How financial advice in Yorkshire has changed over the years

Did you know with a Digital subscription to Yorkshire Post, you can get access to all of our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. That has changed. In research carried out by BDO for our 2026 Wealth Report, more than half of wealthy individuals told us they want an adviser who is available to them when it matters. From my experience advising entrepreneurs and family businesses across Yorkshire, and the wider North, I'd go further – accessibility has become the real test of a good adviser, and families are right to prioritise it. Technical skills still matter, of course. However, I'd argue it has become the entry ticket rather than the differentiator. The moments that define a family's wealth rarely arrive on schedule - an unexpected offer lands for the business, a parent's health changes, a tax rule shifts (or is rumoured to), siblings discover they have very different ideas about what an inheritance is for. None of these wait for the annual review, and how quickly and how well an adviser responds tells a family more than any technical credential could. Of course, genuine accessibility isn't about simply being around to answer emails outside office hours. It's about knowing a family well enough that when the call comes, the adviser doesn't need briefing - they already understand the client's wants, worries and family dynamics. This is knowledge that can't be assembled in a hurry; it's built over years. This has never mattered more than today, in the age of the 'great wealth transfer'. Unprecedented sums are set to pass between generations over the next two decades, much of it tied up in the family firms on which Yorkshire's economy is built. Against this backdrop, we've found that different generations are often prioritising very different things. For example, our research found heirs more commonly put 'growing the investment portfolio' top of their priorities list than wealth creators themselves. Those incumbent wealth holders, meanwhile, are more likely to rank business expansion higher than their children. In short, while a founding generation often wants capital kept in the business it created, the next generation may want liquidity, diversification or investments to reflect their own values. Neither are wrong, but it is fertile ground for disagreement. In fact, such disagreements are closer to the norm than the exception, with just 10 per cent of those we surveyed saying they had no family disagreements over wealth at all. So, the question is not whether conflict exists, but whether it is handled in a way that strengthens trust rather than erodes it. That, I believe, is where an adviser truly earns their keep. The job is to be robust enough to help families through challenging moments, pushing back where necessary, while being diplomatic enough to keep everyone at the same table. Indeed, a trusted adviser is the one you allow to ask the difficult questions; if you can't remember the last time yours told you something you didn't want to hear, that's worth noticing. Because ultimately, the most valuable advisers don't just handle the financials. They help families negotiate the biggest decisions of their lives – who should lead the business, and who is ready to; how to treat children fairly when one works in the firm and two don't; what the founding generation needs to live on, and what they are genuinely ready to let go of. Tom Klouda is private capital tax partner at BDO.