Partner Article

Seeing the benefits of the bigger picture: S&W

S&W
www.swgroup.com 
LinkedIn: S&W Group

Accountancy and advisory firm S&W recently strengthened its North East presence with the addition of Peppercorn Tax. The move brought private client tax specialists Emma Glover, Kelly Morgan and their team into S&W’s Queen’s Lane Newcastle office, expanding its expertise in succession, inheritance tax and wealth planning. Here, partner Emma speaks to Peter Anderson about the move to S&W, the benefits of joining a national firm and how her team is helping clients navigate an increasingly complex tax landscape.

In HBO’s critically-acclaimed TV series Succession, the children of media magnate Logan Roy grapple with the consequences of a family patriarch unwilling to relinquish control of his business or influence.

Amid the inevitable sibling rivalry, personal manoeuvring and constant jockeying for position, two things quickly become apparent: succession and inheritance can often prove deeply complex and divisive.

Furthermore, without clear, forward-thinking planning, the fallout can be financially and emotionally damaging.

And while most family businesses are thankfully far removed from the dysfunction and Shakespearean levels of betrayal exhibited by the Roy family, the underlying tensions are often surprisingly familiar.

These are issues Emma Glover, partner at accountancy and advisory firm S&W, encounters regularly through her work advising individuals, families, landowners and business owners on everything from inheritance tax and succession planning to trusts and intergenerational wealth transfer.

Emma helps families and businesses navigate not only tax complexities, but the personal dynamics and competing interests that can emerge around wealth and succession.

For Emma and S&W’s wider private client team, the work centres on helping people plan for the future as they navigate an increasingly complex tax landscape.

She adds: “We look at people’s wealth, what their plans are and try to look into the future.

“It’s a little like looking into a crystal ball.

“The tax landscape changes constantly, so part of our role is to help clients anticipate what’s coming next, rather than reacting after the fact.”

That forward-looking approach spans inheritance tax planning, capital gains tax planning and succession advice for high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs, family businesses and landowners across the North East and beyond.

Increasingly, says Emma, that advice is becoming more important as tax rules evolve and long-standing reliefs become less advantageous.

She adds: “We do a lot of work for farmers and landowners.

“They face a lot of tax complexities, but almost all of them are solvable if they get the right advice.”

That is particularly true in the North East, where significant wealth is often tied up in land, farming businesses and family-owned enterprises passed down through generations.

Much of the team’s work focuses on helping families preserve wealth and structure matters in a way that protects future generations, whether through trusts, gifting strategies or broader succession planning.

That role also demands constant vigilance, with Emma highlighting upcoming changes to inheritance tax on pensions as one of the biggest shifts facing clients.

She says: “A lot more people will benefit from taking advice about that who may never have needed tax advice before.

“Previously, pension pots could often pass to children without inheritance tax – so this is going to change the conversation for a lot of families.

“These kinds of changes are exactly why keeping ahead of the rules and planning early is so important.”

And while every client situation is different, Emma is clear many issues can be addressed through proactive and carefully structured advice.

She says: “Good tax advice is worth taking; in 99 per cent of cases it pays for itself.”

For Emma, the value of specialist advice is something she understands not only from working with clients, but from building her own business.

Last year, Peppercorn Tax – the specialist advisory firm Emma founded alongside fellow director Kelly Morgan – was acquired by S&W as part of the firm’s continued expansion across the North East.

Emma and Kelly established Peppercorn nearly nine years ago, growing the business from a specialist tax practice into an eight-person advisory firm serving clients across the region.

She says: “We started from scratch.

“At the beginning, we did tax advice and tax returns, but over time we expanded because we were turning work away.”

That growth ultimately led Emma, Kelly and their colleagues to seek a larger platform that could provide broader resources and deeper specialist support for clients.

Having known S&W’s regional managing partner Donna Bulmer and her team for years, Emma says she was confident the move would provide both the cultural fit and expertise Peppercorn had been looking for.

She adds: “We were looking for greater resources to help service our clients.

“We thought it would be a really good match, and that has turned out to be the case.”

The move saw Emma, Kelly and six colleagues relocate into S&W’s Queen’s Lane Newcastle office, forming part of a wider expansion strategy for the region.

It is a decision, Emma says, that has broadened the team’s capabilities and the level of support it can offer clients.

She says: “There’s a great depth of knowledge here.

“There are some really brilliant tax experts in very niche areas, and not necessarily just in Newcastle – they could be anywhere in the country.”

That national network has significantly expanded the team’s ability to collaborate, solve increasingly complex client issues and access specialist expertise that may previously have been out of reach for a smaller independent firm.

Emma adds: “The horizons have expanded greatly.

“What we do is fundamentally problem solving, so having that depth of expertise around you is incredibly valuable.”

The move has also allowed Emma and Kelly to focus more heavily on advisory work, while benefiting from the infrastructure and support that comes with being part of a larger national firm.

But despite the increased scale, Emma says the values and relationship-led approach underpinning the team’s work remain unchanged.

She adds: “The fundamentals are the same.

“It’s still about helping people, building relationships and giving clients the best possible advice.”

For more information about S&W and how its expert private client tax services could support your circumstances, visit the website at the top of this article or email emma.glover@swgroup.com.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by N Magazine .