Hoxton Wealth: Chris Ball (l) with Rob Aberdein
A wealth management and tax advice firm is to launch an alternative business structure (ABS) later this year to create a “fully joined-up advisory platform” for its globally mobile clients.
Rob Aberdein, general counsel and director of legal and strategic growth at Hoxton Wealth, said many of the firm’s clients were “global citizens” and currently “underserved” by the market, particularly for private client work.
“You get better quality advice when all the advice is joined up. The best solution has to be multi-disciplinary providers.
“It takes time and money to manage separate providers. If, instead, you have a single platform which gives you visibility on your phone, it will give you back time. Who doesn’t want that?”
Mr Aberdein, who joined Hoxton Wealth at the start of this year, said an ABS application would be made to the Solicitors Regulation Authority for Hoxton Legal later this month, which was likely to be approved within four to six months.
The aim would then be to recruit one lawyer every four to six weeks, the first having already joined Hoxton’s South Africa office in Durban. By the end of this calendar year, he would be “disappointed” if the total recruited by the firm was not in double figures.
Paralegals would also be recruited, although Mr Aberdein said agentic artificial intelligence (AI) was probably “as important” as human paralegals.
“The law firm of the future will use agentic AI to manage data and workflows. It is really good at analysing data and moving the process forward in private client and conveyancing.”
Mr Aberdein said it was much easier to build an AI-based law firm from scratch than to try and convert an existing firm. “The big law firms have to go on the same journey, but it’s harder for them.”
He said Hoxton’s clients were often high net-worth individuals who were “very busy and very mobile”.
Unlike Hoxton, there were “not a lot of firms, particularly in the private client business, who are able to mirror where their clients and assets are located”.
Mr Aberdein expected to see Hoxton Legal opening at some point in the Middle East or Australia. Hoxton Wealth has offices around the world, from the USA, where it has three, to Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney and Dubai.
In Scotland, he said, Hoxton would continue to work through partner law firms until it permitted ABSs, which he expected in the next 18 to 24 months. Mr Aberdein is co-founder of the ABS Scotland Group, which is campaigning for the reform to happen more quickly than the Law Society of Scotland is planning.
He said this was “a bit frustrating” as many of Hoxton’s clients around the world were Scottish.
A one-time partner at Leeds firm Walker Morris, Mr Aberdein founded the multi-disciplinary Moray Group in 2020, which had offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and North Berwick.
This was bought in 2022 by multi-disciplinary wealth management firm and ABS owner Progeny, where Mr Aberdein became chief commercial officer. He also remains chief executive of Scottish firm Simpson & Marwick.
Chris Ball, chief executive of Hoxton, commented: “Rob brings experience in scaling regulated professional services businesses and integrating them within a broader advisory model.
“That expertise will be critical at board level and will also help us establish a legal capability designed for high net-worth UK nationals with cross-border needs.”
He added: “The future of private client advice is international and integrated. By aligning wealth, tax and legal services under one global structure, we can offer clients better oversight, better value and greater confidence in how their affairs are managed.”
