Can Accountants and Lawyers embrace change?

Originally posted on 3 Jan 2014

I was reading an article by Damian Davies, director at The Timebankabout the opportunities for paraplanners in the IFA world. I started to think about whether accountants and lawyers are alert to the opportunities that abound in their business world.

Damian referred to research published last June, by Cass Business School showing there are 1.4 million people in the UK who have £100,000 available to invest and 850,000 people with £150,000. This could be the catalyst that sparks action by innovative advice firms. It should be the catalyst for accountants and lawyers too – all that tax and business planning as well as IHT planning – great opportunities for fee growth with new clients that have the money to pay for good advice.

Damian provides an example of how change is fashioning today’s world:  as more and more retailers are moving online and competing on price, physical shops are looking to move from being outlets to actually providing an “experience”.  He asks whether paraplanners could achieve success by having a “Point of Difference” and whether adviser firms could do this.  He asks his readers to think about what needs to be changed to make firms better placed to look after the clients that will stay the longest and pay the right fees for the right service.

I have blogged previously on the world of accountancy and the changes it faces. In December, I reported on the study by the owner of Quickbooks called: ‘The Changing Role of Accountancy’ which revealed that 88% of UK small businesses expect their accountants to embrace cloud-based solutions and more than half (58%) are willing to pay more for the privilege. Click here to read more. I have also written on how Accountants and SMEs can make the best use of Social Media.

This year, accountants and lawyers should make their new year’s resolution to embrace change.

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Martin Pollins

Managing Director at One Smart Place

Martin Pollins is a Chartered Accountant and MBA with wide experience in corporate finance and business management. He has served on the boards of several companies, including those listed on the London Stock Exchange, AIM and OFEX. He is Chairman and Founder of OneSmartPlace and was a Council member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales from 1988 to 1996. He was managing partner of PRB Martin Pollins, based in Sussex, the first Accountancy firm to advertise on British television.He went on to create and launch the CharterGroup Partnership (the UK’s first Accountancy network) and then LawGroup UK (at the time, one of the largest networks of lawyers in the UK). In recent years, he helped to raise several £millions to fund British films such as The Da Vinci Code, Bridge of San Luis Rey, Head in the Clouds and Merchant of Venice with actors such as Charlize Theron, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, F. Murray Abraham. Kathy Bates, Gabriel Byrne, Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen, Audrey Tautou, Penélope Cruz, Steven Berkoff, Lynn Collins, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes and many more.

He has written over 700 business publications (see Glossaries at http://onesmartplace.com/resources/glossaries/) and is editor of Better Business Focus (see http://onesmartplace.com/resources/better-business-focus-magazine). His Blog, on a wide range of subjects can be found at: http://onesmartplace.com/blog/

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