Accountants for high net worth individuals

What we mean by high net worth

There is no single definition. Industry reports usually mean someone with investable assets above a seven-figure sum, and an ultra high net worth individual is someone with a far larger fortune. The UK financial regulator uses its own, different tests for particular purposes. For accounting, the shape of the wealth matters more than the figure.

Two people with the same net worth can need very different things. One holds a portfolio at a single bank and a house. The other holds shares in several companies, a partnership interest, a let property portfolio, a trust, private funds and a second home abroad. The second needs a specialist.

What a specialist accountant does

We work across the areas where complex wealth creates complex accounting:

• Personal tax returns that reflect every source of income and gain, prepared alongside the accounts of the companies and partnerships behind them
• Accounts and tax for the companies, partnerships and investment vehicles you own or control
• Capital gains, income and inheritance tax planning that considers each in the light of the others
• Property: rental income, development, and the tax on buying, holding and selling
• Trusts and estates: accounts, returns and coordination with trustees and solicitors
• Residence and cross-border affairs, planned against the rules as they stand and revisited when they change

Reporting matters as much as compliance

When wealth is spread across banks, managers, funds, property and personal assets, nobody sees all of it. Our investment reporting consolidates the whole position, so you and your advisers look at one set of numbers, and can see the documents behind each figure.

From private client to family office

For many families the specialist accountant is the first step. As wealth, entities and people multiply, an informal arrangement turns into a family office. We support that move, and can run the finance side of one: see our page for family office accountants and our guide to what a family office is. Some families hold their investments together in a company, and we design, set up and run family investment companies too.

How we work

You have a named senior adviser, with a team behind them, and a calendar for the year so that nothing arrives as a surprise. We work alongside the solicitors, trustees, bankers and wealth managers you already have, we can take over from your current accountant mid-year and manage the handover with them directly, and your affairs are discussed only with the people you name.