It’s big news from boosst HQ.
Read on for a full picture of what this transition means for you and for us…
Placing our independence & values first
boosst has thrived since its inception as a family-owned business. An unwavering focus on ‘doing the right thing for the right people’ has proved to be a strong base for building a people-focused business.
While continuing our pathway of family ownership was a perfectly viable route, it is important to Josh, Linda and Keith that boosst exists for as long as it possibly can. Passing ownership to Josh would have only handed on the baton for the next 25 years, and hoped that the following recipient maintained the same values. By moving to employee ownership, the family has secured true longevity for the business and the values they hold dear.
Our profession is one where acquirers are always lurking, and we receive dozens of offers from third parties wanting to buy boosst every year. Selling our team and clients to an external entity would never sit right for the family. While selling to a third party remains a common route in the marketplace for retiring advisers, it would simply not fit our culture.
A transition to employee ownership means that our culture and values are preserved, with the same people making the decisions on how the business is run. No change at the top and no third-party shareholders to answer to means we can remain committed to delivering an authentic boosst experience.
What does this mean for Keith, Linda and Josh?
The business has been valued, and they will receive the current market value over years to come. Importantly, they have not asked the valuer to take possible valuation enhancements into account, or the business to take on expensive third-party debt to achieve this transition.
Keith and Linda are in the wonderful position that work is a choice – and the business is strong enough to give them both that flexibility. They have enjoyed 100-days holiday allowance for several years, meaning the team is used to operating without them, and they are well versed on phased retirement. They both have the freedom to fully retire at any time, thanks to the team we have built. Although, as someone who knows Keith, you will appreciate he is too passionate to go anywhere for the foreseeable!
Although we avoid using the title of Managing Director, this is effectively the role that Josh has been undertaking and will continue to do so. Josh also takes on some new responsibilities with this change and will be issued share options to reward his long-term personal and financial commitment to the business. In sporting terms, Josh is committed to being a ‘One-Club Man’.
Josh and Gabby will continue serving their existing client families, supporting new clients that you introduce and developing our other financial planners and team members.
What has been the route to get here?
When we moved into our custom-built office on the 1st of September 2019, Keith made a 5-year commitment to Josh that he would continue working through that period. Here we are 5 years later, and that commitment has been served. Keith will continue to work for as long as he continues to enjoy it and maintains the knowledge to positively impact those clients he advises.
It has been a brilliant period of growth for boosst leading up to this transition. Keith and Josh began to explore routes for the transition in 2022 and after exploring all avenues, decided that transitioning to make our team the beneficial owners through an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) ticks all the boxes.
This transition is enabled by a long series of sensible decisions and building blocks that have laid the road to get here.
To name a few:
- A relentless focus on our client experience
- Offering a range of service levels to add value for all generations of our client families
- Investing in our people and growing the boosst culture
- Developing trainees with our award-winning development pathway ‘bright to boosst’
- Testing ourselves against the wider profession to validate our beliefs – entering and winning the Accredited Financial Planning Firm of the Year award
- Building our eco office to secure our infrastructure and a wonderful location to work and visit
- Implementing leadership training to identify and develop our future leaders
This transition is the next step of an intentional pathway to create a business that ‘thinks infinitely’.
What is ‘infinite thinking’?
Josh describes it as follows:
We talk about moving to employee ownership as ‘going infinite’.
Our beloved rugby is a ‘finite’ game played over a set period of time, with an agreed scoring system adjudicated by a referee. Our leadership team prescribe to Simon Sinek’s school of thought that running a business is an ‘infinite’ game and has none of those features.
We have been readying ourselves to become an infinite entity operating for the very long term, but the question of “who takes over after Josh?” was an unknown. Our team recognised this earlier in 2024 when we did an internal inspection of our core values, and no doubt some of you may have wondered too.
By transitioning to employee ownership, although individuals will come and go as they join, retrain or retire, the Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) structure continues forever, operating for the benefit of the employees of the day.
This enables us to think infinitely and make decisions with an infinite mentality. To succeed in an infinite game, you must shift the focus from “winning” every quarter to building a resilient organisation that can perform and endure over many decades. We are less interested in “what is important over the next three months?” but very focused on “what do we need to do today to ensure we are stronger in generations to come?”.
