An accountant prepares your accounts and tax returns and reports what happened last year. A financial planner models what your money does from now to age 100. Buzz Accounting clients’ business figures are already with us, which shortens the fact find.
| The question | Who answers it | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| What did the business make last year? | Accountant | Accounts that report the year just gone. |
| How much tax is due on my dividends this year? | Accountant | Your tax return and the bill. |
| Can I stop work at 61? | Financial planner | Every year to 100 with tax applied, and the age your money lasts to. |
| Does my money last if markets fall in the first three years after I stop? | Financial planner | A stress test measured in years. |
| What would selling the business at £150,000 do to my retirement? | Both | The accountant works out the tax on the sale. The plan shows what the proceeds do to the projection. |
| Which pension should I pay into? | Regulated adviser | A personal recommendation on a product, from an FCA-authorised firm. |
Taking money out of a company. Your accountant works out what salary, dividends or company pension contributions cost in tax. The plan shows what each route does to the age your money lasts to.
Selling or closing the business. Your accountant handles the tax on extraction and your solicitor the deal. The plan models the business at zero and at your figure. Financial planning for business owners shows a worked example.
Inheritance tax. The plan works out the tax on your projected estate. Wills and lasting powers of attorney go to Buzz Legal, part of the same group.
Neither an accountant nor a financial planner gives a personal recommendation on a pension, fund or policy unless their firm is authorised by the FCA. Financial planning is not regulated financial advice, and Buzz Accounting Ltd is not authorised to give it. When a decision needs a personal recommendation we say so and can introduce you to Equity & General, authorised and regulated by the FCA (No. 474163). The introduction is optional. If you become their client, E&G pay Buzz a commission, and we tell you about it before the introduction.
If you own a business, you need an accountant for the accounts and tax returns whatever else you do. A financial planner answers a different question: whether your pensions, property, business and spending carry you from now to age 100, and what would break that. If your position is simple, for example one pension and no business, the free projection may answer it. If you have several parts that affect each other and a date you want to stop work, a plan adds what the accounts cannot show.
An accountant can do cash flow planning if their firm offers it. Buzz Accounting Ltd runs both an accountancy practice and Buzz Financial Planning, and built its own lifetime modelling engine to answer business owners’ personal planning questions. Whoever you use, ask whether the projection runs every year to age 100, applies UK tax in each year, tests the order of returns and specific events such as care costs, and prints every assumption so you can change it.
No. A financial planner models your position and your future and sets out the decisions. A financial adviser, in the regulated sense, gives a personal recommendation on a product, such as a pension, fund or policy, and only an FCA-authorised firm can do that. Buzz Financial Planning gives no product recommendations. Where a decision needs one, we say so and can introduce you to Equity & General (FCA 474163). Coach, planner or adviser sets out where each one stops.
Your business figures are already with us, so the fact find is shorter: what the company has made, what you take out and how. The plan adds your personal side, meaning your pensions, savings, property, spending and the date you want to stop, and runs it all forward every year to age 100 with UK tax applied. The price is the same £1,500. Your accounts work carries on as before, and the two use the same figures.
Yes. The plan is yours, and it is written so that an accountant or adviser can follow your position quickly. Every assumption is printed, including growth, inflation, the age you stop, your spending and life expectancy, so your accountant can see what was modelled and check the tax figures against their own. If they disagree with an assumption, we re-run the projection with their figure. Some decisions in a plan, such as how to take money out of a company, need your accountant’s tax figures in any case.
An hour with a planner on whether the Financial Plan suits your position.
A written plan: every year to age 100 with UK tax applied, each risk measured in years, and your next ninety days.