Allan Stewart and Jamie Crawford, of wealth-management company Oakglen Wealth, tell Emily Moore why the expanding business has reason to be confident about the future
FOR most people, 31 January 2020 will go down in history as the day on which the UK officially left the EU.
But, for the owners of one Jersey-headquartered wealth-management firm, Brexit Day had extra significance, marking a key landmark in the business’s history.
“Oakglen was established by myself and two other founders in 2016, following a management buyout of the Credit Suisse Jersey business,” explained Oakglen Wealth managing director Allan Stewart.
“Three years later, as we sought capital to support the firm’s growth both in Jersey and in other markets, we approached one of our clients to see whether they would be interested in partnering with us.”
That client was Jamie Crawford who, together with his father, Gordon, had been clients of Allan’s for many years.
“We really liked Allan and the team, as we felt they provided a level and type of service that was better and slightly different from many others in the market,” reflected Jamie, who is the co-chief executive of Oakglen Group and head of wealth management at Oakglen Wealth. “When the opportunity to partner up arose, we were very keen and, having started conversations in 2019, the investment completed on Brexit Day.”
While sharing a number of values, Allan explained that there was one, in particular, which had prompted them to approach the Crawfords.
“One of the key drivers for us was that we would be working with private capital,” he said. “Over the past four or five years, we have seen a lot of private-equity capital coming into the wealth management space and, in most cases, such investments are short-term, with a defined exit strategy. We don’t believe that is conducive for serving private clients. For us, having access to stable, long-term capital and having a backer who wanted to build a business for decades to come was key.
“We were also excited by the opportunity, when we bought the Credit Suisse business, to be an independently Jersey-owned and managed business that would continue providing wealth-management services to local high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients, something which becoming part of Oakglen allowed us to maintain.”
The partnership has also, as the men reflect, enabled them to achieve many of their growth ambitions, with many more still in the pipeline.
“When we became part of Oakglen Group, we looked at the whole operating model, investing significantly in our systems and processes,” said Allan. “We also launched a UK business in 2023 and last year we acquired Homebuyer Financial Services, a financial planning business, which has enabled us to provide a more holistic and rounded management offering. Led by managing director Chris Hall, that business is going from strength to strength.”
Through this combination of acquisitions and organic growth, the business has grown from a team of five in 2016 to more than 40 today, with wealth-management teams in London and Jersey, and Allan is expecting these figures to rise further before the end of the year.
“We are really excited about the opportunities ahead,” he said. “Jersey is our home, and we see tremendous potential to invest and build in the Island, but we also see scope to grow in the UK and further afield.
“As part of that, we are continuing to seek growth opportunities through acquisitions and have a couple of irons in the fire just now, some of which we expect to be able to announce within the next few weeks.”
But while keen to expand, both Jamie and Allan stress that they will not be losing sight of their core market.
“We are a Jersey-first business, and our bread and butter is high-value private clients, and we believe they like the fact that we are a Jersey-owned and managed firm,” said Jamie.
This is an area of the business that we have managed to grow well over the past few years, and we see significant potential for further growth, as more high-net-worth families and businesses come to the Island, something which is exciting both for us and for Jersey as a whole. We are also now working with more intermediaries, particularly private client trust companies, and this is another area which we are keen to develop.”
“We now have more than 1,000 Jersey-resident clients, something which the financial planning business has supported, as it has enabled us to engage with a different segment of the market,” added Allan.
Also supporting that engagement, says Jamie, are the firm’s various “sweet spots”, which include its size and stability.
“We have a clear goal of being the leading independently owned wealth manager in Jersey and the UK, something which the stability and consistency of our patient capital facilitates,” he said. “This gives us a long-term view, which is valued by both our clients and employees, who like to feel that they are an important part of something personal.
“We are small enough that all our clients matter, and there is a real sense of appreciation that you might not get elsewhere. Similarly, our employees matter, and we offer an environment where those who want to can have a real influence on our investment strategy and the direction of the firm.
“But while we are small enough for all of that to be possible, as part of the wider Oakglen Group, we are also large enough to commit to some pretty ambitious technology and growth projects.”
That, says Allan, has seen the firm invest in a technology partnership with SEI, a Nasdaq-listed provider of technology products to financial services businesses.
“In addition to that partnership, we have recently recruited an AI lead, as we see a real opportunity to automate labour-intensive tasks, compliance and administration checks,” he said. “We have already started using AI, gradually and carefully, to add functionality and capabilities to certain processes, enabling our people to spend more time with clients.”
“As well as straight efficiencies, AI can support with some monitoring, risk reduction processes and research coverage,” Jamie added.
Leading the firm’s research and investment strategies is a team including chief investment officer Jeff Brummette, Allan, Jamie, Oakglen Wealth London managing director Dominic Tayler, equity specialist Will Lammond and funds specialist Myles Renouf.
And while there is no doubt that Oakglen Wealth’s first decade has coincided with a period of market volatility, the men say that their investment models have enabled them to “outperform their peers”.
“While many of our peers are benchmark-driven, we are benchmark-aware and risk-constrained, so our portfolios are built in a way that avoids the drawdowns and captures as much of the upside as we can,” explained Allan.
“We benchmark our performance against ARK, an independent investment consultancy to which several investment managers provide data. Over the past six years, our equity strategy has outperformed ARK by 34%, while our portfolios for medium-risk clients have outperformed ARK by 20%.”
Driving that performance, say the men, is a focus on investing in “large-cap, cash-generative” companies.”
“Oil and energy companies have generated good results in recent months, while we also like miners and, in particular, copper miners, as copper is a key component not just in the shift from traditional to renewable energy but also from an AI perspective, as it is key to data centres,” said Allan. “Copper recently reached a record high in London and, given the lack of copper reserves globally, we expect that performance to continue.”
While the men say that AI and technology offer a range of opportunities, they also draw attention to healthcare and defence as two other “mainstays in the portfolio”.
But although they have enjoyed consistent returns over the past few years, they are very aware of the “uncertainty and volatility” which has existed throughout that time.
“During such times, the relationship between clients and wealth managers is more important than ever,” said Jamie. “And, again, our size plays to our strengths. We are small enough that if something happens over the weekend, all the investment committee can be together at 7.30am on the Monday and have a strategy in place before the markets open.
“Having said that, our investment process is set up to operate in times of volatility and uncertainty and that, coupled with the experience across our investment committee, means that we do not panic when something happens.”
And while no one has a crystal ball, both men suspect that the volatility of the past ten years is likely to continue for some time.
“Despite that, markets are at record highs, so even though we have seen all that volatility, equities have delivered excellent returns and the bond space is also very interesting,” said Allan.
“I suspect that AI will continue to drive investment, and that investment, which we are already seeing, has been reflected in strong corporate earnings, which is positive,” added Jamie. “Over the next year, I would expect that positivity to continue, although it will be accompanied by volatility and risks. Beyond that, the markets are likely to be influenced further by military conflict, increases in energy demand, the transition to renewable energy and AI, although quite how this will pan out is harder to say.”
What the men can say, though, is that their focus on growth will continue.
“As well as the acquisitions which we hope to complete shortly, we have plans to launch a flagship fund in the fourth quarter of this year,” said Jamie, “and to continue building our business for the long term. Ultimately, if we are perceived by employees and clients as a positive local business to be involved with, then we are doing something right.”
