Welcome to CharterGroup
Financial Management.

We are a small network of Independent Financial Advisers directly regulated by the Financial Services Authority, and mainly linked to firms of Chartered Accountants in The CharterGroup Alliance.

Risk Analysis

Risk chartDetermining what could go wrong in your business and developing strategies to cope with “any eventuality” could mean the difference between a successful business and one that fails. A business is either moving forward or backwards, never standing still. For example Tesco’s may have seen the internet as a threat to their business, but instead they turned that threat around, and now use it to their advantage.

Things you should consider:

·         How much of your business is derived from one source? If a large proportion of your business comes from one person or business what effect would it have if that business went bust or decided to take its services or goods elsewhere?

·         How many products or services do you provide? If your business is concentrated in one sector or you only have a few products that you supply what effect would a new innovation or a downturn in that sector have on your business? For example, a large blanket manufacturer in Witney never saw the introduction of Duvets in the 1970’s as a threat until it was too late, saw a massive downturn in business from which they never recovered.

·         Key personnel: who are the key profit generators for your business? What effect would their loss have on your business? This could also include you of course. Obviously you can’t insure against them leaving you, but what if a serious illness or death took them away from you?

·         Where you operate from: what effect would a fire have on your business? Assuming total devastation how quickly could you be up and running again? How often do you back up your data, and where is it kept? What insurance do you have in place? Where could you relocate to while the property was being rebuilt?

·         Who owes you money? What systems and processes do you have in place to recover money from your debtors? How long do you allow your clients before you start chasing them? What effect would a client going out of business have for you?

·         Who owns your business and how is it set up? Are you a limited company, partnership, sole trader or LLP (limited liability partnership)? If you have business partners, what effect would their death have on the business? Apart from the obvious like losing a potential profit centre for the business, would you end up in business with your partner’s spouse? Have you got shareholder agreements or partnership agreements set up outlining what would happen?

How we can help:

·         Advice on keyperson insurance

·         Help devising a risk analysis template for your business

·         Advice on setting up shareholder agreements/ partnership agreements, and ways to fund purchasing the business from a surviving spouse

·         Quotes for general insurance such as Office, business interruption, buildings, professional indemnity