I’m writing this between Christmas and the new year, at the end of a busy and successful 2024 for Charlton House.
As we pause for breath and take advantage of the extended festive break, we’re already firming up our business plans for 2025.
To give you an idea of what we have in mind, and how we’re looking to enhance the services that we provide for our clients, I thought it was worth sharing some of these plans with you.
1. By the end of 2025, we’ll have developed a new adviser
Brendan Keylock joined us in 2022 as a paraplanner. Since that time, it’s always been the intention that he would ultimately progress to working as a dedicated adviser to some of our clients.
As I’m likely to reach this capacity in mid-2026, this will be the year that the final push, in terms of Brendan’s development and preparation happens so he is ready in good time.
In reality, Brendan is already filling the role of “shadow” adviser or my “left-hand” man (I am a “cuddy wifter” as my dad would often refer to me!) so the step up to working as an adviser on a full-time basis will be a straightforward and well-deserved.
Furthermore, he’s already fully qualified for the role, having sat a series of challenging financial planning exams and passed them with distinction.
Some of you will have already dealt with Brendan and are aware of his professional attitude and the enthusiasm and efficiency he brings to client relationships and reporting.
Brendan stepping up in this way will clearly free up time for me, and give me valuable “head space” to devote to building the business. Although, rest assured, I have no intention of stepping back from my client-facing duties.
As a longer-term objective, we’re looking to develop a “pod” structure as Charlton House grows and takes on more clients. This will involve a qualified planner, a paraplanner, and an administrator working as a team of three to ensure client needs are met as effectively as possible.
2. Launching our new dedicated service for British legal professionals
The second development for 2025 is one that has been in the planning and development stage for quite some time and is now very much ready to launch.
The last few years have seen a big uptick in the number of potential new clients who have been introduced to us by our existing clients. Another trend I have seen is that the largest representation by occupation across our client base is UK expats and repats who have worked or are still working in the legal profession.
This has inspired us to launch a new service, providing expert advice for legal professionals based in Hong Kong.
We’re pleased to say that our existing legal clients are all very happy with our work and a number have offered to recommend us to their fellow lawyers.
As a result we have also set up a Lawyer Panel to potential new clients from the legal profession the confidence to choose Charlton House.
As panel members, these clients will give an honest appraisal of their experience working with us, and answer any questions new clients may have about our services.
There’ll be a full article about this in a future newsletter, as well as a dedicated section on our website.
3. We’re looking to add real value to our interactions with you
As a Charlton House client you’ll be aware of the importance we place on the Annual Progress Meeting, checking you’re still on track to meet your financial goals, and that the plans you have in place are still fit for purpose.
In addition, we also hold interim meetings which we call a “Period Check In,” to see if there are any issues concerning you, or ones that we think you ought to be aware of.
For example, the recent UK Budget, confirming changes to non-dom status for UK expats returning to the UK, prompted a lot of interaction with our clients.
This process seems to be working well, but there is always room for review and improvement, and in the first half of this year I will be developing additional ways to ensure you as much value as possible out of our regular progress meetings.
4. We’re looking to improve our business efficiency
One of the ways to improve and expand the services we provide, especially given the increase in number of clients, is through the use of technology. We have always been big advocates of this anyway, and we are constantly trialling new software, either in the form of an upgrade on an existing system, or a new innovative solution.
We clearly want to grow the business, but in a structured way ensuring that we still provide the expert bespoke advice and interaction you are used to.
Improved technology plays a key role in this. We have spent some time looking at the recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) relating to the advice process.
While this will never directly replace the planning advice we provide, we feel that there are ways that AI can certainly support and accentuate the work we do, particular in areas such as report writing, meeting transcripts, and investment analysis.
I have been trialling some of these AI systems and I have to say that the results have been remarkably good, and we will be looking to incorporate some of these in our processes in the coming year.
The intention is that doing this will free up more time for us to devote to the more important parts of the advice process that only human interaction can manage, such as enabling me to listen rather than being distracted as I’m scribbling down notes. This is, after all, is what we’re all about!
Get in touch
If you would like to talk about the services we offer, and how we could help you please get in touch.
You can contact us by email or, if you prefer to speak to us, you can reach us in Hong Kong on +852 39039004 or in the UK on +44 (0) 208 0044900.
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