Insights
Referral guides for professional firms - spotting the moment, referring clients compliantly, and earning a share.
The retirement runway conversation accountants should start
Accountants see clients approaching retirement long before they act. Here is how to open the conversation and hand it to a regula…
Spotting the protection gap in your accountancy clients
Accountants are ideally positioned to notice when a client's income or business has no safety net. Here is how to spot it and ref…
The protection gap: how to spot the client who's underinsured
The protection gap rarely announces itself, but the clues sit in the everyday details you already handle. This is how to notice t…
Referral partnerships between professionals: making them stick
Professional referral partnerships fail quietly: three introductions, no feedback, then silence. Making them durable is a design …
Referral fees for marketing agencies: what the rules actually say
No statute stops a marketing agency taking referral fees. But agencies serving financial clients sit near section 21 of FSMA — a …
Referral fees for IT consultants: what the rules actually say
IT consultants face no statutory referral-fee ban. The traps are contractual conflict clauses, the FCA perimeter when clients nee…
The retirement runway: spotting the client who needs advice now
The years approaching retirement are when the right guidance counts for most. Here is how to spot the client on that runway and h…
Referral fees for insurance brokers: what the rules actually say
FCA-authorised insurance brokers can pay and receive referral fees. The rulebook cares about conflicts, disclosure of remuneratio…
Referring your startup-founder clients
Startup founders are brilliant at building the business and poor at protecting themselves. Spotting that gap, and referring well,…
Referral fees for HR consultants: what the rules actually say
HR consultants face no statutory ban on referral fees. The real constraints sit elsewhere: bribery law, the boundary around finan…
Referring your higher-net-worth clients well
Higher-net-worth clients rarely need one thing in isolation. Knowing when to bring in a specialist, and how to do it well, is cen…
Referring your landlord clients: an accountant's guide
Property clients sit on decisions that reach far beyond the tax return. Knowing which landlord to refer, and when, turns a routin…
Referring your clients with young families (the protection moment)
Clients with young families are usually stretched, under-protected and unaware of it. Spotting the protection gap and referring w…
Referring your company-director clients
Your director clients trust you with the numbers. The referral opportunity lies in the questions the numbers raise but cannot ans…
Referring the client who's just had a windfall
Inheritance, a sale, a bonus or a payout lands on a client with no plan attached. Knowing to refer quickly, before the money drif…
Referring the business owner who's about to retire
When a business owner starts talking about stepping back, the clock is running on decisions only a specialist can help with. Your…
Referring a client going through divorce
A client in the middle of a divorce faces decisions with lifelong consequences under real strain. Knowing when and how to refer i…
Referring a recently bereaved client, with care
When a client loses a spouse or parent, practical and financial questions arrive whether they are ready or not. Knowing how to re…
Referral fees for accountants: what the rules actually say
Accountants can be paid for referring clients to financial advisers, provided the arrangement is disclosed and the accountant nev…
Referral Conversations That Don't Feel Salesy, for Accountants
Many accountants avoid referrals because they dread sounding like salespeople. The good news is that the least salesy approach is…
Referral audit trails: what good evidence looks like
In a regulated environment, being able to show what happened is nearly as important as doing the right thing. A good referral aud…
Redundancy and a lump sum: the referral a professional should make
A redundancy payout lands amid upheaval and rarely comes with a plan. Here is how to recognise the moment and make the introducti…
Recurring vs one-off referral income: what to expect
Referral income comes in two broad shapes, one-off and recurring, and knowing which is which changes how you think about the valu…
Red flags in a referral arrangement, and how to avoid them
A bad referral arrangement rarely announces itself, but it does leave clues. Here are the red flags worth watching for and the si…