A Financial Adviser has asked if I can help him register Trusts who are non-taxable. How do I do it for his clients who are currently not mine.
Replies (15)
Please login or register to join the discussion.
From the question it sounds as if you're effectively acting as sub-contractor to the IFA. You need to be clear as to the terms of the engagement (ie you're not acting for their end clients). And you need to be sure of your AML obligations in this scenario
I'd seek advice from my professional body, especially on the AML point.
my company have also been approached by a local financial advisor to see if we can do this for their clients but we have not replied as yet, the practicalities may not make it worthwhile.
I have been thinking about this and am about to send out a warning letter to all my clients who may have non taxable trusts and be unaware of the need to register them. I am offering two approaches: they appoint me as agent and I carry out the registration for them. AML won't be a problem because you need the information that normal AML checks produce in order to deal with the registration. I shall issue an engagement letter and expect to be paid.
The second option is that I help the client register the trust via Zoom. I have used the screen sharing function so that I can guide them as to what to do. I won't take any responsibility for the registration and it should take about one hour per trust. I am not going to charge for this but ask the client to make a charitable donation.
If the client cannot cope with a computer, then I would offer to do the same help but with the client coming to my office and sitting next to me whilst I type.
I appreciate that I expect to be dealing only with people who are clients in another capacity but there may be others (family members of clients) who also ask for help.
Yes, it is hard enough sorting when they are taxable and have a UTR, I eventually sorted out SA for two taxable trusts after registering the trusts but it was not straightforward (I was helped by someone on A Web giving me a link a few weeks back, will try to find the link)
You are right about the difficulties of setting up a Government Gateway account. I am too used to doing it for SA clients. Last night I had a client phone me in tears because they have a passport, but GB driving licence (not a NI one), no clue as to when they opened their bank accounts, no phone contract etc and no earnings so no P60 or payslip. They have just let me know that they gave up after an hour and sent a request for help via email.
"I am offering two approaches: they appoint me as agent and I carry out the registration for them. AML won't be a problem because you need the information that normal AML checks produce in order to deal with the registration."
Won't it?
You have to do AML checks on the settlor, trustees, named beneficiaries, protectors et al. Which typically is 6-12 people most of whom won't be clients, the cost of the checks could be expensive. Of course you are free to charge a suitable fee for dong the work.
I agree that it is a lot of work but you need the basic information about all of those involved with the trust (date of birth, nationality, NI number in some cases, residence, mental capacity in some cases) that by the time you have sorted that lot out, you should have enough to deal with AML issues. Or, at least, it is straight forward to obtain AML documents when you are obtaining the information needed to register the trust.
Here is the thread with the link:
https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/any-answers/setting-up-sa-online-for-a-t...
The link from Gainsborough
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/manage-your-trusts-registration-service
(Sneakily you do not get to the SA registration bit until the trust is registered you log out and then back in again, at which point the register for SA bit pops up as available)
No wonder, it is quite time consuming and you need to ingather a fair bit of data, three and a bit printed pages of data with ours (and if more assets than we had could have been more)
It took me circa 1 hour for my first and say 30 minutes for my second, I had all the data needed as I am the main trustee/ manage the trusts, I just had to dig it all out from our files to do the registration.
I suspect a proforma information form, complete from what you hold, chase client for rest, might work but I would allow more time chasing than typing .
(Seems like a day for it, this morning got e mail from family solicitor, Hargreaves Lansdown who hold investments for a trust set up on death of my father want to do ML re all the beneficaries, this is not going to be good fun as there are 12 of them and I will end up having to chase them (my two kids plus 9 nieces and nephews and the party with the life interest in the trust))