Freelance 'Household Accounts Advisor'?

pinionsmike

Hi all,

I'm not sure if this is the right forum and it's my first post across all forums.

I currently work in finance and I've been considering on the side doing some work helping individuals with household accounting.

I can't seem to find any advice on the internet - the closest thing is along the lines of an IFA but this isn't what I have in mind at all (at least not in terms of selling financial products etc).

I would be helping with budgets, forecasts, keeping track of bank balances, debt advice, income tax overpayment refunds etc. and possibly also offering general advice (rather than product specific) on things such as savings account and mortgages.

To pursue this route are there any regulation requirements I would have to contend with? What would I actually call myself? (IFA would be misleading) Has anyone else tried this before and what can they tell me from their experiences?

Thank you in advance

MothballsWallet

Have you tried contacting the FSA for advice? This page may help, as well as the main FSA website.

If you're going to be working with vulnerable people, you may also have to get CRB-checked too.

Hope that helps, and it sounds like a good idea to me - perhaps working through local community centres/colleges or libraries as well?

tyllwyd

My guess is that the biggest problem would be getting paid - if people are struggling with household budgets and need advice, they aren't likely to have a lot of cash spare. What would you charge per hour? How many hours of your time do you think a client would need per month?

payless

I would be helping with budgets, forecasts, keeping track of bank balances, debt advice, income tax overpayment refunds etc. and possibly also offering general advice (rather than product specific) on things such as savings account and mortgages

http://www.oft.gov.uk/OFTwork/credit-licensing/

PLUS possibly FSA (+ FOS, FSCS ) for mortgage work- ( depends what you do)

Might then lead to needing PI cover

pinionsmike

Thanks for the advice all

My initial consideration was with tyllwyd's point about getting paid - I figured I would go back to that after looking further into the feasibility of the idea as a whole. After all - no point setting prices if there are too many barriers to entry to begin with.

But given mothball's and payless' points, it looks as though this would be more difficult than I initially thought, especially as I would definately need credit licensing and possibly need FSA authorisation. It could take a long time just to break even on the cost of the credit licence alone.

My initial thought with this was to do it a few hours in the evenings or on weekends as an addition to the day job but given the licensing & compliance costs alone - I'll go back to the drawing board lol