We are regularly requested to provide Accountants Letters of Support and similar support declarations.

You may need one for any number of reasons including –

• Finance applications
• Offer to be a Guarantor for a loan (including a loan for your own business or investment entities)
• Franchise agreements
• License or other regulatory applications
• Sophisticated Investor Certificates

We understand completely that most will view the requirement to have an Accountants Letter of Support as a waste of time, a silly requirement, regulation gone overboard and any number of similar frustrations.

We also understand that most will believe we should just sign it, without question and that the cost for us for doing so should be little if anything.

Unfortunately, it is not that simple …

The reasons you are being asked to provide an Accountants Letter of Support include –

• The Party requesting it are ensuring you have sought appropriate independent advice
• The Party requesting it are passing some of their responsibilities on to either you or more likely us
• The Party requesting it are aiming to protect themselves against future claims by being able to rely on the statements from us
• They want the responsibility for your actions to be placed on to us
• They are relying on our professional standing, our qualifications, our experience and most importantly our morals and our ethics that we would not sign such statements without having done our due diligence, provided you with the requisite advice and generally allowed our name and reputation to stand by our statement.

So hopefully you can understand, that by us putting our name to such Letters of Support and similar statements we are taking on a lot of responsibility and potential liability.

And therefore –

• We will rarely agree to the precise form (and statements) requested by the bank, regulatory or other parties. We will provide our own, customised Statements
• We are happy for you to write your preferred version of the letter, but;
  • We always reserve the right to amend it (substantially)
  • Just because you wrote it, doesn’t lessen the fact we need to review your circumstances and confirm what we are vouching for is correct
  • Just because you or someone else wrote it, doesn’t lessen the responsibilities we have, nor our potential liability
  • It also doesn’t lessen the fact that we are putting our name and our reputation on the line. If we are wrong or make a misleading statement, our qualifications, our licenses, our business and our livelihood could be at risk. That may sound dramatic, but it is the reality. This modern world is full of scenarios where someone has made one representation in their capacity as a professional or expert which has proven to be less than accurate, and their future is substantially impacted by the event. We won’t allow that to happen

We will almost always agree to provide a Letter of Support when requested, and we will work with you to do all we legally, morally and ethically can to help you get the matter over the line.

But …

• We will take our time
• We will do our due diligence
• We won’t be pressured, and
• We will charge a fee which will reflect not only the time we incur doing so but which also reflects the value of our statements to you AND the potential liability to us of putting our name on the line and vouching for you.

More about Accounting & Tax