Business Financial Advice Specialists In West Yorkshire

Business Financial Advice Specialists In West Yorkshire2026-03-19T13:52:17+00:00

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Over 30 Years Experience

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We Put You First

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Impartial Bespoke Advice

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FCA Authorised & Regulated

Securing Your Business’ Legacy & Empowering Your Workforce

When it comes to running a successful business, it takes more than just operational expertise. You need financial infrastructure in place that protects the business in unforeseen circumstances and helps to support the people who ensure it succeeds in the first place.

Here at Oakworth, we’ve been providing financial advice to business owners across West Yorkshire and the whole of the UK for 30 years now. From the likes of IT firms in Leeds to Fleet Cleaning companies in Wakefield, we’ve helped businesses of all sizes, whether that’s by helping start-up’s to create a solid foundation or established businesses to safeguard their futures.

We act not just as your financial advisers, but your strategic financial partners in your business journey, helping to ensure financial resilience and of course, growth. Our core expertise is in safeguarding ownership of the business through Shareholder Protection, which protects the business and financially supports the shareholder’s family in the event of an unfortunate death.

But we also support businesses with profit extraction, exit strategy and succession planning and setting up key person insurance to cover lost profits if your top employee falls ill. On top of that we also provide employee financial education workshops covering the likes of budgeting, workplace pension policies and mortgage and first time buying advice.

Let Us Help

Whether you’d like us to help provide financial advice for your business or to your employees, we can help.

    Consent*

    We'll only use the data you choose to enter here so that we can chat about your query. Personal information will be treated as confidential by us and held in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018. Take a look at our privacy policy for more info.

    Consent*
    We’ll only use the data you choose to enter here so that we can chat about your query. Personal information will be treated as confidential by us and held in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018. Take a look at our privacy policy for more info.

    Business Financial Advice: What We Can Help With

    Shareholder & Partnership Protection

    Often referred to as the ‘business will’, shareholder and partnership protection policies help to provide funds to remaining business owners, enabling them to buy out a critically ill or deceased partner’s shares. Ensuring their family is financially supported and the business is secure.

    Employee Financial Workshops

    Financial stress is one of the leading causes of employee absenteeism and reduced productivity so it makes sense for you to offer help and advice where you can. Our workshops can help to educate your employees on a number of financial aspects and help to reduce financial stress and hopefully improve productivity too.

    Key Person Insurance

    This insurance policy is put in place to protect businesses in the event that one or more of your top employees become seriously ill or passes away. The policy would provide a cash lump sum to cover any income losses, to pay off business debt or cover the process of recruiting a replacement.

    Profit Extraction

    We can advise business owners how to effectively extract profits from the business in a tax efficient way, such as through dividends or pension contributions. We’ll help you to minimise both Corporation Tax and personal tax liability too.

    Exit Strategy & Succession Planning

    Whether you’re planning to sell your business, float it on the stock market or pass it on to a family member, we’ll help to create a step-by-step financial exit strategy that transfers assets efficiently whilst maximising value. As part of that strategy we’ll value the business and maximise ‘Business Asset Disposal Relief’ too.

    Personal Advice

    As we specialise in personal financial advice too, we’ll undertake a ‘Double-Duty’ approach when advising you, ensuring you’re aware of any business decisions that may affect your personal wealth. We’ll always look to provide advice that looks after both your personal back pocket and the business’ profits.

    What To Expect

    1

    Get In Touch

    Let us know your specific requirements either via our online form, email or a phone call. The more details we know, the sooner we can start to help.

    2

    We’ll Assess Your Needs

    Our team of experts will review and assess your specific requirements, allowing us to understand your situation and how we can help.

    3

    Advice Tailored To You

    One of our expert financial advisers will be in touch to discuss your specific business advice requirements and will work with you to create a tailored strategy.

    How We Can Help

    Our independent business financial advice expertise is comprehensive and can be tailored to businesses of any size. From ambitious start-up’s to established limited companies, we can help.

    As independent financial advisers, we’re not tied to any single insurance provider or investment bank. This allows us to look at the entire UK market when it comes to finding the most suitable protection policies and financial products for your business requirements.

    Our bespoke educational workshops are not an ‘off the shelf’ solution. They’re tailor made for your employees demographic, helping them with the specific financial issues they have.

    Our experienced financial advisers will handle all the complex documentation, liaising with your accountants and solicitors to draft any Cross-Option agreements or Trust deeds that may need to be created. We’ll help to ensure any protection policies are watertight with HMRC.

    Contact us today to discuss your business financial requirements and we’ll work together with you to craft a tailored financial plan that looks to ensure financial resilience and growth, no matter the size of your business.

    FAQ’s

    Of course! By taking advantage of financial advice early you can help to ensure long term sustainability for your business. Mistakes made at the incorporation stage such as incorrect share structures could be very expensive to fix later down the line..

    By taking advice from independent financial advisors you can structure the business correctly from the outset, manage any early cash flow issues and set up your pension and tax strategy correctly to protect against financial and administrative headaches as you scale the business.

