Your client book, read against
the public record for you

Client Watch reads every limited company on your client list against the Companies House record and tells you which owners are worth a conversation first. It covers your whole book.

What it watches

The moments a filing reveals

Each of these is visible in a filing. Client Watch reads them off the public record and tells you which of your clients they apply to.

· Retirement

An owner into their sixties

For most owner-managed clients the company is the retirement plan, and nobody has worked out what it has to be worth to fund the retirement they want.

· Exit

A likely sale on the horizon

Trading age, owner age and succession signs together mark the two to three years in which exit planning can still change the outcome.

· Growth

A business outgrowing its owner's plan

Years of steady trading, a growing headcount, and more of it resting on one person whose own protection and planning have not been reviewed since the company was small.

· Borrowing

A charge newly registered

New lending almost always means a personal guarantee, and almost never means it has been insured. The date the charge was registered is the date the conversation became relevant.

· Timing

The accounts date coming round

The one predictable moment each year when the numbers are in front of you both — and the natural time to raise the personal picture.

· Change

A shift in company status

Overdue accounts or a change of status is usually the first public sign that something in the business has changed.

Why the public record is worth reading

Every limited company on your client list files information that says something about the person who owns it. Directors’ ages. The date the company started trading. Charges registered against it. Whether the accounts went in on time this year, and last year.

None of that is secret and none of it needs the client’s permission. It is the same record a lender checks before advancing money. It becomes useful when it is read against the moments that lead to a financial planning conversation.

A director turning sixty-two in a company that is the whole retirement plan. A charge registered last month, which almost always means a personal guarantee and almost never means it has been insured. Fourteen years of steady trading with one signatory on the account. A client raises none of these at the year-end meeting, and each one is worth more to them than the items they do raise.

Reviewing a client's position

Three clients a week, emailed to your firm

Each week Altro emails the clients whose signals are strongest at that point — the name, the filing that triggered it, why it matters, and wording you are permitted to use. This is the format it arrives in.

Client Watch — week commencing 8 September Illustration using made-up companies
Client
Hartley Joinery Ltd
12 August · Charge registered
What the record shows

A qualifying floating charge was registered in favour of a bank. New borrowing at this size is almost always personally guaranteed, and the guarantee is almost never insured.

Wording you can use

“I saw the new facility go on the record. Have you had anyone look at what happens to the guarantee if something happened to you?”

Client
Pennine Fabrication Ltd
Director born June 1971 · turns 55 next year
What the record shows

The sole director reaches 55 within twelve months, which is the first age at which pension benefits can normally be taken, and the company has traded profitably for fourteen years.

Wording you can use

“You have a birthday coming that changes what you are allowed to do with the pension. Worth half an hour with someone who does this properly?”

Client
Calder Interiors Ltd
Accounts made up to 31 March · due 31 December
What the record shows

Shareholders’ funds have risen for four consecutive years while the company employs three people. The retained profit is well beyond what the business needs to trade.

Wording you can use

“Retained profit is up again. Would it help to have someone look at what that surplus should actually be doing?”

Every entry is drawn from the public Companies House record. Nothing here comes from your ledger, your files or anything a client told you in confidence.

How it runs

Four stages, two of which are ours.

1
You

Send the list once

Company names or numbers, however your practice software exports them. No ledger access and nothing that needs the client's say-so.

2
E&G

We read the register

Every limited company matched to its public record and scored against the moments that lead to advice.

3
E&G

You get the shortlist

The owners most worth a conversation, ranked, each with the reason in plain English and an opening line.

4
You

You introduce

You make the warm introduction. The regulated advice sits with Equity & General and your firm stays in view throughout.

How to send your list

Most practices take about ten minutes over this, and it only happens once.

What we need

  • Company numbers if your software exports them — eight digits, one per row. That is the cleanest match.
  • Company names are fine if it does not. We match them and send back anything ambiguous for you to confirm.
  • Any format your software produces: CSV, Excel, or a list pasted into an email.

Nothing else is required. We do not need client contact details, dates of birth, ledger access, or anything covered by your engagement letter.

What happens to it

  • The list is used to look up public records and to produce your shortlist, and for nothing else.
  • It is never shared with a third party and never used to contact your clients.
  • Equity & General is the data controller for it, and you can ask for it to be deleted at any time.
  • If you decide not to proceed, we delete it and there is no charge for the read.

Send your client list →

What it cannot see

Worth being straight about, because a tool that overstates itself wastes your time.

Limited companies only

Sole traders and partnerships leave no public filings, so they are invisible to it. You already know those clients yourself; this is for the register you cannot read in an afternoon.

The public record, never your ledger

It reads what a lender or a planner would look up. It does not touch your practice software and it does not see client data, so there is nothing for anyone to consent to.

A prompt for your judgement

A register-only view is guesswork; yours is not. You hold the fees, the cash position and the relationship. A flag is a reason to think about a client, and never a substitute for what you already know about them.

The limits of the public record

What the public record shows

Client Watch reads what a lender or a planner would look up: charges, filing dates, trading age, company status, the directors and their ages. It never touches your accounts software or the client's data, so there is nothing to consent to.

Sharper because of what you know

A register-only view is guesswork. Yours is not. You hold the fees, the cash position and the relationship, so a flag from Client Watch is a prompt for your judgement, never a substitute for it.

Limited companies only

Sole traders and partnerships leave no public filings, so Client Watch cannot see them. You already know those clients yourself — this is for the register you cannot read in an afternoon.

Have your book read before your next partner meeting

Send your client list and we will come back with the owners worth talking to first. No cost, no FCA obligations for your firm.

Register your interest → See how it works →