The Number 9 Bus...

A big part of me advising any of my clients is trying to keep them away from things that I have seen previous clients get wrong, and also some of life's more unexpected events like divorce and accident.

It is these aspects of advice that are vital to a client, especially one prone to delay in the face of a lengthy period of time before the circumstance they want to plan around is likely to hit. Over the years I seem to have developed what some friends and colleagues are starting to refer to as the "No9 Bus" doctrine. I have to thanks my friend @bddalton for the photograph, as he recently sent this to me after a meeting with a mutual client in which we had been discussing one of life's more terminal unexpected events...

A large part of the advice I give, particularly around inheritance tax and succession planning in business is (and there is no way to dress this up) death. This is a sensitive subject at best and I find very often best dealt with through use of a slightly macabre sense of humour (well at least in Britain, not sure it would work anywhere else). A common example of mine, (as no-one likes to think about death as a result of a terminal illness, or old age) is that of accident and for some reason many years ago the example I took was being knocked down by the ubiquitous "No9 Bus" as I was working in the Halesowen area at the time. This has stuck over the years and despite the humorous connotations, it does represent a very real example of life's unexpected events, and how they can affect our plans, particularly where they relate to tax.

This is another image (I am a very visual person) I use with clients, and is centered around their expectations, the reality of those expectations and how these can vary on the journey to the eventual end result. Now, I can take no credit for this image, it is one I found through social media and use with some clients during meetings, so to whoever developed this I am eternally grateful. It represents a very real illustration to a client between the difference in their perceptions once they are in full possession of all the facts that affect them and their situation.

Life is very rarely simple I am afraid, and tax even less so, so put the two together and you have a heady mix of things that can potentially go wrong. So through good, and more importantly experienced advice you can hope to iron out some of those kinks, or at least choose a better method of transport for the journey...