What role is this and do I need to be in a governing body?

[KnobJockey]

Hi,

I currently have a small (tiny) bookkeeping business that I run on a very part time basis around paid employment.

I would like to offer a new service offering personal budgeting/ money management. This would be with individuals, not companies/ professionals, and I would sit down with them and their budget, and save them money- finding new utility suppliers, changing phone contracts, that sort of thing.

Does anybody know if I would need to be registered with any professional bodies to do this? I don't think it falls under the financial advisor bracket. And what service is this called? Americans seem to have a daily money manager , but I can't find anything UK based.

Any help would be appreciated 🙂

Not as long as you're not getting involved with insurance policies, pensions nor other regulated financial products.

Presumably you already have professional indemnity insurance re your book-keeping business - you should be able to get that extended easy enough to cover you in case of claims from customers for any dodgy advice you give them re not noticing lock-in periods for utilities or not advising them of cheaper/better products than the ones you suggest.

Re book-keeping, I presume you're registered with HMRC for the anti-money laundering regulations. You'd have to check the regulations to see if giving advice to individuals would also fall under that.

Finally, you'll probably be handling/processing individual's personal data so you'll probably need to register under the GDPR and have a published privacy policy etc.

@pacer142 Fab, that sounds as if I'm pretty much covered then- yes to the indemnity insurance (just need increasing probably), yes to HMRC MLR, I'm not registered with GDPR (didn't realise you had to register with them?) But I do have a privacy policy and I am registered with the ICO.

I'm not thinking of offering any advice on financial products or services, so no worries for insurances, etc. I'm thinking more along the lines of helping people check their budgets, have a look at their gas & electric contracts, etc.

Can I ask how you are aware of whether I need to register please? Is there somewhere it's listed that I couldn't find, or are you in a similar industry?

Thank you!

you dont register with GDPR you register with ICO. So that is sorted.

I would call it a domestic money manager in the Uk.
let us know how it goes - it sounds good