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If you run an Accountancy Practice, you already know your clients better than almost anyone.
You know what they earn, what they owe, what keeps them up at night. But there’s one part of their financial lives that most Accountants don’t advise on directly – and it can sometimes leave client needs unmet.
Accountants are trusted advisers. Your clients come to you for tax returns, year-end accounts, business planning and financial clarity. That trust is hard-won and deeply valued.
But when a client asks “should I be paying more into my pension?” or “what should I do with this inheritance?” most Accountants have to step back. It’s not your specialism, and rightly so. Regulated Financial Advice sits outside the scope of what you do.
The challenge is that, without the right support in place, important Financial Planning opportunities can sometimes be missed.
Without a trusted Financial Adviser in the picture, your clients may end up taking advice from someone who doesn’t know them, doesn’t understand their tax position, and has no relationship with you. That may not always lead to the most holistic outcome for the client and can sometimes make it harder to maintain the collaborative relationship you’ve built over many years.
Here’s a scenario that plays out more often than most Accountants realise.
A long-standing client, a business owner in their mid-fifties, is approaching a significant liquidity event. They’re selling a stake in the business. The proceeds are substantial. They need advice on Pension Contributions, Capital Gains Tax planning, Investments and Inheritance Tax.
If they find their own Financial Adviser, that adviser builds a relationship with your client independently of you. Over time, that adviser may become another trusted voice to your client, reducing the opportunity for you to remain at the centre of wider financial discussions.
The most effective model we’ve seen, and one that can help strengthen client relationships, is what we call the triangle approach.
It’s simple: the client sits at the top. The Accountant and the Financial Adviser sit at the base, working in close collaboration to deliver holistic, complementary advice.
In this model, there’s no duplication, no crossed wires and no competition for the client relationship. The Accountant continues to own the tax and compliance work. The Financial Adviser handles regulated Financial Planning. And together, the strategies align – pension contributions optimised against tax position, investment decisions made with full awareness of the client’s business structure, Inheritance Tax planning approached holistically.
For clients, it can lead to more joined-up financial decision-making. For Accountants, it can help strengthen long-term client relationships. A client who receives this advice through their Accountant is more likely to benefit from a consistent and coordinated experience.
One of the most underappreciated aspects of an Accountancy Partnership is the breadth of referral opportunity it creates.
The Partners, Directors and high-net-worth individuals within your client base who need personal Financial Planning – Pensions, Investments, Protection, Estate Planning.
These are often your most established relationships, and the ones with the most complex needs.
For Accountants with an SME client base, there’s a parallel opportunity in the workplace. Business Owners who employ staff often need support with Employee Benefits, Workplace Pension Schemes and Salary Sacrifice arrangements.
They may also benefit from advice on Business Protection, including Key Person Protection and Shareholder Protection, helping safeguard business value and continuity should the unexpected happen. A Financial Planning Partner with a strong workplace proposition can extend your value to business clients beyond their personal finances.
In practice, this means a single Accountancy Partnership can generate two distinct referral streams and deliver meaningful value to a wider range of your clients.
Not all Financial Planning partnerships are the same. The right Partner should complement the service you already provide, helping your clients access specialist support while allowing you to remain at the centre of the relationship.
At Wren Sterling, partnerships with Accountancy Practices are at the heart of how we’ve grown. Several of our Adviser Teams were established directly through acquisitions of accountancy firms, creating relationships built on years of trust and collaboration. We understand the important role Accountants play in their clients’ lives and work as an extension of that trusted adviser network.
When evaluating a potential Partner, look for a firm that:
While client outcomes should always come first, there can also be commercial benefits to having a formal partnership in place.
A structured referral partnership with a regulated Financial Planning firm can generate an additional income stream for your practice. When you refer a client for Financial Advice, and that advice is delivered well, there is typically a commercial arrangement in place that recognises the value of that introduction.
Depending on the partnership structure, this can create an additional revenue stream without increasing your regulatory responsibilities.
The question isn’t necessarily whether some of your clients would benefit from Financial Planning advice, but how they access it. Do they access that support through a trusted partnership that complements your service, or elsewhere without the benefit of a collaborative approach?
Closing the adviser gap doesn’t require a complex new proposition. It starts with a conversation.
If you’d like to explore what a partnership with Wren Sterling could look like for your practice, please get in touch.
Important Note:
This is for information only and does not constitute advice.
The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate tax advice, Estate Planning and IHT Planning.
