What can a financial advisor help you with to complement the services of your accountant?

Overview 

We have another blog from our wonderful guest blogger Sarah Quirk of SarahQuirk Wealth Services. This week, Sarah shares her expert knowledge on how accountants and financial advisers can both help you manage your finances. 

Both roles are important, both roles are carried out by professionals in the field of finance, and in both cases, their role is to help and support you and your business achieve your goals and be successful. However, the roles and focus areas are different. 

How can an accountant help you? 

The key responsibilities of an accountant typically include: 

• Financial transactions – Recording, summarising, analysing and creating reports of your financial transactions 
• Bookkeeping – Maintaining your company’s financial records e.g. payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable and balance sheets 
• Tax Requirements – Ensuring relevant and necessary tax forms, self-assessment and any other tax requirements are correctly processed and managed 
• Auditing – To help ensure you avoid overspending and to ensure company money is being used in an upstanding way 
• Risk Awareness – Make you aware of areas that could be a potential risk in the future, or areas where you need to have the flexibility to place more focus 

How can a financial adviser help you? 

The key responsibilities of a financial adviser typically include: 

• Protection – Ensuring appropriate protection is in place to safeguard you, your business and your family 
• Financial planning – Providing you with a comprehensive approach to financial planning, including developing financial plans for you and your business 
• Wealth management – Helping you understand the best investment options and the best way to handle your finances in order to reach your goals 
• Retirement planning – Helping you to plan your retirement  
• Tax planning – Helping you implement tax efficient strategies and making use of available tax advantages 

The approach of a financial adviser 

Financial advisers will have different methodologies. At Sarah Quirk Wealth Associates, we focus on a three-stage approach when working with businesses:  

Our business clients also have access to the St. James’s Place Entrepreneur Club, which is designed to provide business owners with access to advice and support that will help maximise the growth rate and valuation of their business. More information about the Entrepreneur Club can be found via the following link: https://sarahquirkassociates.co.uk/specialist-advice/entrepreneur-club 

The value of an investment with St. James’s Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds selected and may fall as well as rise. You may get back less than the amount invested. 

The levels and bases of taxation and reliefs from taxation can change at any time. The value of any tax reliefs depends on individual circumstances. 

Collaboration 

Having the services of an accountant as well as a financial adviser is likely to provide you with a higher quality of service overall, due to a pooling of technical expertise. 

Collaboration and an effective relationship between your advisers will allow a meaningful exchange of information that’s likely to provide a stronger financial foundation for you and to best uncover the most effective strategies and path to follow to reach your goals. 

So employing professional advisers who are open to working and collaborating with other advisers is something for you to consider. 

Contact us for more information about our services and how we can help you or to book a free Wealth Discovery Session. 

The Partner Practice is an Appointed Representative of and represents only St. James’s Place Wealth Management plc (which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority) for the purpose of advising solely on the Group’s wealth management products and services, more details of which are set out on the Group’s website www.sjp.co.uk/products. The titles ‘Partner’ and ‘Partner Practice’ are marketing terms used to describe St. James’s Place representatives. SarahQuirk Wealth Associates is a trading name of SarahQuirk Associates Ltd.