Tees new Senior Wealth Planner now settled and seeing clients

Tees Financial Ltd has recently welcomed Senior Wealth Planner David Blackman, a role with a key focus on working with the farming community – a first for the firm.

Tees has a long history of working with farming families, going back 100 years, but before now, we’ve not had a senior financial adviser on board who specialises in this area.

With over 32 years of experience in financial services, David is passionate about helping all clients through life events, with a real interest in planning tax efficiency for agricultural businesses and owners. Tees’ financial advisers work with clients to help them pass on their farm and land assets to the next generation in a well-planned and tax-efficient way. This includes taking advantage of Inheritance Tax reliefs (IHT), Business Property Relief (BPR) and Agricultural Property Relief (APR).

Part of David’s role is to help farming businesses make any necessary adjustments in investment activities and to encourage the use of Trusts and other ownership structures to ensure assets can be passed on tax-efficiently.

David is looking forward to advising more clients and said “It’s important that farming families think about putting appropriate plans in place. It can all be confusing with so many options out there, so I’m here to make sense of it all for our clients and advise on the best ways to protect assets and plan for the future. This includes help on pension and retirements too.”

David has a breadth of experience in providing finance advice to the rural community and has joined Tees after previously working for NFU Mutual – a Farmers’ Union insurance composite, so he fully understands the needs and complexities involved in agricultural land ownership and business. As a Chartered Financial Planner and a Chartered Associate of the London Institute of Banking and Finance, David is also able to advise on protecting family wealth and ensuring financial stability in the future.

I am passionate about helping clients to achieve their goals and it’s so important to me to grow relationships with my clients by regularly reviewing financial plans, instead of just being very transactional. That’s what I love about the job.”

Our specialist financial advisers are based in several sites including Essex, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, but can help anyone in the UK.

If you would like to find out more about our services or speak to David directly, call our team on 080o 015 1165.

NFU confirms appointment of its legal panel firms in East Anglia

The NFU has confirmed the outcome of its 2022 review of legal panel firms, with two firms reappointed to the panel in East Anglia.

Tees and HCR Hewitsons have been reappointed after a review that assessed the firms’ legal services, engagement with the organisation and its members, as well as feedback from NFU members and staff.

NFU director of policy Andrew Clark said: “The legal panel is an important feature of the NFU’s legal services offering to our members and I am delighted to confirm the reappointments.

The NFU’s panel firms are committed to supporting NFU members and have clearly strengthened their agricultural and rural teams over the past few years. Their broad expertise is highly valued by our in-house legal team and NFU members.

Tees has been reappointed to help members farming in Essex, Hertfordshire and Suffolk. Partner Caroline Metcalf said: “We are pleased to have been selected to be on the NFU legal panel again. Being selected really demonstrates Tees’ depth of legal knowledge and expertise in agricultural and rural issues.

The firms appointed to the legal panel offer a comprehensive legal service encompassing all areas of law relevant to farming and growing, including succession planning, diversification, renewable energy, dispute resolution, planning, probate, family and conveyancing. In the latest financial year, the panel offered a total discount of over £500,000 to NFU members.

NFU legal board chair Nick Hamer said: “The aftermath of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic created several challenges for farming and growing businesses”

We are entering a period of transition for the industry and this undoubtedly puts the legal panel in high demand, providing expert advice to NFU members on a wide range of legal matters.