, so why can't the journey for a financial planner be exciting as well?
Speaker 2:The one thing I realized about my jump from South Africa is that once you're in an environment, the walls are kind of around you right. Yeah, you can't really see out of it. But as soon as you leave you see, oh wow, the world's actually a lot bigger. You really see the opportunity that is really out there. You can look in every corner of the world and there's opportunity. It's almost like the limits on your brain have been pulled off, ripped away. So from that perspective it's, there's um it's amazing, I like it.
Speaker 1:It's like I live in bristol and then when I, when I work at home on my own in bristol and then I go to london, as soon as I drive into london as an energy, you know people are doing deals, people are connecting.
Speaker 1:You can feel the connection you know, and I can feel that, into buying, like there is an energy, yeah, like people want to do well, people want to get ahead. There isn't a system in place to support people. That don't you know? You can't be on the dole here, can you? You know there is no support system.
Speaker 2:It's hyper capitalist is what hyper capitalist yeah, it's hyper.
Speaker 1:I love that and I think capitalism, or being a capitalist, this has negative connotations right, everybody wants to be a kind of oh I'll do, like four-day work week or three-day work week. It isn't like that here. I suppose it probably is for some people. You can have a lifestyle that you want once you've achieved it right. For me, here it's about opportunity and again, I feel things. I'm quite empathic and I'm here and it's like everybody feels like they want to grow. Everybody feels that we want to improve and get ahead and it is capitalist. But I'm okay with that and I'm at a stage of my life where I'm accepting of that. I'm not looking to take my foot off the gas, I'm looking to put my foot down in my 40s and enjoy it.
Speaker 2:Everyone that's here is here for a reason To work to make something better of themselves, to take an opportunity and run with it. You're not going to come out of a sleepy town in South Africa and try and sort of live the same life that you live there here, the same thing in the UK. You're not going to try and live the same life that you lived in the UK here. So the people that would be on the dole, they didn't really want to work, they want to work four days a week. They won't come here because that's not what they're out. So this is a unique place and it collects people of that like-minded drive, that like-minded I want to be better. I want better in my life.
Speaker 1:It's not just but, like I learned yes, I've learned this week. It's been really interesting. Actually. I had an infection on my finger. I almost think it was a sign right again to go and have a look at what the services are like out here. I walked to a medical center on the corners like medical centers right on loads of corners, with doctors in them and all sorts, straight in no appointment. My finger was so infected they drained it all. They they did everything, gave me antibiotics, everything within about an hour, yeah, and it was clean, it was efficient and it was friendly and, yeah, I paid some money to do it. But I was like, oh my god, that was like so good, so you got that hassle free hassle free, hassle free, hassle free.
Speaker 1:So you got that. I told you about the school and I'm just like, wow, this like there is a different level. You know, and I in England and I don't want to bash England because I love England it's kind of not. You could earn a load of money there and you get taxed to bollocks. They tax the hell out of you. Everyone's getting fed up with it. Everyone knows it could be better. Right, it could be so much better. The system's broken. You look at the system here and look there are negatives to to this place there's pros and cons.
Speaker 1:Everywhere there's pros, no matter where you look, yeah, but at the stage of my life, of where I am and what I want from it, which is quality of life, interesting work, money, right, uh. Good schooling for my daughter, health care, bit of sunshine, things to do, it's ticks boxes for me.
Speaker 2:I mean like you can hop on a plane and three hours later you're in Sri Lanka, or four hours you're in Maldives, or you can go to the Caucasus, you can go to Africa, you can go. It's so easy to get places from here that, from a lifestyle, travel perspective, it's amazing. And I was wanting to mention the fact that we have young people that are coming in and you see people on the internet living careers and living a digital nomad lifestyle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Our business model and the digitization that we've experienced as an organization finally COVID really have enabled people to enabled people to sort of be that you can actually you can live that you don't have to be bound to your area in the UK and advising sort of people. You can actually be a digital nomad. You can set up shop in Bali and you can, you know, speak to people in Australia and you can speak to people in, you know, southeast Asia, dubai, the USs, wherever it is. You can continue that, but you can live a digital nomad lifestyle oh man, the financial planner nomad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's kind of cool, isn't it like I wonder if someone would. Oh yeah, you could literally create a digital nomad business financial planning digital nomad business. You could be known as that person and like again right, so you're traveling around giving advice to different types of clients into different jurisdictions. I know it'd be quite difficult because you have to fly all here, there and everywhere. It's not as easy as that, but again, marketable as hell, isn't it? I'm always thinking it from a brand perspective, what it looks like. And you know it's like when you go onto instagram and you've got those guys that just go off traveling everywhere and take amazing videos and you think what a life I mean. Why can't you do that like? You know why not?
Speaker 2:yeah like.
Speaker 1:It's kind of cool, especially if you're doing it on social media, building an audience that then thinks well, I want my advice from the digital nomad. I'm in south africa and he's he's based there at the moment. I'll reach out especially, got loads of followers and everything. So it's a really, really interesting model and, again, on a kind of micro scale, I suppose that's essentially what I want to do here. You know, I want us to be yeah and that's how I want us to be seen. So that's why, again, I'm excited by it and, knowing that I'm coming into the business, it's got interesting people like you in there that know exactly what you're doing, brilliant advisors in there, good qualifications, great leaders, great leadership team, digital tech teams, etc. To me just fills me with confidence.
Speaker 1:So well, listen, I'm going to bring this to a close right now, but thank you so much for sort of sharing your journey. Um, thank you so much for having me on. You're welcome and um, I'm sure we'll create more content around. Uh, yourself, your journey, uh, the great work you're doing at hoxton capital in respects of compliance. So really, really appreciate it. Thank you for your time awesome thank you very much, appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, nice one.
