The Evolution & Diversification of Globaleye’s Proposition
Tim Searle of Globaleye
Apr 15, 2022
Dubai-headquartered international financial advisory firm Globaleye has been on a roughly four-year journey to evolve its business model higher up the wealth spectrum to focus on HNW clients. Hubbis has tracked the progress of Globaleye for a good number of years, and met up again recently with Tim Searle, Chairman, and also his son Rupert, who since 2019 has been Group General Manager. Ever since the pandemic hit, they have invested their time in layering various elements that can help deliver high-end wealth and estate planning solutions. They have also received a significant investment from a Zurich-based family office, helping them expand across the board, bringing in new talent, boosting technology, adding new business lines and hunting more actively for acquisitions. In the past, the firm’s clients were largely in the up-to USD1 million in investible assets category, now, they are making major inroads with clients of at least USD1 million to USD25 million in AUM. It is reported that Globaleye is plugging a significant gap left by both the private banks who themselves are trying to scale up with considerably larger clients. They also explain that they have not forgotten their roots – they will serve those clients digitally and offer the higher AUM clients a hybrid model with human advisor interface as required.
Globaleye established 23 years ago in 1999, since then, the firm has opened offices in Singapore, Malaysia and Switzerland and has also expanded into South Africa. Today, their international team of experts work alongside clients to provide investment management; tax planning strategies; high-value insurance cover; asset protection; succession and legacy planning. They collaborate with trusted legal teams, family offices, bankers and trustees, to meet the needs of HNW clients while supplementing advisory offerings through their bespoke services. They currently have more than 6,000 clients worldwide, and of those roughly 300 clients in the USD1-25 million assets range.
Sailing into the future
Tim established the business following a distinguished career in the Royal Navy. His vision was to build a global organisation that met the demands of modern financial services industry whilst addressing the ever-growing complexities of financial planning faced by global citizens.
This he has achieved, and considerably more, working with Private Banks, EAMs, Trustees, Law Firms, Family Offices and Fiduciaries to create effective client liquidity and inter-generational wealth transfer solutions that meet the modern needs of HNW individuals and families.
His business partner from the outset is a member of the Ruling family of Dubai, and that long and successful relationship maintains today. When not in Dubai, Tim has a farm in Devon with his wife Louise, and together they have four children and one grandchild.
Rapidly evolving the proposition
Tim opens the conversation by remarking that Globaleye has been rapidly evolving its proposition to adapt to market changes and new regulations. He notes, for example, that most of the regulation today is under the Ministry of Finance, and that in 2021, the Insurance Authority brought out new regulation called BOD-49, which has resulted in adjusting their insurance offerings accordingly.
“The changes are well-intentioned, but they have actually impacted both the brokers and the product providers who now face less choice in terms of distribution,” he comments. “This in turn will drive providers away, reducing choice for clients. For us, the changes are timely in a way, as we have shifted our focus to the HNW clients. We focus on more bespoke advice for wealthier clients who want individual solutions and expert advice to help handle their complex financial affairs and to see their deals are tailored precisely to what they need.”
Heading for higher ground
He explains that Globaleye anticipated these changes and began moving upscale in terms of its target clientele several years ago.
“What we have found as we have transitioned the business is a major portion of the wealth market that is underserved in terms of advisory,” Tim reports. “In short, these clients need someone who can orchestrate a strategy that delivers the best solutions today and for generations to come.
Their holistic approach advises on a spectrum of financial planning needs such as estate planning, wills, trusts, , insurance, pensions, investment portfolios, and deliver solutions that fit that bigger picture. “That is where we can really add value, bringing these different elements together in a comprehensive, set of solutions,” he says.
Objectivity at the core
They believe that building and preserving wealth takes time and invest a lot of time researching how the world will be in the future, to find ways to set their clients up for success.
"Among our various endeavours within the Private Markets and Venture Capital space, we have recently been successful in completing a $35 million Series C funding round for SkyCell alongside anchor investors such as DisruptAD, SHUAA Capital psc, and various China/Zurich-based family offices."
“Essentially, we have a blank canvas when we set out, with no bias and no agendas,” he reports. “And what we have found, time and again, is an astonishing number of clients who have not previously considered these types of solutions. And as we have gradually transitioned into the HNW space, we are finding that we can really add value beyond wealth management, especially to prominent families and individuals.
