An Equity & General financial planner meeting clients

We partner with accountants to give their clients regulated financial advice

You will have a dedicated Equity & General point of contact to work alongside your firm. Your clients get financial planning that joins up with the accounts and tax work you already do. Your firm carries on with the accounts and tax work and needs no additional regulatory permissions. We provide tailored regulated financial planning advice and keep you informed at each step.

Register your interest See how it works

Only 8.6% of UK adults received regulated financial advice last year, and 13% of self-employed adults (FCA, Financial Lives 2024). See the advice gap

How it fits around your practice

Your accounts and tax work carry on as normal.

You get a dedicated Equity & General point of contact who oversees all client referrals and provides you with regular updates.

You see the client first. They may have surplus company cash, an owner past 50 with insufficient retirement planning, have borrowings with no protection behind it for family or other shareholders, looking to sell their company. Whatever the need, your clients will always remain yours.

Equity & General gives the advice. The recommendation, the suitability report, the paperwork and the regulatory responsibility sit with Equity & General.

An Equity & General adviser with a client

How the partnership works

Your firmEquity & General
  1. 1

    Your firm joins

    Your firm

    A partner agreement with Equity & General, one call with our Client Relationships Director, and an hour’s training for the people who manage your client relationships.

  2. 2

    Your clients go into your portal

    Your firm

    To help you identify potential referrals, we can offer you a tool which interfaces with your client management system. This can highlight areas of financial planning to be addressed. This is secure and you stay in control.

  3. 3

    You raise it with the client

    Your firm

    Approach the client to offer a financial review at no cost to them. This can be done to coincide with a scheduled meeting you have with the client at certain times of the year, or we can provide resource to help you proactively contact the client.

  4. 4

    Equity & General’s Account Manager meets the client

    Equity & General

    The first meeting is at no cost to the client.

  5. 5

    Equity & General gives the advice

    Equity & General

    The fact-find, the research, the recommendation and the suitability report. The regulatory responsibility is Equity & General’s.

  6. 6

    The advice is put in place

    Your firm and Equity & General

    The recommendation is put in place. If you have adopted the Altro Portal, you get direct access to the steps we have taken. Your firm carries on with the accounts and tax work.

Which firms this suits

It fits if

You look after owner-managed businesses whose directors take dividends and have pensions, property and a personal balance sheet to plan.

  • Any size of firm, from a single partner upwards. What matters is who your clients are
  • You already field questions you are not authorised to answer
  • You want your clients to have Equity & General’s financial planners working with your firm

You look after personal clients who:

  • Are not adequately funding their retirement
  • Are not adequately funding for key family events such as moving house or children going to university
  • Do not have sufficient protection in place to cover for unforeseen events such as the death or incapacity of the primary income earner of the household
  • Do not have a will in place

What your firm puts in

One partner who is our main point of contact. An hour of training for the people who manage your client relationships.

If your firm already refers clients to an adviser, Altro aims to add a different dimension to how an advisory firm works with an accountancy or tax practice – support for lead generation and tracking of the client journey.

One joined-up relationship

Only 13% of self-employed adults had regulated financial advice in the previous twelve months (Source: FCA, Financial Lives 2024). Altro puts the client at the centre: the accountant keeps the accounting relationship, the financial planner gives the regulated advice, and the portal holds the record they both work from.

The client Accountant Financial planner Altro platform

The accountant makes the introduction

You know the client and their numbers. You spot the need and make the introduction. Your firm gives no regulated advice.

The client’s business and personal finances are planned together

Pensions, protection, tax, cash flow and retirement are planned as one. Equity & General works alongside the accountant who already knows the client.

Equity & General gives the regulated advice

Which is managed through a dedicated Account Manager. We are responsible for the recommendation, the suitability report and putting the advice in place.

An adviser with a business owner

Planning questions for a business owner

For example, a business owner of fifty-four may have a company that has traded for a decade and a six-figure balance on the account. You prepare the accounts and discuss dividends with them.

The accounts do not say what the money is for, whether the owner can retire at sixty, or what happens to the family if they die. Answering those questions is regulated advice, and your firm is not authorised to give it.

Altro gives the client a financial planner to answer those questions. You raise it with the client, Equity & General works alongside you, and your firm carries on with the accounts and tax work.

The advice gap

What comes with the partnership

Your client receives regulated financial advice

Managed through a dedicated Account Manager. This is the central point of contact for you and your client.

A tool to help you identify client referrals

To help you identify potential referrals, we offer a tool which interfaces with your client management system. This can highlight areas of financial planning to be addressed. This is secure and you stay in control.

Articles for your clients

Regular articles to your clients sent directly from the Altro Portal that you control. These will be finance led and may generate further enquiries for accountancy work and financial planning.

Approved wording and training

Approved wording for each kind of introduction, and training for the people who manage your client relationships.

One joined-up system

If you take on board our Altro Portal tool, you will see every client and every introduction in its portal. Your clients answer the six questions and the financial health check from the same system, in your firm’s name. See the Portal

Income / Value

We share any initial income that is generated from the sale of a financial product or service.

You can also choose to share in any ongoing income we receive, or in the value of assets under management that build up over time.

See the partnership in full

Guides for accountants

The six moments in a client file

What each moment looks like in the accounts, and the wording to use when you raise it.

Read the guide

What your firm can say

Four worked examples show where regulated advice starts.

Read the guide

Surplus company cash

The three tax rules a large cash balance can fall foul of, how much is too much, and how to raise it with the client.

Read the guide

See all the guides

Most UK adults had no financial advice last year

Their accountant is the professional they already see every year.

8.6%
of UK adults had received regulated financial advice in the previous twelve months.
13%
of self-employed adults had received it.
The advice gap

Bring joined-up financial planning to your clients

Equity & General is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. There is no charge to your firm, and we do everything to set it up for you.

Register your interest See the partnership