Different professions are regulated differently, and are good for different things. Here is a plain guide to who does what — and who is actually regulated to do it.
A good source of initial advice on tax matters, especially if you are in business. Accountants are professionals who record, analyse and report financial information for individuals, businesses and organisations.
Professional bodies act as regulators, including the ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) and the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants). There is an important difference between a qualified / chartered accountant — who holds a recognised professional designation — and someone who simply provides bookkeeping or accounting services.
All firms and individuals providing financial advice must be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs) in the UK are heavily regulated: firms appear on the FCA Register, which the public can search to verify legitimacy. Restricted advisers can only advise on a limited range of products or providers — for example, a bank adviser who only recommends their own products.
Accountants and financial advisers will tend to advise you "by the book" — for example, that you can give up to £5,000 to a child on marriage as a Potentially Exempt Transfer for Inheritance Tax purposes. But it takes a lawyer with imagination to point out that you could instead pay a much larger sum directly to the wedding venue — as long as you are the contracting party — without it being a gift at all, merely an extravagance.
Solicitors' firms used to be seen as the first port of call for legal advice. Firms vary enormously in size, from sole practitioners to international firms with thousands of lawyers — there are around 200,000+ solicitors on the roll in England and Wales. "City" of London firms take on the best graduates at starting salaries of over £100,000 a year, but these firms are built for big business and the very rich. "High Street" firms may have been established for hundreds of years, though increasingly they are branch offices of regional or national firms. They have departments which specialise, and have always been able to call on the independent Bar for advice and advocacy.
Solicitors must be insured against negligence claims and are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). The SRA Compensation Fund can pay out for claims involving dishonesty or failure to account for client money, including fraud by the solicitor. Solicitors are an excellent resource for conveyancing, and a safe place for money during transactions (though they cannot offer banking services). They are recommended for administrative work in complex litigation, and for preliminary advice.
Barristers have traditionally been a referral profession — solicitors could seek advice from specialists without fear that the barrister would take their client away. Before 2004, the public could not instruct a barrister directly: the cab-rank rule and professional rules required that barristers could only be instructed through a solicitor, or certain other approved intermediaries. This meant clients had to pay for both a solicitor and a barrister.
Since the Legal Services Act, the market has opened up to better competition, and barristers are increasingly acting direct for companies and members of the public — receiving recommendations from accountants and others, as well as instructions from litigators. There are around 14,000 self-employed barristers. Barristers do not handle client money, but are required to have insurance, and are regulated by the Bar Standards Board (BSB).
Licensed Probate Practitioners are regulated by the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC). The CLC is a relatively small, specialist regulator compared to the SRA. It primarily regulates licensed conveyancers, but was also granted the power to regulate probate activities following the Legal Services Act 2007. The CLC does not publish how many probate practitioners it licenses, but the number is believed to be small. They are required to have professional indemnity insurance, but there is no fraud compensation scheme comparable to the SRA's.
Members of the public should be wary of websites offering cut-price probate services and "free" will drafting. They often fail to mention the difficulties involved, or the fees payable for registering Lasting Powers of Attorney and for obtaining a Grant of Probate. Sadly, some are scams and cannot be trusted with client money.[1]