"Our reputation for helping and advising HNW clients globally around wealth succession planning and asset protection as they face increasing global tax complexities continues to break new boundaries. Our solutions allow for a seamless risk transfer (from the individual or corporation) to the insurance platform, providing liquidity or asset protection solutions. From simple legacy and estate planning to key person and critical business protection, we listen to our clients and their needs so a holistic approach to finding appropriate solutions is achieved. We have advised and arranged over USD6 billion of active risk solutions, providing protection and liquidity for our global clients using a combination of WOL, Term, ULI, VUL, PPB and PPLI solutions to name a few."
A monumental shift of emphasis
Rupert offers his perspectives, setting some of these changes and trends his father had referred to in context.
“Over the last four years or so, we have made a monumental shift in terms of repositioning this business, transitioning successfully from more of a retail financial planner to that of an independent wealth manager,” he reports. “To achieve that, we have evolved from a business that relied on upfront commissions to a fee-for-advice proposition.”
He says they have also upgraded their investment proposition, working with broad-based digital platforms such as Saxo Bank and others. “Additionally, we have diversified, with a corporate finance sister company in Zurich,” he reports. “This helps us access and deliver private market opportunities directly to our clients..”
Essentially, he reports, the firm is on track to offer a similar level of service and proposition to that of a multi-family office, without actually being one.
Digital delivery for those who need it
“We have been upgrading our digital offering as well, and now are just a few months away from offering our own digital wealth management interface,” he reports. “This will allow clients to onboard themselves remotely, and self-direct investments into one of our model portfolios. It will act as a platform to service those types of clients who no longer need dedicated individual advisers.”
He says that as they transition to the HNW market, it is vitally important to retain clients of investable assets of up to USD1 million. “Instead of offboarding these clients, as a private bank might do, we will deliver these value-added digital solutions instead,” he explains. “And of course, this will make life easier for all our clients, and for clients who meet our new minimum AUM, we offer a hybrid approach, providing seamless digital access with the availability of our advisors to handle a more bespoke proposition for them.”
Greater efficiency and effectiveness
Tim adds that a positive by-product of the pandemic had been the use of Zoom and other media to pull the types of different skills and expertise clients might need together on one call.
“Since the pandemic hit, we have been able to organise these multi-discipline conversations, and really achieve a lot more in a tighter time frame than in the past, and perhaps better outcomes as well,” he comments. “We are also working closely with professional bodies, who understand our approach and who are increasingly bringing clients to us.”
Rupert adds that the re-branding they have now concluded had begun last year and now properly aligns with what the firm has become, and where it is heading. “We wanted to evolve the business model alongside the re-branding, refining both as we progressed,” he says.
Key Priorities
Tim reports that a key near-term mission is to extend the private assets offering the firm has working in partnership with their corporate advisory arm in Zurich.
“We have a great team in our office there, and the skills and experience they have in selecting out opportunities is ideal for our conversations with wealthy clients, so we can deliver some really interesting ideas to them,” he explains. “Moreover, we co-invest alongside those opportunities we take to clients, in effect backing our marketing with our own commitments as well.”
The second priority is to expand the estate planning offering, including refining high-value insurance solutions that mitigate taxation issues, that can house and transition assets to beneficiaries, and that are effective for regulatory reporting requirements. “We have moved more robustly and rather successfully into this space,” Tim explains. “We work regularly with the banks, EAMs, trustees and others to filter the right solutions and deliver optimal outcomes.”
He adds that their insurance offering is not limited to life solutions.
“We are offering a variety of solutions now, not just life insurance, but for example, insurance of very high value residential real estate, offices, supercars and collectibles, offering a one-stop approach to clients,” he reports. “In short, we offer what we think is a significant all-round proposition here, with exceptional advisory around the use of insurance contracts for a variety of objectives.”
Riding the UAE wave
Tim closes with a comment on the positive developments and liberalisation that had been taking place in Dubai and more widely in the region.
“There are numerous rules that somewhat detracted from the lives of foreigners here for many, many years, but a lot of them have changed overnight,” he reports. “For example, they removed the major requirement to have a local partner or sponsor for any business, the classic 51/49 LLC arrangement. We have had a wonderful relationship with a member of the Maktoum family for the last 20-plus years, and we can now evolve that to a corporate relationship with 100% ownership by Globaleye. It is a natural and timely evolution.”
