Retail Investors Decoded

“ETFs aren’t Harry Potter,” says Hector McNeil. “There’s nothing magic about them.” The edge comes from what you put inside it and being fast enough to get there first.

McNeil has done that four times over. He co-invented the world’s first gold ETF and built the first ETC in Europe. Today he’s co-founder and co-CEO of HANetf, Europe’s leading white-label ETF platform, home to 33 brands, roughly a fifth of all European ETF issuers, and $9bn AUM. 

He joins Carl to unpack: 

- Why “sea of sameness” pricing means innovation, not fees, decides which ETF wins
- How white labeling gets a product to market in 10 weeks instead of iShares' multi-year head start 
- The “wagon circle” strategy for surviving alongside BlackRock and Vanguard 
- Why Germany’s 9.5 million ETF savings plans signal where retail investing is headed 
- The wildest ETF filings on Hector’s radar, from Grifter ETFs to a fund betting on alien technology

CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction 
0:51 Why it's HANetf, not NANetf 
2:19 25 years in ETFs, from the London Stock Exchange to the first gold ETF 
8:19 The "ETF black hole" theory 
13:13 Solving the "sea of sameness" 
16:52 Why white labeling beats building from scratch 
22:20 The wagon-circle defence against BlackRock and Vanguard 
25:20 Germany's 9.5 million ETF savings plans 
28:13 Legacy mutual funds vs. the ETF future 
32:37 Grifters, aliens, and the Yorkshire farmer's wheat trade 
38:42 Where to find HANetf

LINKS 

HANetf: https://www.hanetf.com 
Hector McNeil: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hector-mcneil/ 

Talk to Finimize about how we can help you reach modern retail investors: https://finimize.com/business 

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A great narrative wins attention. It can't save a bad product and, since the first meme stock wave, retail investors know how to check.

Katie Perry grew Public.com's user base from 10,000 to millions through the pandemic and the GameStop era, has interviewed over 100 CEOs and CFOs on their retail investor strategy, and has just published her first book, Ticker Shock, on how retail investors are reshaping the capital markets. She's now CMO of Zero Hash, the digital asset infrastructure company helping TradFi firms bolt on crypto capabilities.

She joins Carl Hazeley to unpack:
Why a great narrative wins attention but can't save a bad product
How "finfluencer" became a dirty word, and who's actually doing financial content right
The hidden double standard in the push for "authentic" CEO brands
Why blue-chip companies are running investor relations with three people
Why crypto conferences now look more corporate than Wall Street

CHAPTERS

0:00 Introduction
0:49 Why Katie wrote Ticker Shock
3:30 Navigating the fragmented media landscape
5:20 Closing the gap between institutional and retail messaging
9:48 Can a great narrative save a bad product?
14:06 The IR team size problem
18:50 How to audit your retail investor strategy
20:42 The "be more like Alex Karp" trap
21:31 Finfluencers vs. financial creators
23:47 What TradFi can learn from crypto (and vice versa)
27:32 IPOs as consumer marketing events
30:39 Diversity and the "authentic CEO" double standard
35:42 The Vlad Tenev / Trillionaire Mindset story
39:10 Where to find Katie and Ticker Shock

LINKS
Ticker Shock: https://www.tickershockbook.com/ 
Katie Perry: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherineperry/ 
Zero Hash: https://zerohash.com/ 

Talk to Finimize about how we can help you reach modern retail investors: https://finimize.com/business 

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This week on Retail Investors Decoded: Carl is joined by Brian Byrnes, Director of Personal Finance at Moneybox, as the platform approaches its 10-year anniversary with £23 billion in assets and 1.9 million customers.

This episode gets into why traditional pension marketing turns customers off, the Moneybox manifesto that never mentions products by name, and why personalized guidance, not just access, is the sweet spot for retail investing.

Talk to Finimize about how we can help you reach modern retail investors: https://finimize.com/business 

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Finimize Q3 2026 Modern Investor Pulse surveys nearly 3,000 investors worldwide on what they're thinking and how they’re behaving right now. In a bonus episode of Retail Investors Decoded, Carl is joined by Fraser Munro, head of partnerships, to break down what it all means for platforms, issuers and asset managers.

