Change of accountant

The ICAEW guidance on this states that:- "questions seeking to establish whether the incumbent has suspicions of money laundering or has made suspicious activity reports, are not considered to be appropriate in a letter of professional enquiry".

Even if you did ask, you would be unlikely to get a direct response to your question as the former accountant would not want to be guilty of "tipping off".

You are also obliged to carry out your own ML checks on your new client in any case. 

In any case, I think the outgoing accountant would probably be reluctant to answer such a question.

beat me to it JazzySasha!

I don't really want to rock the boat but . . . . well, think about it this way . . . . if the previous agent felt that there was any need to report her or his suspicions of wrongdoing they would have had a responsibility to report it to the authorities before you so I don't feel you have any need to ask specifically about this issue. You could, surely, assume that they have acted within the law and fulfilled their legal responsibilities. Notwithstanding that it may be a good idea to ask a more general question along the lines of "If there are any matters of contention with H.M. Revenue & Customs which have not as yet been resolved, or if there are any other matters of which you feel we should be made aware, then please advise accordingly".

Chris.

Did you ask?

You should have asked if there are any matters which you should be aware of before accepting the proposed appointment.

Appears to me that you are now on notice that there may be some "issue".

I'd ask! The "teller" is at risk, not you.

I would never invite them to object. The situation is simple, you have just lost your client, tell me what I need to know and please provide the following.

Sounds good to me, Georgeyboy. I think it's only fair to start off with the assumption that your predecessors in the case are upright and honourable and that they act within the law. If you couldn't assume that then there'd be little point in expecting an honest answer to a question that, should they have had the need to reply in a condemnatory way, would have forced them to report matters to the authorities. Also, if the previous agents had some vague, tenuous suspicions then I can't see how they'd report them to you for two reasons:-  1. to do so might leave them open to accusations of libel   and   2. to do so when necessarily commit them to accepting on paper that they should have made a report to the authorities. When all is said and done I think that you will be acting correctly if you start off working under the assumption that the previous agents are honourable and have acted within the law.

Chris.

The purpose of a professional enquiry letter is to ask if there are any reasons why you should take the decision not to accept the appointment.  That is what your letter should say.  It is not a case of the outgoing accountant giving you "clearance" or objecting to you poaching his client.

There are no (valid) reasons why they could "object", the ex agent has no say in the mattter whatsoever. It is old fashioned speak, bit like saying goodbye with "we must do dinner sometime" when you absolutly have no intention of doing so.

Oh and "you must show me those holiday snaps next time" ...

You can (and should) still be couteous, but I would avoid using any words which could invite awkward or silly replies.