Starting a new business
You have the expertise, the contacts, the capital. You have a business model and you know it will succeed. It is time to leave the institutional arena and put your plans into action.
You may never have done anything like this before. Finance, compliance and general administration have all been handled by people in different departments, and now they are all going to be down to yours truly. Probably none of this would be too difficult, but will there be enough hours in the day to do it all?
The FSA application pack takes up a full lever arch file when printed out. The same set of forms applies, whether you are a small low-risk firm or Megabucks Global Investment Bank. There are no unreasonable questions in the entire pack, but it is pretty daunting for those who have not seen it before, and not everyone understands all the technical terms.
Need a helping hand? Try our practical approach
We have assisted dozens of new businesses with their FSA applications. We take a very practical approach, including:
- Advising you which sections of the application pack concern you directly, and which sections you do not need to worry about;
- Similarly, advising you which areas of the FSA rule books concern you directly, and which you can safely ignore;
- Explaining all the terminology;
- Helping you to design and implement appropriate systems and documentation;
- Preparing your compliance manual;
- Working out your minimum regulatory capital requirements;
- Explaining your personal responsibilities, which take effect from day one of FSA authorisation.
After we have talked our clients through the process, they usually opt to complete the straightforward parts of the pack themselves, and we complete the "difficult bits" based on their input. It's one of those tasks that look arduous at the outset, but is not so bad with the benefit of hindsight.
The benefits of professional advice
In addition to helping you with the administrative side to compliance there are many other matters you will need to consider, for example:
- Is it best to conduct the business individually, or as a company, or as a limited liability partnership?
- What is the most tax efficient ownership and remuneration structure?
- Is VAT registration required, and will there be full recovery of VAT incurred on expenditure?
We can assist on all of these questions and many more.
Once you are authorised, we can help with:
- Preparing your periodic reports to the FSA, and getting them in on time;
- Keeping you up to date with changes to the rules which affect your business (and not bothering you with those that don't);
- Maintaining cost-effective compliance monitoring procedures and records.
We can also audit your accounts and make the various auditors' reports to the FSA.
The next step
If this all sounds like the answer you are looking for, we offer an introductory meeting with a UHY Hacker Young partner free of charge. All you need to do is email the partner in charge of FSA services, Mike Egan , at m.egan@uhy-uk.com , with some brief details about you and your business. We look forward to hearing from you.
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