Ease the burden. How to make the end of tax year 2023 less painful

Businessman drowning in paperwork at office holding up a “HELP!” sign above the stack of files.

By AdviceBridge

Well done! If you’re reading this, you have survived the tax year end and come out on top.

Now that the last-minute scramble is over, catch your breath and consider ways you could make the madness easier on yourself and your team next March.

Year-round tax planning

While you may go to great lengths to advise your clients to make the most of all their available tax allowances ahead of time, there are always going to be stragglers who leave things to the last minute.

Whether it’s clients who have dragged their feet or been disorganised, wealth accumulators who suddenly realise they can make savings by making a large pension contribution, or new clients looking for last-minute financial plans ahead of the new tax year, come March 2023, you’ll face another heavy workload and a ticking clock for the few weeks leading up to 5 April.

There are several ways to help clients plan so that they are better prepared for next year’s deadline.

For example, encouraging clients to make ISA subscriptions at the start of the tax year, or set up a monthly direct debit to fund one. Or by spending time early in January and February, reviewing advice you have previously given to clients to ensure it remains relevant and up to date, and reminding clients of any actions they should consider ahead of the tax year end.

Because of the pressures surrounding tax year end, some financial advice firms close the doors to new business until 1 May. But there are other, less drastic ways to deal with the burden than turning away business.

Legacy systems – or no systems – can be a hindrance

If your business has multiple legacy systems or you have client information that isn’t yet digitised, you’ll have to chase the client for up-to-date information or contact product providers for valuations and other data that isn’t immediately to hand.

Only when you have the information can you produce the report with your recommendations and progress towards writing the business.

Hanging around waiting for people to come back to you is frustrating and unproductive.

Whether you’re writing a report from scratch or using a template, there’s no escaping that you must produce a report and then check the content is accurate before you can present your recommendation(s) to the client.

This inefficiency is never ideal, especially at the busy end of tax year where the problem of not having client information at your fingertips is amplified.

Meanwhile, advice firms who use the AdviceBridge platform can press a button and produce a compliant report ready to share with their client in seconds.

All the ways AdviceBridge can help ease the workload

With the AdviceBridge platform, you have all the client information you need to understand your clients’ current financial situation and the system will do all the heavy-lifting of tax optimisation and computation, so you don’t have to.

AdviceBridge automates the processes, research and analysis, identifies which wrappers the client should utilise, and automatically updates the financial plan.

In summary, the AdviceBridge system helps you:

  • Process more client requests faster
  • Access client data without delay
  • Produce automated, compliant-ready recommendation reports
  • Save time by cutting the time spent on new clients down from the typical 25 to 35 hours to under 5 hours (including meetings)
  • Increases the level of profitability substantially with smaller clients.

The system can run over 1,000 simulations taking into account various tax scenarios and risk at wrapper level, recommending the best structure across your clients’ holdings.

With sophistication and detail, AdviceBridge shows you and your clients the best way to utilise different tax wrappers, cutting fees, and saving tax, which may help them see the opportunities before the end of tax year clock starts ticking down to the 5 April deadline.

Get in touch

If you want to find out how AdviceBridge can benefit your business before end of tax year 2023, please get in touch. Book a demo, email hello@advicebridge.com, or call us on 020 3925 3850.