Why 2026 is the time to focus on the client relationship  | Guest insight from Hoxton Wealth CEO, Chris Ball

Financial advisers need to focus on the client relationship in 2026 whilst not turning their backs on the benefits of AI, says Hoxton Wealth CEO, Chris Ball.

Financial advisers in 2026 need to focus even more on their client relationships, particularly as AI is likely to increase in usage in the financial planning sector bringing threats and opportunities along with it.

That’s the message from Chris Ball, CEO of financial advisory firm Hoxton Wealth,

“The momentum that AI has gathered and will continue to gather within the financial planning sector reinforces the importance of the client relationship,” says Ball.

“It’s the one thing that AI can’t effectively replace, which is why developing and nurturing those relationships is going to set the best planners aside from the others.”

Not that Ball thinks the increasing role of AI in 2026 is a bad thing. “We are going to see significant impacts from AI this year,” he continues. “Some will say it’s a bad thing, but, in my view, we should be embracing AI. It’s here and anyone would be stupid to ignore it, if you aren’t embracing it, you’re in for a tough time.”

In terms of how it can help financial planners, Ball continues: “There are positives, the technology is getting better and cheaper. We know we can use AI to make us more efficient, whether that’s note takers feeding into CRM systems, creating suitability reports, compliance checking files, assisting with training and monitoring – the list goes on and on. You can even use the tech to personalise what you put out based on the exact requirements of each client and their portfolio with a personalised daily market update. But you also need to understand that the AI is only as good as the data that goes into it. So, everyone’s realising now that they need to get their data in order so that it can be read and get these individual insights. The art of the possible is only becoming bigger and it’s exciting.”

In terms of geopolitics and its impact on financial planning, Ball sees 2026 as an interesting one for the markets.

“In 2025, we had a dip in the markets early on in April following the Trump ‘liberation day’ tariffs, but since then the markets have been on a relatively steady upward trajectory,” he says.

“I look at it and think it surely has to end at some point, even though there are signs still suggesting it won’t. So, from an adviser’s point of view, if we do see markets dip off this year, that will hit revenues, and, from a client’s point of view, if they’re planning retirement or something else, as advisers we need to make sure we help them line that up.”

2026, adds Ball, also feels a little uncertain because it’s hard to foresee, with any degree of confidence, anything that you can be sure is going to happen.  

“The message is to brace yourself for unpredictability. And that doesn’t necessarily mean be cautious. The problem with saying be cautious is suggesting that people are best off sitting in cash. But the opportunity cost of doing something like that can be massive. At the start of 2025 with all the tariffs, a client could have just sat there and said don’t do anything because we don’t know what’s going to happen. Obviously, hindsight is great but, at various points during the year, people have looked at their situations in that context and felt it had to bottom out, but it didn’t. It just kept going. That’s the problem with being overly cautious. The caveat to all of this is that if someone does have any immediate or near-term cash requirements, they should be careful and park those funds so if there is volatility they are not having to sell at a loss. But if they don’t, they should consider being invested.

And that, Ball concludes, is where the role of the financial adviser is even more important. 

To really bring home that point, Ball said: “The Vanguard Adviser’s Alpha study suggests that an adviser will add 3% per annum or roughly that over the long term on a client’s portfolio versus not having one, with 1.5% of that  being attributed to behavioural coaching during these unpredictable times. This is where advisers add such value, because most people would have panicked. They’d be thinking…Trump’s in and he’s already done tariffs, Goodness knows else what he’s going to do, let’s just sit in cash and hang it out. Well, they’d be 20% down year on year compared to if they had stayed invested in the markets.”

As Chris highlights here, with so much uncertainty set to challenge advisers throughout 2026, be that from the geopolitical environment, changing economic and market conditions, the dominance of the Mag7, the climate crisis as well as a host of other factors, one thing seems certain. And that is that, for clients,  the importance of having robust financial planning advice from a trusted professional has never been more crucial.

About Chris Ball

Chris started his career in 2004 with KPMG LLP as a Tax Adviser specialising in personal taxation issues relating to investment income and pensions. Chris trained at the KPMG Tax Business School in Canary Wharf for his Chartered Accounting and Chartered Taxation Adviser exams.

After 7 years with KPMG, Chris moved to the Middle East to join the deVere Group, where he continued his work as an IFA, starting in their Abu Dhabi offices and eventually heading up the Qatar operations for the group dealing with HNW and UHNW individuals.

Chris then transitioned and founded Hoxton Wealth (then called Hoxton Capital Management) with Matt Dean; where the sole emphasis of the group is to help HNW and UHNW clients with borderless global financial advice. Chris’ speciality is assisting individuals with their retirement planning needs.