A two-way street: Why gatekeepers need advisers too

As a chartered tax adviser and member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, I have spent many years advising clients on their tax strategies in respect of their personal,
business and family position, working with a range of other professional advisers to support the clients’ needs.

One of the most valuable relationships I have nurtured is with our IFA team – not because it earns the firm a healthy fee income (although it does) but because I do not feel I can provide my clients with proper advice without involving my fellow professionals.

This reality dawned on me a few years ago, when I realised some of the solutions to client problems could be reached by investment structures rather than traditional planning. I found that an IFA approached the problem from a very different perspective to me and I wanted to understand that better, in order to provide my clients with a more rounded plan.

As a result, I took the Certificate of Financial Planning, not because I wanted to give financial advice but I wanted to understand how it all worked and to see where the opportunities were for the client.

Several years on, I headed private client consulting with the firm, which is a specialist technical group blending tax and financial management solutions.

This helps me and others to identify and create the latest tax planning strategies as well as a detailed review, by FSA regulated professionals, of the financial services-based solutions in the market. Once identified, we then credit score these solutions in respect of their tax strategy and investment credibility to ensure both are robust.

On many occasions we will find risk in the tax strategy when the underlying investment is sound, or visa versa.

Hopefully, this approach prevents us recommending an investment for the tax benefits it provides without looking at the risk inherent in the underlying investment or, indeed, an investment without the tax-efficient wrapper. For the plan to be successful, both sides must feel confident in the offering.