Fox & Hare are a new breed of financial adviser.
Based in Sydney’s Hub Hyde Park, the pair believe that everyone can use financial advice to help them achieve their life goals as well as saving for retirement, rather than one or the other.
In an industry with a reputation for strict rules and budgets, Jessica Brady and Glen Hare provide customised plans for people from all walks of life.
What motivated you and Glen to start Fox & Hare?
Glen and I both worked at Macquarie Bank together, and we spent a lot of time together, better understanding the financial advice world.
We realised no one was working with clients like us, or helping solve the problems of our peers. We felt there was a big opportunity to help younger people who didn’t know where to go.
I worked in finance in my early twenties, but before then I hadn’t really given it a lot of thought.
I made some silly finance decisions and got to a point where I decided to actually study financial planning – I knew if I wanted to get to where I want then I need to fix some of the stuff I have created.
What do you want your clients to get from your services?
Fox & Hare aren’t the same as the financial advisers of yesteryear, who were likely working for an agent or a bank selling insurance.
They’re more into retirement planning and superannuation – even though we help with retirement planning we’re more interested in helping you reach your goals.
If you want to travel every year, how do we make sure you’ve got a budget to do that? How do you buy your first house? It’s a different conversation to ‘how do we boost your retirement?’.
You need to live.
There’s a misconception that financial advisers are going to make you have a budget where you don’t get to do anything fun – that’s not our belief at all!
We spend time understanding what’s really important to clients because at the end of the day, what’s important is different to everyone, and if I don’t understand what drives and motivates you, you’re going to have a plan that’s not right for you and you won’t stick to it. I’m a believer in practising what I preach.
It’s about balancing your short and medium-term goals and then keep planning for long-term finance stuff as well.
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What do you like about being part of Hub?
We love Hub!
First and foremost, it’s a community! Having left a big corporate environment like a bank, it would be so easy to become isolated.
As a two-person business, in Hub Hyde Park we have access to so many different people and interesting businesses that are so different from what we do – it means we can leverage their insights and intel.
One of the businesses here is a medical recruitment business, and we’ve become wonderful friends. We’ll find people in the community often send things to us and say ‘hey, this is something we’re using in our business, you should check it out!’.
The fact that we’re able to collaborate, when we would have never had access otherwise, is wonderful. And you can feel the community here – it’s amazing.
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Our clients come to Hub and I really think it speaks to our brand – it’s got beautiful spaces, everything is high tech, everything just works.
Hub is an extension of how we want our brand to be.
That was really important for us when we were looking at office spaces – we wanted to make sure our clients would walk in and go ‘wow’. Client experience is definitely the aim.
We’re about to hire our first staff member, which is a big sign of growth.
As someone hiring, it’s awesome to say that by working in this location, you’re going to get great perks I could never offer were we operating out of a home office.
In my job ad for our new staff member I listed all the cool things that they get – there’s an onsite gym, towel service, events and weekly community hangouts. All in a 2-person office!
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What do you wish more people would ask you?
I just wish more people would give a sh*t about really important financial things – like getting their finance world sorted.
I totally get it, no one cares about their Super cos it’s so far away, and no one thinks they need insurance until the worst happens – but you have to care because it’s your future!
If you want to work alongside amazing growing businesses like Fox & Hare, book your tour at a Hub Australia location near you today.