In this episode:
Why 41% of investors now use AI weekly for research, and why a conversation with a friend starts more investing journeys than talking to a chatbot
Why 70% of investors think markets will be higher in 12 months, and how they're turning to ETFs and baskets during geopolitical volatility
The knowledge gaps in derivatives, ETFs and crypto retail investors say they want help closing
The Vanguard finding that 82% of people think saving and investing are fundamentally different activities
Why publishing content isn’t the same as reach, and what that means for educating UK investors

Subscribe to Retail Investors Decoded for more conversations on what’s moving retail investors.

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Why do so many people have pensions, but so few think of themselves as investors?

This episode, Carl sits down with Maike Currie, VP of Personal Finance at PensionBee, former Investors' Chronicle journalist and one of the UK's leading voices on pensions and financial education. They explore why Britain's investing problem starts long before someone opens an ISA, and what the industry, employers and government need to do differently.

They get into:

Why the gender pension gap is twice the size of the gender pay gap
How pensions could become Britain's gateway to investing
Why financial firms are competing with Netflix, not each other, for attention
The role of finfluencers, friction and trust in getting more people invested

Talk to Finimize about how we can help you reach modern retail investors: https://finimize.com/business 

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Britain has made investing cheaper and easier than ever, yet it still sits at the bottom of the G7 for retail participation. Why?

Carl Hazeley sits down with Richard Flynn, MD of Charles Schwab UK. With $13 trillion in assets, 39 million accounts and a history stretching back to 1971, Schwab has spent decades lowering the barriers to investing. As Richard argues, the challenge now is moving people from simply participating in the market to actively engaging with it.

They get into:
Why incentivising people beats trying to compel them (and the Aesop's fable that explains it)
The stark AI adoption gap between younger and older investors
Stamp duty and the policy levers that could get Britain investing
Why financial literacy belongs on the curriculum

Talk to Finimize about how we can help you reach modern retail investors: https://finimize.com/business 

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It’s rare to meet an Emmy-winner in finance. And Theresa McLaughlin has one for good reason. 

From leading viral campaigns that redefined banking to transforming TD Bank into Canada’s most valuable brand, Theresa’s track record speaks for itself. 

She joins Max in the studio and shares how she champions a "B to H" (Business to Human) approach, which metrics are front and center on her dashboard, how she secures C-suite buy-in, and manages an 800-person team with a $500M marketing budget. 

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Time and time again, marketers get stuck in the same dilemma. How do I really show ROI for my marketing spend? 

Today, Max is joined by Natwest CMO Margaret Jobling, who shares her powerful blueprint for maximizing ROI through a balance of brand building, performance, and experimentation. 

With a career spanning iconic brands like Cadbury’s, British Gas, and Bird’s Eye, Margaret reveals how to break free from “rearview” marketing, and drive real business impact.

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Imagine being handed a million pounds to develop a groundbreaking idea—but you can’t get your client to see its value. Is it their fault? Or does the responsibility fall on how you tell the story? Today, Max sits down with Nils Leonard, co-founder of one of the hottest creative agencies on the planet, Uncommon.

Nils has led viral campaigns for brands like British Airways, Nike, Monzo, and EA Sports, earning multiple Grand Prix Awards at Cannes Lions along the way. 

Max and Nils break down what separates the meaningful from the mediocre and why finance needs creativity now more than ever.

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Adam Nash is one of the most influential leaders in fintech. As the former President and CEO of Wealthfront, he scaled assets under management from $100 million to over $4 billion. He's also held pivotal roles at top Silicon Valley companies like Apple, eBay, LinkedIn, and Dropbox. Right now, Adam's leading his latest venture, Daffy, a start-up democratizing charitable giving.

Today, Adam and Max talk about the true meaning of trust in the world of finance, Adam’s biggest lesson from working with Steve Jobs, and why product leadership is so critical to delighting your customers.

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https://www.daffy.org/