When does your financial planner need to liaise with your legal adviser?
Part of the role of professional advisers is to recognise their skills and expertise – and to acknowledge when the needs of any of their clients is outside those boundaries. Whilst financial planners, accountants and other business advisory consultants may be familiar with and have some understanding about various laws, regulations and documentation, legal advisers need to be appropriately qualified and ‘registered’ to provide legal advice. Perhaps more importantly in this context, the law prohibits anybody who is not so qualified and registered from providing legal advice and services.
We occasionally need to work with legal advisers
As is the case in so many professions, the legal fraternity is comprised of generalists and specialists. This is true in relation to lawyers/ solicitors in general practice firms as well as to barristers.
The complexity of the wealth management issues involved determines the level of expertise required of any legal adviser to be involved.
Which legal adviser should be used in your matter?
At Continuum Financial Planners Pty Ltd we have developed an extensive network of legal firms through whom we have specialists available to advise on a range of topics. Areas that are of particular interest to us in our financial planning role, include –
- Taxation;
- Business Structures;
- Business Succession;
- Residency (in a taxation context);
- Intellectual Property;
- ‘Real’ Property;
- Superannuation; and
- Estate planning.
Before we refer clients to any of the specialist legal advisers in our network, we prefer to communicate with lawyers in existing relationships with the client to establish their competence in the area of interest – and to work in that existing relationship where possible.
We coordinate the specialist professional services required in any particular situations
If you have any concerns about any of the above issues, please contact your adviser at Continuum Financial Planners Pty Ltd for guidance. You can raise us by phone (on 07-3421 3456); or use our website contact us facility for a referral. When we enter into a service engagement with clients we are able to coordinate the services that may need to be harnessed to provide you with a suitable wealth management solution: we often take this role for clients, bringing together estate planning specialists, accounting professionals, business valuers, lawyers and brokers from varying industries.
Originally posted in January 2010, this article has occasionally been updated/ refreshed, most recently during March 2020