    Shareholder Protection Insurance is an important policy that enables the surviving owners of a business to purchase the shares of a business from the deceased shareholders estate. This ensures that the deceased’s family have a willing buyer and financial support rather than the shares in a business.

    You can even build in Shareholder Protection with Critical Illness, so that in the event of a business owner dying or being diagnosed with a critical or terminal illness, the policy will provide the remaining shareholders with a lump sum to enable them to purchase the shares of the stakeholder who has either passed away or is dying.

    It’s often beneficial to also write into the Shareholder Protection Insurance agreement a ‘Cross-Option’ agreement (otherwise known as a ‘Double Option’ agreement). This agreement can help to ‘force’ the sale of shares back into the business (protecting the shares) and also determine how much each other shareholder has to pay for the remaining shares (protecting the deceased’s family).

    Whilst it does force the shareholder’s family to sell the shares to the other remaining shareholders, it’s often a ‘win-win’ for both the deceased’s family and the business.

    Whilst we’re not solicitors, as financial advisors we can help to draft up standard templates and work closely with your legal team to ensure the insurance policies align perfectly with your legal agreements. We can’t implement the cross-option ourselves.

    Generally, no they’re not. To ensure the payout reaches the shareholders tax-free to buy the shares, the premiums are usually paid by the shareholders personally or treated as a ‘benefit in Kind’ if paid by the company. We’re here to advise on the most tax-efficient structure for your specific setup.

    Shareholder Protection Insurance policies typically only cover death or critical insurance, not the amicable departure of shareholders from the business. If you’ve set up such a policy with a shareholder and they do leave voluntarily, the insurance can usually be cancelled or even transferred if suitable. We can help to ensure the terms that dictate how other shareholders can buy them out in a voluntary exit scenario are clearly stated within the Shareholders Agreement.

    We’ve designed the employee workshops to either be 60 minute webinars or ‘lunch and learn’ sessions, so whichever style suits you and your employee’s requirements we can deliver. We certainly find that this minimal time investment pays for itself many times over in the future though with increased productivity and improved employee morale too.

    The cost of the employee financial workshops vary depending on the number of sessions and the number of attendees. However, we often provide these workshops at a reduced rate or in some cases as a complimentary service when we’re appointed to manage their workplace pension or group protection schemes.

    Every business has key personnel that are talented, committed and essentially integral to the success of that business. Legal & general’s ‘State of the Nation’ report conducted in 2021 stated that ‘59% of businesses believe they’d have to stop trading in less than a year after the death or critical illness of a key individual’.

    A Key Person Insurance policy protects the business against this situation and the policy proceeds can be used to cover any loss of profits, to pay off any debts accrued or even go towards the costs of recruiting their replacement.

    You need to have a financial relationship with the person you’re taking the insurance policy out for and also have their agreement too. The following examples are job roles that business often take out Key Person Insurance for;

    • Owner
    • CEO
    • Operations Manager
    • IT Manager
    • Web Developer
    • Sales Lead

    Key Person insurance premiums are generally treated as a tax-deductible business expense as long as they meet certain HMRC criteria, which allows the business to reduce its corporation tax liability.

    To qualify for tax relief in the UK, the policy must meet these conditions;

    1. The policy must either be on a non-shareholder employee or in the case of a shareholder, the relationship must strictly be employer-employee.
    2. The policy must be to solely cover the loss of profits and not be used to cover loans or the repayment of capital.
    3. The term must be ‘short-term’, which is essentially either 5 years or for the duration of the employee working at the business.

    If all the above conditions are met, then the premiums are treated as an allowable expense. If the premium is tax-deductible then the payout is generally treated as a taxable trading receipt.

    Succession planning is the strategic process of identifying individuals within the business and preparing them to take over the business in the future, whilst also ensuring a smooth transition that protects the business’s value and minimises disruptions.

    There are a variety of routes that an exit strategy can go down, from transferring the business to a family member or entertaining a management buyout to conducting a trade sale where the business is sold to another business in the same or a similar sector.

    We can help you with the process of succession planning and the creation of a foolproof exit strategy.

    Yes of course and it’s advised that you utilise the expertise of an independent financial advisor for many aspects of your business. They can work together with your legal team to ensure structures are in place and optimised for the likes of business sales, investments and protection policies.

    On top of that, financial advisers also help to structure finances for tax efficiency such as setting up pensions, salary sacrifices and helping to prepare for various types of business exits.

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    Need help? Contact us

    We’re here to provide tailored advice to your situation and your needs. Let us know what you require and we’ll work towards delivering it.

    Oakworth FP

    Registered in England: 03888445 at 45 Newgate, Pontefract, West Yorkshire, WF8 1NB. Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for Investment Business. Our aim is to provide you with a professional service that delivers the highest possible standards. However, should you wish to make a complaint, you can do so by writing to [email protected] or phoning us on 0800 018 6020. If you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk or by contacting them on 0800 023 4567.

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    © 2026 Oakworth Financial Planning Ltd. T: 0800 018 6020. F: 01977 690026. E: [email protected]

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