Accountants and financial planners both seem to perform very similar roles when it comes to giving financial advice and helping clients manage their wealth. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Find out what their roles and responsibilities are, and whether you should hire an accountant or a financial planner.
Individuals and businesses need help with managing wealth when the amount in question is of high value. Are you a business owner and who is handling large sums of money on a daily basis? Then having a financial expert manage that wealth for you can enable greater savings. Similarly, if you earn more than $200,000, you may also benefit from taking advice from financial experts.
Who Needs to Hire An Accountant Or A Financial Planner?
An accountant is a professional service provider who can help you file your taxes, audit wealth, make financial forecasts, create financial statements, and help you better manage the wealth you have. A financial planner, on the other hand, doesn’t offer help with technical and legal aspects of wealth management, which accountants can and are licensed to do.
Instead, financial planners play the role of advisers who can enable you to grow your wealth, plan your investments, as well as help plan your retirement plan. A financial planner can also help you strategize how to leave your inheritance behind. They do t work specifically with businesses and are more likely to work with individuals who want to grow their wealth.
If you own a business, then you can benefit from hiring an accountant. This is as a business needs to account for various financial transactions, as well as taxes. Your accountant can monitor your cash flow, maintain your books, help you file your taxes, and more. A financial planner can’t help you in this way.
If you’re looking for advice on how to grow your wealth as a business owner, then you can benefit from hiring a financial planner. This is as a financial planner is better capable of working directly with individuals or teams to motivate wealth creation and management. The difference here lies in that an accountant can assist a business or an organization with wealth management. At the same time, a financial planner can help individuals and teams within the organization to do the same.
Consider hiring both an accountant as well as a financial planner. This helps you gain the most from the both worlds. You can invite professional help that enables your business, as well as your personal financial portfolio, to expand.
What’s The Difference Between An Accountant and a Financial Planner?
Aside from different job roles, the path to becoming an accountant is also very different from that of a financial planner. Accountants need to complete several courses, take exams, get their professional license, and only after that can they practice professionally. On the other hand, a financial planner doesn’t even need a bachelor’s degree.
They do, however, need to sit for various exams and obtain certification before they can become financial planners. It’s also worth noting that while an accountant’s main focus lies in crunching numbers and analyzing data, a financial planner is better associated with sales and networking.
With the help of a financial planner, a business owner can go about achieving various financial goals and milestones. But with an accountant, can get professional help with financial statements, taxes, reports, and other aspects of a business’ wealth management.
Can You Hire Both?
Hiring both an accountant and a financial planner can bring you great benefits. Since they cover different job roles and responsibilities, together they provide a more holistic approach to your wealth management.
When you hire both, you ensure that both your personal, as well as your professional assets are taken care of. As a business owner, you can still consider leaving out a financial planner. But you can’t do the same with an accountant. This is as accountants are aware of legal and tax issues that could affect businesses. Together with a good accountant, you can create good financial strategies that benefit your business.
Conclusion
Both an accountant and a financial planner can benefit business owners. Accountants help manage wealth for the larger business or organisation, while a financial planner does the same for individuals and teams. If you run a sole proprietorship or small corporation and are interested in growing your wealth, then a financial planner could help you as well.
When hiring a professional service provider, consider checking to see whether they have professional indemnity insurance. With professional indemnity insurance, an accountant and a financial planner can protect both their finances, as well as yours. If you want to learn more about how professional indemnity insurance can benefit businesses, then click here.
