What an advice joint venture asks of an accountancy practice

Professional Adviser reported on 27 August 2026 that joint ventures between financial advice firms and professional services businesses are changing shape. Isabel Baxter's analysis describes a cluster of recent deals in which firms have moved from referral arrangements to formal, jointly branded ventures, most visibly among accountancy firms, with law firms beginning to follow.

9 min read · Altro Partners, by Equity & General

£100 million

the revenue target DJH has stated for 2028

DJH announcement, reported by Professional Adviser, 27 August 2026

Reacting to

Advice JVs — Why professional services tie-ups are moving beyond referrals, by Isabel Baxter (Professional Adviser, 27 August 2026)

The firms in these deals have decided that their clients need financial planning alongside the accounts work, and have set up a business with their own name over the door to provide it.

The two deals behind the report

In January 2026 the accountancy group DJH announced a joint venture with Perspective Financial Group, DJH Perspective Wealth Management, which Professional Adviser describes as a 50/50 arrangement. DJH's announcement gives its clients access to 200 wealth advisers in more than 60 offices, covering retirement, pensions and protection planning alongside the inheritance tax, trusts, wills, probate and estate planning work DJH already did. The group has stated a revenue target of £100 million by 2028. Scott Heath, DJH's chief executive, said:

"It's all about enhancing the client experience. With this new approach under DJH Perspective Wealth Management, your accountant, tax adviser, and wealth adviser are working as one team."

In July 2026 the TaxAssist Group and Perspective launched TaxAssist Plus Financial Planning, giving TaxAssist clients access to financial planning, retirement planning, investments, inheritance tax and estate planning, protection, mortgages and corporate financial planning. By that announcement Perspective had around 280 advisers across more than 70 offices. TaxAssist's clients are small business owners and sole traders.

Those two deals, both with the same advice group and seven months apart, are the evidence for the trend.

Three ways a practice can arrange advice for its clients

An informal referral

A partner knows an adviser and mentions them when something comes up. Nothing is written down, so there is no record of what was passed on, no record of the client's agreement, no view of what happened next, and no answer for a professional indemnity insurer who asks what the arrangement is.

A written partnership

The same conversation with the paperwork the first version lacks: a written agreement setting the boundary between introducing and advising, recorded client consent, agreed commercial terms and a reporting loop back to the practice. The practice takes on no regulated activity and no new legal entity. This is how the Altro partnership is set up, and the steps are in how the partnership works for one client.

A joint venture

A new business, jointly owned and jointly branded, with the accountancy firm as a shareholder in a regulated advice business. This is what DJH and TaxAssist have done, and it is the only one of the three that changes the practice's own corporate structure.

What changes when the practice's name is on the advice

Carrying on a regulated activity in the UK requires authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority, or appointed representative status under a firm that holds it. A jointly branded venture sits on one of those two footings. The accountancy parent's own business does not become regulated, but the parent becomes a part-owner of a regulated firm, with the governance and oversight duties that ownership carries.

Three consequences follow.

Reputational risk is shared. Under a referral, a client who is unhappy with the advice is unhappy with the adviser, and the practice's job was to have introduced sensibly and recorded it. Under a joint venture the practice's name is on the advice.
The client relationship is joint. A venture has its own service standards, its own marketing and its own commercial reasons to contact a shared client. Who may contact the client about what, and what happens to those contact rights if the venture ends, needs settling in writing before it starts.
Exit is more complicated. A shareholding in a regulated joint venture is another asset to value on a practice sale, another set of consents, and another negotiation about shared clients if the venture unwinds.

Partners of an accountancy practice in a meeting

An illustration for a three-partner practice

Illustration using a made-up practice: three partners and 400 business clients.

The client need exists.

The FCA's Financial Lives 2024 survey found that 8.6% of UK adults had taken regulated financial advice in the previous twelve months, and 13% of the self-employed. The lang cat's State of Advice Report 2025 put the average portfolio of a new advice client at £411,000 and the average IFA client age at 59.

The volume is too small for a business of its own.

A practice of that size will see a reason for a financial planning conversation in a share of its clients each year: surplus cash with no plan for it, a director approaching retirement, a personal guarantee with no cover, a sale in progress. That volume does not justify a jointly owned company, a shareholders’ agreement, a board seat in a regulated entity and the governance that comes with them.

A written partnership captures the same need.

It produces the same reporting back to the partner, and it can be stopped without unwinding a company.

What the trend means for a practice's own clients

The report makes one practical point: the situations an accountant sees first in a client's accounts are valuable enough that firms are building companies around them. Those situations are the same whichever structure a practice chooses, and the boundary between introducing and advising sits in the same place in all three.

Two things to do this week

Write down which structure you are operating. If a partner mentions an adviser from time to time and nothing is recorded, that is an informal referral.
Count the clients before choosing any structure. Take the last twelve months of year-end meetings and mark each client where there was a reason for a financial planning conversation. That count is the input every structural decision depends on, and it shows whether a written process is warranted at all.

What is still unknown

The evidence is one advice group's strategy. Both accountancy ventures involve Perspective. Whether other advice groups do the same with other accountancy partners will show over the next year.

Neither venture has a track record. The DJH venture was announced in January 2026 and the TaxAssist venture launched in July 2026. DJH's £100 million revenue target for 2028 is the first public milestone, and the accounts filed at Companies House before then will show progress towards it.

The law firm wave is a forecast. Professional Adviser reports that law firms are beginning to follow. Deal announcements over the next twelve months will show whether that holds.

Common questions

What is the difference between a referral arrangement and an advice joint venture?

A referral arrangement introduces a client from one firm to another. The practice introduces, the advice firm advises, and the two businesses stay separate, with separate brands, balance sheets and owners. A joint venture creates a third business that both sides own and both sides are named on. That changes who carries the reputational risk when advice goes wrong, who has a say in how the advice business is run, and what happens to the arrangement if either parent firm is sold.

Does a jointly branded advice venture need its own FCA authorisation?

Any business carrying on a regulated activity in the UK has to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority or be an appointed representative of a firm that is. An accountancy brand on the door does not change that. The accountancy parent becomes a part-owner of a regulated business, with the governance, oversight and reporting duties that come with it.

Who owns the client relationship in a joint venture?

Both parents. Under a referral the practice keeps its own relationship and introduces the client for one conversation. Under a joint venture the client is also a client of the venture, which has its own commercial interests, service standards and reasons to contact them. Who may contact the client about what, and what happens to those rights if the venture ends, should be agreed in writing at the start.

Is a joint venture only realistic for large firms?

The reported deals involve national networks with thousands of clients, because a joint venture needs scale to carry the governance it creates. A three-partner practice has the same situations in a smaller client list, and a written partnership addresses them without a new legal entity, a shareholders' agreement or a board seat in a regulated business.

What should a practice document before it changes its advice arrangement?

Four things, whichever structure is chosen. First, the boundary: what the practice does and does not say to a client about regulated matters. Second, consent: what the client agreed could be passed on, when, and to whom. Third, the commercial terms, including anything the practice receives and whether the client is told about it. Fourth, the exit: what happens to shared clients if the arrangement stops. The last two are needed when a partner leaves, a venture unwinds or a professional indemnity insurer asks what the practice has been doing.

Financial planning for your clients, alongside the accounts and tax work

Equity & General holds the FCA authorisation. There is no charge to your firm, and a named partnership director works with you from the first introduction.