1. Can you tell us about Altum Group’s mission and your role as CEO in shaping the firm’s direction and values?
Altum Group is an independent provider of fund, corporate, and family office solutions. We’ve been established for 25 years, but the last five years have been especially transformative since I stepped into the role of CCO and then CEO, during which time we’ve experienced solid growth.
When I joined, we were a close-knit team of 25 people in a single office, Today, we’re over 200 strong, spread across multiple locations and growing. That growth hasn’t happened by accident. It’s been driven by our ambition to challenge the status quo in our industry. We’re building a firm that’s not only tech-enabled but also deeply human centric.
Our approach is highly client-centric. We’re constantly investing to streamline our processes and elevate the service we deliver. Our priority is always to address our clients’ needs and provide effective solutions.
What really sets us apart is our ownership model: every single employee is a shareholder. That means we’re all in it together and we’re all aligned in our long term sustainable goals. This ownership model leads to higher employee satisfaction, lower staff turnover, and, ultimately, greater client satisfaction. Everyone shares in the success of the business, contributing to record-low levels of client and staff attrition.
Ultimately, my role as CEO is to keep us focused on building a sustainable values-driven business for the long term. Most of our growth has been organic, but we’ve also made some strategic M&A to accelerate our capabilities where necessary, mainly when we couldn’t build a specific product within the timescale we needed.
2. How does Jersey’s financial ecosystem support Altum Group’s operations and enable you to serve international clients effectively?
Jersey has long been well renowned as one of the world’s leading international finance centers. It is know for its stable infrastructure and earned top scores during the MoneyVal assessment, which speaks volumes about the strength of its robust regulatory framework.
The jurisdiction is also well known for its tax neutrality and political independence, which are essential factors for international clients. Equally important is Jersey’s pool of skilled talent and its strong global connectivity.
From a cross-border perspective, Jersey has good bilateral tax agreements with many countries, making it an attractive jurisdiction for structuring international investments. Specifically for the U.S., Jersey serves as an easy gateway for investors looking to access Europe. Structures like the National Private Placement Regime have been particularly popular among U.S. managers seeking efficient routes into European markets.
In short, Jersey gives us the tools, talent, and trust we need to deliver for our clients wherever they are in the world.
3. As a leader in corporate, fund, and private wealth services, what trends are you seeing in demand for alternative assets and cross-border structuring?
We’ve always had a strong presence in real estate, but over time, our portfolio has evolved significantly. Today, we handle private debt and have been expanding into venture capital and emerging asset classes
Lately, we’ve seen increasing interest in sectors like natural capital and biotech, tokenization andTechnology-focused venture capital funds are growing, and we’re also seeing a lot of interest in sustainable finance from our family office clients.
Families are engaging in diverse investments ranging from data and science centers in real estate, to biotech, sustainable fashion brands, and even tokenized projects. The types of structures are becoming more varied, moving beyond traditional closed-ended real estate, private equity, or hedge funds.
Another significant trend is the movement of retail money into alternative assets. We’re seeing this happen more in places like the U.S., and I believe it’s going to be a huge area of growth in the future.
4. What’s the importance of the U.S. market and U.S. clients for Altum Group?
The U.S. is absolutely critical. It’s the largest market globally for fund domiciliation, with many of the big closed-ended private capital players headquartered there. So naturally, it’s a key focus for us.
Interestingly, the U.S. market for closed-ended fund administration is still somewhat behind Europe. In Europe, around 70% of fund administration is outsourced, while in the U.S., it’s only around 50%. The gap presents a real opportunity for firms like Altum Group to support U.S. managers on their outsourcing journeys.
Furthermore, many large U.S. managers have substantial European operations. They appreciate working with service providers who can deliver the same level of service, systems quality, and technology across different jurisdictions. That’s where Altum comes in, we pride ourselves in providing consistent, high-quality services across all our locations, ensuring seamless cross-border support for our clients.
5. Altum operates in six jurisdictions: Jersey, Guernsey, Luxembourg, Ireland, the U.K., and South Africa. Could you tell us more about your international expansion and any plans for further growth?
We started with one office in Jersey, which remains our headquarters. From there, we expanded into Europe and South Africa. South Africa serves as a center of excellence for us, housing much of our technology, finance, and operations teams. It’s proven to be a fantastic location for building strong technical capabilities.
Our main focus has been gaining market share in Europe, particularly in London, Luxembourg, and Dublin. We recently acquired a pure fund administration business in Guernsey, which strengthened our footprint there and added valuable expertise to our offering.
We also have a growing number of clients in the Middle East and are actively exploring further expansion into that region.
The U.S. remains a big opportunity for us. While we already serve many U.S.-based clients, we don’t yet have physical offices in the U.S. That said, we’re dedicating significant effort and resources to raise our brand profile and relationships in the U.S.For us, the U.S. offers opportunities both on the fund administration side and in the family office space, which we believe will become increasingly important for our next phase of growth.
6. Technology is transforming the professional services sector. How is Altum using digital innovation to enhance service delivery and client engagement?
Technology is at the heart of how we improve speed, efficiency, and client experience. But it all starts with having a solid foundation, robust infrastructure and clean, integrated data.
At Altum, because we were still relatively small when we began this transformation, we were able to implement a completely new infrastructure. We moved everything to the cloud, ensuring our systems are SaaS-enabled and fully integrated for seamless data flow.
We’ve digitalised many of our processes. That enables us to start leveraging AI for tasks that, while essential, are time-consuming, things like minute-taking, automating payments, and generating invoices. We’re also developing our own proprietary workflow tool called Pulse. In the uture, we’ll roll this out to clients as a secure repository, giving them real-time access to data and the ability to submit requests directly through the platform.
AI is another area we’re actively exploring. We use Microsoft’s CoPilot across the firm and are running case studies to identify how we can deploy it more broadly.
We’ve also established an innovation committee and hired experts, which I believe will be key for the future. I think our industry will start employing more data scientists and fewer traditional accountants as the technology continues to evolve.
7. How are ESG factors and sustainability influencing the services you provide and your clients’ expectations?
ESG is becoming increasingly significant, though its importance varies depending on the client and their investment philosophy. For us as a firm, ESG is a core priority. We recently won an award from Jersey Finance recognising our ESG credentials, which was a proud moment for Altum Group. We’ve developed a defined ESG strategy, which even extends to evaluating the types of clients we work with, ensuring that they’re investing ethically and sustainably.
From a service standpoint, we ensure we can support clients with the reporting and compliance requirements associated with ESG investing. We have the systems in place to perform necessary checks and produce relevant reports. However, it’s worth noting that ESG standards are not yet uniform across the industry. For some clients, ESG is central to everything they do, while for others, it’s a lower priority. So, our services in this area are always tailored to each client’s specific needs.
8. Finally, could you share a message for Newsweek readers about Jersey’s global relevance and Altum Group’s vision for the future of financial services?
Jersey is a safe bet. It’s a tried and tested jurisdiction with over 60 years of experience as a global financial center. Its stability is a huge asset, particularly in today’s complex macroeconomic environment.
As for Altum, we’re already working extensively with U.S. clients, offering proactive solutions for their cross-border needs, whether that’s supporting them in Europe or back in the U.S.
Our client-centric approach, combined with our stability, industry leading low staff and client turnover, and tech-enabled service model, is why we’re gaining market share. We’re committed to innovating and growing sustainably, with a long-term vision that puts people and excellence at the center of everything we do.
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