Advisory

We are Advisers for Every Ambition and our experts are on hand to provide you with the right advice when you need it.

Trusted expertise and strategic support for legal matters and business growth. To find out more please click below.

Forensic Accounting & Expert Witness

Our specialist Forensic Accounting & Expert Witness team of highly experienced experts can prepare essential expert reports and opinion for a wide range of civil and family court matters, as well as providing comprehensive advisory assistance and valuation advice.

We understand that it is essential to convey complex financial matters, opinions, and expertise in a clear and concise manner readily understandable by the parties, solicitors and court. We have extensive experience of highly diverse cases where we have provided reports, opinion and specialist advice on a timely and carefully measured basis. As practicing accountants we have a wealth of practical and commercial experience to draw upon and help guide and underpin often complex, theoretical scenarios.

Before commencing any assignment, we will discuss the matter in detail with the instructing party or parties. It is essential at this point to understand the key matters, areas of potential complexity or uncertainty and how we can assist the matter. Every case will be unique, and we would draw upon our wide ranging and extensive experience and expertise to help assess and guide any instructions and scope. At all times we would give a clear proposal and timescales before commencing any work and indication of areas that may be outside of our expertise, or where additional opinion may be required.

We have extensive experience of forensic accounting and expert witness work both in court matters and as separate areas of advice. These can include (but are not limited to):

Expert witness reporting

Matrimonial matters

Commercial disputes

Loss of profit claims

Professional negligence

Advising on financial reports and opinions

Quantification of potential claim values and advising on strength of evidence

Mediation assistance

Our strong expert witness expertise complements increasingly sought after business valuation and advisory work.

Tax legislation and commercial approaches to business continue to rapidly change, with new challenges and areas of complexity. There are many areas where business valuations and related advice are increasingly important and are a complimentary area to our taxation and expert witness valuation work.

One example is recent changes to Inheritance Tax reliefs where accurate and robust valuations are increasingly important alongside traditional tax planning to assist family-owned businesses plan their family wealth.

Other areas where valuations are increasingly important are to support shareholder exits, probate valuations, valuations for tax and HMRC purposes or for issuing shares in businesses to employees or new investors.

In all cases, it’s essential to gain an understanding of potential values for meaningful planning and strategy and we can assist and advice in all such matters, which are always most effective at an early stage.

Key features of our Forensic Accounting & Expert Witness support:

Clarity

We will explain complex financial matters in an accessible and understandable manner. Each case is unique, and we carefully examine the specific details to best select the appropriate approach and methodologies for the purpose and context of our report. We provide clear and concise reports, opinion and communication.

Expertise

We have extensive and wide-ranging experience of expert witness and forensic accounting and benefit from drawing upon wider commercial and practical experience across our accounts, audit and taxation teams.

Specialist networks

We are actively involved in national specialist networks which keeps us at the forefront of current and emerging issues, court decisions and sector specific developments of methodology and technologies.

Extended advice

Our knowledge and experience of formal business valuations can be applied to all manner of valuation and advisory work, ranging from tax planning and compliance to strategic and commercial decisions.

Growth & Transactions

We are also here to support you and your business as you grow and expand, providing advice throughout the whole life cycle of your business, whether it is starting up, growing, expanding, or has reached maturity.

We will spend time with you working out what you want to achieve and how you are going to achieve it.

If you are looking to raise equity and loan capital, we can produce the financial figures that you need. We will ensure that your business plan addresses the marketplace that you trade in, the strength of your product and of your management team. We will also help you identify the unique selling points that will make a plan attractive to investors.

Invoice discounting

Pension fund loans

Crowdfunding

Alternative loan funders

Bank funding

Equity release on assets

Business angels and use of SEIS/EIS schemes

Local authority funding

Specialist sector support

Private equity

Our transactional support includes vendor and buyer financial and/or tax due diligence.

Whether you are looking to buy or sell a business, or parts of it, going through an appropriate due diligence process establishes the soundness, or otherwise, of a business. By carrying out a detailed review of the financial records, we use our experience and financial expertise to verify the business. This assists you and your other advisers with the ongoing negotiations as the deal nears completion and provides comfort to both buyers and sellers.

Our team is on hand to help you understand the critical factors so that informed decisions can be made.

We also have a strong network of legal and corporate finance professionals who we work with regularly and can bring into the process to assist if appropriate.

Key features of our growth & transactions support include:

Transactions

We want to give you reassurance on your transaction and work with you as part of your team. We aim to be precise, relevant and focus on the key issues.

Grants

It is possible to raise grant funding even when relatively few jobs are being created. We have excellent relations with the government organisations that matter.

Business Advice

We have years of experience solving the issues businesses have to deal with when growing whether it’s expansion, exit, commercial strategy, succession planning or just reassurance. Sometimes it’s a lonely place for business owners but our clients are never alone. We’ll always listen and discuss what option is best for you.

Funding

Whilst we have direct access to the prime funders we have also built up an extensive network of advisors who can find funding for situations that don’t naturally fit with prime funders. We don’t take commissions from introductions, we simply work for you and find you the right funder for your situation.