The assumption sitting underneath the advice
Good financial advice, cashflow planning, tax structuring, pension strategy, is only as stable as the legal footing underneath it. An accountant will build a plan around your shareholding, your contracts, your key relationships, as they currently stand. Nobody checks whether "as they currently stand" is actually written down anywhere.
I've sat in enough of these conversations to know it's rarely dishonesty. It's just not the accountant's job to ask, and it's easy for a business owner to assume it's fine because nobody's raised it.
A financial plan built on an unwritten agreement is a plan built on sand. It holds, right up until it doesn't.
Where the gaps usually sit
- No shareholders' agreement, or one written years ago that no longer reflects who actually does what. If a co-founder relationship sours, this is the document that decides how messy it gets.
- Verbal arrangements with key suppliers or customers that carry real financial weight but exist nowhere in writing.
- Founder and family loans into the business with no formal terms, which can create real tax and inheritance complications later.
- No lasting power of attorney or succession plan for the business itself, so a serious illness or accident leaves no clear route for someone else to act.
- Employee arrangements that don't match reality, contracts that predate a role change, or key people with no restrictive covenants at all.
Do this now, and you'll have fewer arguments later
None of the fixes here are complicated. Write down what's actually been agreed. Put a proper shareholders' agreement in place if there's more than one owner. Formalise any loan between you and the business. Review employment contracts against what people actually do, not what they were hired to do three years ago.
Do this once, properly, and most future arguments simply don't happen, because there's a document to point to instead of a memory to argue about.
The businesses that avoid a messy dispute usually aren't the lucky ones. They're the ones who wrote it down.
Where this fits with Silva
This isn't a pitch for a specific product, it's a genuinely useful thing to do whether or not you ever instruct us. But if you get to the point of wanting these documents actually drafted or reviewed properly, Silva can help you frame it so it's stable for the long term, not just tidy on the day it's signed.
Frequently asked questions
Why does financial advice need a solid legal foundation?
Financial advice - cashflow planning, tax structuring, pension strategy - is only as stable as the legal footing underneath it. An accountant builds a plan around your shareholding and contracts as they currently stand, but nobody checks whether "as they currently stand" is actually written down anywhere.
What legal gaps most commonly undermine financial planning?
The usual gaps are a missing or outdated shareholders' agreement, verbal arrangements with suppliers or customers that carry real financial weight, informal founder or family loans into the business, no lasting power of attorney or succession plan, and employment contracts that no longer match what people actually do.
What's the single most useful legal document for a business with more than one owner?
A proper shareholders' agreement. It's the document that decides how messy things get if a co-founder relationship sours, so it's worth putting in place while the founders still get on, not after a disagreement starts.
Do I need a lawyer to fix these gaps, or can I sort them myself?
Writing down what's actually been agreed is something you can start yourself, but for documents like a shareholders' agreement or founder loan terms that need to hold up under real pressure, it's worth having them properly drafted or reviewed so they're stable long term, not just tidy on the day they're signed.
Want the legal side checked over?
A Legal Discovery Day gives you a clear, single-day picture of where the gaps are, before they become someone else's problem to solve.