As a boosst client, you no longer need to rely on good faith that we will be here to support your whole journey – we are now structured to outlast you!
We are thrilled to be among the few financial planning firms to undertake this journey and look forward to a stronger way forward together!
We have put together an FAQ section below to answer some of the questions you may have about this change and how it will benefit you.
We look forward to seeing you soon…
The boosst team
FAQ’s
What is an Employee Ownership Trust?
In an EOT, all or the majority of the shares in a company are owned by the people who work there. Rather than holding shares directly, employees become beneficiaries of a Trust, which buys and holds the shares on their behalf and for their benefit.
Modelled on the John Lewis style of partnership, EOTs have been around since 2014. Today, there are over 1,650 EOTs in the UK, including Riverford Organics, Aardman Animations and Richer Sounds.
How does an EOT work?
An EOT is a separate legal entity that acquires most or all of a company’s shares from the current owners. In the case of boosst, the founding family decided to transfer 100% of the shares to the Trust, which now holds these shares for the benefit of employees who have been with the company for more than twelve months.
So, who owns boosst now?
boosst is now wholly owned by our EOT. Josh and Jennie will receive share options as a reward for their long-term commitment and contribution to boosst’s ongoing success. Further share options may be issued as future leaders step forward and contribute to our success.
Will boosst be run differently?
No, boosst will continue to operate as it always has. This is a change to our ownership structure, not the management. Our leadership team remains at the helm, ensuring continuity. The primary difference is that the leadership team now reports to the Trust, which functions like a majority shareholder, ensuring the company’s performance aligns with the Trust’s goals. Keith, who has been instrumental in overseeing and leading the company, is one of the Trustees, maintaining business as usual.
Are boosst team members now part-owners?
Not exactly. Employees do not have direct ownership and won’t see any changes to their contracts. Instead, they are beneficiaries of the Trust. If an employee leaves, they cease to be a Trust beneficiary. New employees will join the Trust after one year of service. Eligible team members can potentially receive benefits like tax-free bonuses and profit distributions in the future. The greatest single benefit for team members is the certainty that they will never be absorbed into a consolidator while the shareholders of the day reap all the benefit.
Why did we go with an EOT?
Over the years, Keith, Josh, Jennie, and the wider team have dedicated themselves to building boosst into the strong,independent business it is today. This transition is the next phase of that journey.
An easy path to financial security would be to sell to a third party, but the last thing we wanted was to risk losing our ‘heart’ and client-focused mission by being absorbed into something bigger (and most likely more expensive for you and less pleasant for the team). By moving to an employee ownership model, we remain independent and protect the boosst we know and love for the benefit of clients and team members alike.
With this route, the day-to-day management and future strategic plans for the company remain in our hands. It also allows us to share the rewards of our hard work with the entire team, along with some beneficial tax advantages.
What are the benefits for clients?
For us, client experience is everything, so we would never have taken any decision that didn’t benefit you – the people we’re here to serve.
Here are four reasons why we’re confident that this is great news for you:
1) Continuity
Our culture and values are preserved, with the same people making the decisions on how the business is run. No change at the top means we can remain committed to the best client experience possible, including maintaining face-to-face, long-term relationships and adding value through innovations that further improve client outcomes.
2) Longevity
This transition allows us to stay independent, avoiding the pressure to ever sell to a third party in the future, even as each future generation of senior management retires.
3) Productivity
Employee-owned businesses are generally more productive workplaces as team members work collaboratively and are directly motivated to help the business succeed. Our people are here because they already share our core values, but this helps to ensure our team is 100% aligned with our clients’ long-term interests.
4) A safe pair of hands
For some people, the idea of referring a friend or family member carries the small risks of “what if they don’t get on?” and “what if they do a bad job?”. Question one has never been a problem for our super-friendly team, so long as the friend/family member is also lovely! Question two now looks more certain than ever, considering that the usual way this falls down in financial services is if you sign up for one business only for them to sell you onwards. If you’ve worked with a previous adviser and have been ‘sold’, you know only too well how this feels.
We’ve always had an excellent answer to succession, with Josh playing a key role in the business – and now we have the best possible answer.