Getting Personal with Tim Searle
Tim was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1966 and jokes that he “was brought up as a baby lumberjack” for some years there, before moving with the family to the UK at the age of eight, where he stayed there until the end of school days.
He is married with four children aged between 14 and 32, and one granddaughter, aged six. He and his wife have a farm near Tavistock, Devon, that they enjoy when not in the UAE, or travelling elsewhere.
Tim has had two careers, one as a naval officer, the other as an entrepreneur in wealth advisory. “My parents advised me to get a proper job after school, and they put a naval officer's application in front of me, so I filled it in dutifully,” he recalls. “I do not regret it at all, as I enjoyed a wonderful career there. I managed to get through several days of interviews and challenges at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, then joined an intake of nearly 500 trainee officers, and am proud to recall I was one of the 200 who passed muster.”
When Tim passed out of Dartmouth, he was the youngest Lieutenant in the fleet, and went on to his first ‘live’ role as a gunnery officer stationed in Hong Kong. It was there that he met his wife, with whom he has since enjoyed 33 years building a life and family together.
He took early retirement from the Royal Navy in the early 1990s. “Ironically from today’s viewpoint, the iron curtain was then coming down and it seemed at the time we did not have a real military mission anymore,” he reports.
So, as he recalls, it was time for him to move on. By that time, he and his wife already had two young children, and he thought about earning a good living as a stockbroker in London. But the urge to return offshore was still there, and, as luck would have it, he saw an advert for an overseas financial services company, applied, and they sent him to Bahrain.
“And that was when these chapters of my story started,” he says. “That decision led me to where I am today; it is an adventure I would not swap for anything.”
In his spare time, Tim enjoys rugby, and in pre-pandemic times, used to sponsor the Pie & Pint Pilgrims rugby team in the Dubai Sevens tournaments. At home in the UK, he supports Bath Rugby possibly influenced by his friend Graham Dawe (Former Bath Rugby player).
He is also a passionate classic car enthusiast and has a collection of MG and Rolls-Royce cars.
Tim says that as awful as the pandemic has been across the globe, it has also been a time of great achievement for him personally and the business.
“We have a wonderful new office in Dubai, and great new people. From a personal perspective, I have even managed to get fitter, playing more tennis, and also finally found time with less travel to learn Arabic.”
He reports that the three boys all have a financial inclination. Ben, the oldest of the three, worked with Globaleye for a time but is now in fund distribution in Hong Kong, where he lives with his wife and their young daughter. Rupert is now GM at the firm and married recently, and Henry, the youngest, works in Financial Services in London.. “Our daughter is still at school, and may even follow her Dad and brothers into the financial services world!”
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Getting Personal with Rupert Searle
Rupert, the second of Tim’s four children, is now General Manager of Globaleye. He joined the firm in Dubai in 2014 straight from university, and has learned the business, becoming GM in January 2019 after a couple of years running marketing.
Having spent his life between the UK and the UAE, he says he loves the financial markets, offshore financial planning, sustainable investment solutions and financial technology.
Rupert was born in Plymouth, Devon and spent his early years in Dubai before, as he says, “being shipped off” to boarding school at Mount Kelly in Devon. He later attended university in Bristol, earning his BA (Hons) in Business and Management and since moving to Dubai has completed his CII Certificate in Insurance and Financial Services.
“I had initially planned to work in London in wealth management,” he recalls, “but then whilst out in Dubai just after university, I was persuaded by the Globaleye team and others that this was the place to be for the future, both from a career perspective and financially. Well, so far, they have been proved right, and I have been enjoying my time here, and from a personal perspective even managed to get married during lockdown.”
His wife has also instilled in him a love of tennis. “I am rather a late starter in some ways,” he says, “but she really got me into it. She used to be a professional tennis player, and I am aspiring to one day get a few points off her!”
He adds that at times, he has yearned for a more normal type of life setting out on a career in the UK and says he does miss the natural surroundings of the UK countryside and seascapes.
“But Dubai has been getting better and better all the time, with much more to do nowadays and more opportunities” he reports. “It is safe, there is a great lifestyle, and apart from getting extremely hot a few months a year, it is a great place to live and work, especially as there has been a major drive towards liberalisation of rules in recent years.
Founder and Chairman at Globaleye
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