Tax advice set to surge post-pension freedoms

Offshore, inheritance tax, business and retirement planning advice are named as potential growth areas as more advisers expect to increase the business they write as a result of professional connections.

As Prudential embarks on a series of seminars for financial advisers and accountants supported by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales Financial Services Faculty, it has found two-thirds of advisers believe they will grow levels of specialist tax advice as a result of pension freedom.

Nearly nine out of 10 advisers, or 89 per cent, expect to work more closely with accountants with 29 per cent predicting the increase to be “significant”.

The 17 half-day seminars are free to attend and are accredited by the Chartered Institute of Insurers (CII) and the Institute of Financial Planning (IFP).

They are designed to help advisers identify opportunities for working in partnership with their accountancy peers to better serve their clients.

Latest changes to legislation will be explored, with particular emphasis on how different clients will be affected.

Vince Smith-Hughes, head of business development at Prudential, said: “We have seen a very clear business development perfect storm develop over the last six months.

“Pension freedom is driving up the demand for specialist client services such as intricate tax advice and business legacy planning, while advisers have been quick off the mark to extend their service offering and meet the growth opportunities opening up for their businesses. 

“Working with the ICAEW, we believe we can help facilitate a better working relationship between the financial advice industry and the accountancy profession, to offer enhanced services to clients who now have broader and potentially more complex financial planning needs following the introduction of pension reforms earlier this year.”

Forthcoming seminar dates