Financial advisor with accountant knowledge?

heidiann

I run my own freelance business (limited company) and because the income is quite sporadic, I find it very hard to keep on top of planning for future saving and paying taxes at the end of the year.

So I really would like to find someone who can help me do all the calculations for what I will pay in taxes for both my company and myself and who also can help w/personal finances (basic budgeting) where at any given point in the year, I will know where I stand financially and what's to come.

I have an accountant but he's a poor communicator and doesn't seem interested in helping me to set up some sort of document to do this. I also don't want to do it alone b/c I'm don't trust i'd be doing it correctly.

Where might I find someone who could help with my finances both from a personal budgeting point of view and also from a business accounting point of view? Could a financial advisor do all of this?

Thanks in advance!

jonesMUFCforever

If you are not happy with your accountant - get another one.
Any of your business contacts with any suggestions?

dunstonh

Accountants and financial advisers do different things.

Accountants tend to look at what has happened. Financial advisers plan for the future.

agrinnall

Look here.



https://www.unbiased.co.uk/

Anthorn

dunstonh wrote: »

Accountants and financial advisers do different things.

Accountants tend to look at what has happened. Financial advisers plan for the future.

Notwithstanding that accountants do sometimes provide financial advice as do for example solicitors.

But in order to provide financial advice don't they also need some knowledge of accountancy or at least access to an associate with such knowledge? It's not simply for example "put your money here to get the best return". There are also such things as for example tax to consider.

Similar to for example holistic medicine, financial advice should treat the whole person, not just one aspect of it.

eskbanker

Anthorn wrote: »

Similar to for example holistic medicine, financial advice should treat the whole person, not just one aspect of it.

But like mainstream medicine, it should always be recognised that there are many different specialisms and that they aren't interchangeable - I don't know about you but I wouldn't want to be surgically operated on by, say, an A&E nurse and wouldn't expect to find, say, an anaesthetist in my local GP practice!

Of course there may be people who'd consider themselves to be jack of all trades and master of none, but the overlap between genuine financial advice (in the sense of the rightly regulated activities) and accountancy services (again undertaken by properly-qualified practitioners) is marginal at best, even though both could be argued to be providing advice-related services within (different segments of) the same broad industry....

Super_Whiskey

Get a new accountant who will. If they or someone in their office has the time then they can put together a cashflow forecast for you based on a bit of information. It'd all be chargeable for them!

dunstonh

Notwithstanding that accountants do sometimes provide financial advice as do for example solicitors.

But it won't be the solicitor or the accountant that provides the advice. Those days are gone. They will have an IFA in-house.

But in order to provide financial advice don't they also need some knowledge of accountancy or at least access to an associate with such knowledge?

The IFA will have tax knowledge in the areas they need to know about. Usually to a higher level than an accountant. But it will be in just the areas that the IFA is involved with.

It's not simply for example "put your money here to get the best return". There are also such things as for example tax to consider.

Correct. An IFA would know that and an accountant is unlikely to. Indeed, just last week I had a "discussion" with an accountant who was clueless about pensions and their "suggestion" was conflicting with my advice and would have resulted in more tax than my solution. The accountant was just out-of-date in the whole area.

As mentioned higher on the thread, there are not many areas of overlap.

peterbaker

When you are told there is very little overlap, it doesn't mean that the skills can't overlap - multiskilling is the secret to niche business in financial services. The fact is that too many advisors get away with making your square peg needs fit their standard round holes by getting you to let them shed all the awkward corners and take them home again with you to to try your luck elsewhere yourself if you still feel the need and aren't already exhausted!

You would think that the more enlightened among them would have a network of contacts that they could recommend so that services from an accountant and a financial advisor would compliment each other instead of knock each other ...

Another pensions example might be QROPS. Most UK financial advisors shy from it as it may be full of pitfalls and scammers alike. If any specialist firm dares stick its head above the parapet, it is almost impossible to assess whether they are experts in a niche field or up to no good. UK pensions advisors again seem more inclined to knock anything they see as a non-standard requirement rather than advise or recommend how to engage with it. I'd argue that might be an "out of date" approach by financial advisors.

There is of course the professional indemnity insurance problem which perhaps discourages any financial advice or service firm from areas of crossover - the insurers need to package and stream their books of PI business in standard ways to satisfy reinsurers, I guess. Any niche crossover advisory business or service might well suddenly find themselves having to pay non-standard insurance premiums as soon as they declare something that seems to cross between what underwriters would see as distinct professional boundaries - think dentistry and brain surgery, which might well attract different PI treatments unless the more modern needles start getting even longer!

Then there is the sticky problem of perhaps having to satisfy more than one regulator.

It is a problem which even the largest accountancy firms (which generally dwarf the largest IFA firms) seem to find problematic at times. Even they are not really looking to create such niches, and at best will simply retain a few specialists such that they can choose to respond if asked.

The one-stop shop which you seek may in fact only exist at the likes of PwC, and they might usually only provide such a service as accommodation business for their largest international corporate clients when those clients introduce you as someone the big influential client values, and whom they wish to relieve of your pesky time-consuming tax optimisation distractions to their core business and yours.

I've been privy to discussions of a very good example just recently that involves two or three specialists within PwC working together (almost!) seamlessly to that end, but only because a very very big corporate sponsor laid it on/funded it to free up a supplier resource for their own core purposes!