Meet Buzz Financial Services.

No. Buzz Financial Services is a sister brand — same wider Buzz family, but a separately regulated advice business with its own engagement terms and its own regulatory obligations. That separation is not branding, it is a requirement: regulated advice has to sit inside an authorised firm, with the reporting, permissions and consumer protections that go with it. Buzz Accounting clients reach the same joined-up thinking through our own financial services pages, which start with a free health check and a written summary rather than a product conversation.

Buzz is not authorised to give regulated financial advice; we introduce clients to Equity & General Financial Services Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FCA No. 474163. You can and should verify that on the FCA register before taking advice from anyone. What the FCA does not regulate: tax advice, trusts, will writing and some forms of estate planning — meaning the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme do not cover those. Knowing which protections apply to which piece of work matters most at the point something goes wrong.

Fees and any commission are disclosed in writing before you decide whether to proceed, as the rules require. Ask for the figure in pounds rather than as a percentage: 1% on a £400,000 pension is £4,000, and the two sentences do not feel the same. Protection and mortgage work is often commission-paid by the provider, which is normal and disclosable rather than hidden. Ongoing advice charges deducted from a fund are the ones people most often forget they are paying, so ask what the annual figure is and what you receive for it each year.

No. Buzz Financial Services advises clients independently of the accountancy practice. Where the connection genuinely helps is affordability and structure — an adviser who can see what the business earns, what you draw and what the accounts will support is not guessing about how much you can contribute or borrow. Where it does not help is if you prefer your financial adviser to have no relationship with your accountant, which is a perfectly reasonable position and one some people hold deliberately.

Pensions and retirement planning, investments, mortgages including later-life lending, protection, and the wider financial planning around them — usually framed around a stage of life rather than a product: starting a family, buying a first property, extracting profit from a growing business, approaching retirement, or planning what passes on. The most valuable work is often the least exciting: reviewing old pensions nobody has looked at, closing a protection gap, and getting an expression of wish form updated so it names the right person.

That is a reasonable thing to ask for and you should not feel awkward about it. Bring the suitability report, the illustration and the schedule of charges — those three documents contain everything needed to judge whether a recommendation makes sense. The questions worth asking of any recommendation are the same: what specific problem does this solve, what does it cost in pounds in year one and each year after, what happens if I do nothing, and what is the exit position if I change my mind in two years.