complete financial workover needed

G

Gordanus

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I need to get to grips with everything. My finances - pensions, life assurance, mortgage, my business, and my personal stuff. I've had a chequered work history here and abroad, some of which had pensions, and I'm currently self-employed and also employed. My own business has been going well but growing quite fast and I need to put new structures in place, but haven't had time with the volume of work. Unfortunately the income doesn't seem to have increased proportionally and I can't see why. My relationship has broken down and I need to sort out the mortgage/sale of house/whatever. It's all very complicated, my head's in a spin, and I need to be able to sit down with one person to sort out the lot. I really don't want to have to go to different people, I got the pensions and insurances and so on from different brokers/ advisors over a period of years.
Should I be looking for an accountant or an independent financial advisor or what? Should I be looking for someone with particular expertise in small businesses? Any advice gratefully accepted!
 
First things first - don't panic or make any rash decisions if/when not thinking straight. If you don't already have a good accountant/tax advisor/general financial advisor then I think that you should consider getting one. I would repeat the advice that I posted in my second post on this thread here. If you can get one person to deal with your business and personal accountancy, tax and general investment issues then that would be great but always make sure that anybody you deal with is appropriately qualified, authorised and regulated and is truly independent and professional. For personal financial advice there are good intermediaries who post here on AAM (most or all multi agency intermediaries rather than Authorised Advisors but that's not necessarily a bad thing as long as they are up front and you are aware of who they do and don't deal with) if that helps. It's hard to deal with your query in one go as it is quite wide ranging but hopefully that is some sort of start to get you thinking.
 
Be very clear what you want from the advisor(s) - I'd suggest that you really need to give the matter some time yourself to get your head out of the spin, and then bring in advisors as required. After all, look what happened in the PPARS system when they brought in advisors without really knowing what they wanted.
 
I would think you need to start with an accountant for your work related issues, to sort out your business and your employment tax issues. Then think about a financial advisor for the pension, life assurance and mortgage issues.
 
Thanks very much. I just let myself get into a state with the amount of stuff that needs doiing, and I value your advice, especially about maybe needing a couple of people rather than putting myself in the hands of one 'saviour'. Thanks everyone.
 
Allen said:
I would think you need to start with an accountant for your work related issues, to sort out your business and your employment tax issues. Then think about a financial advisor for the pension, life assurance and mortgage issues.
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That sounds like good advice and it might be worth considering that the two don't need to operate in isolation of each other. A few meetings with both together might ensure that their advice works in harmony to a common overall goal.
 
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