EOTs for accountants: keep your client, we deliver the trust
When a client sells to a trade buyer, the new owners bring their own advisers and the engagement ends. When a client sells to an Employee Ownership Trust, the same leadership stays — and so does the firm that has always done their numbers. We deliver the EOT behind your name, so you keep the client, the relationship and the fee.
Why firms come to us
Three reasons, in the words we hear on the first call.
“I don’t want to lose the client to the new owners.”
An EOT keeps the same leadership in place. There is no acquirer arriving with a preferred firm. You carry on advising the company after the exit — and you have just helped the owner with the biggest decision of their working life.“I don’t want to hand the whole thing to a specialist.”
You don’t. We work as your back office: feasibility, valuation, trust deed, funding, HMRC, employee comms. How much direct contact we have with your client is your call, from none to all of it.“I can’t be the adviser who never mentioned it.”
Employee ownership is now a normal part of any succession conversation. Since the 2024 reforms it is also technical: UK-resident and independent trustees, market-value tests, a four-year clawback. We supply the expertise so you can raise it with confidence.
How it works, in one paragraph
You spot the succession conversation. We run a feasibility check with you — a straight yes or no on whether the business qualifies, a ballpark valuation and a fixed-fee quote. If it goes ahead, we structure and deliver the EOT under your firm’s name or ours, whichever you prefer, and we agree the fee split up front. After completion the client is still your client; if they want ongoing trustee, bonus-scheme or compliance support, we can provide that through you too.
- Your name on the work, or ours alongside yours — your choice.
- Your client contact stays your call at every stage.
- Fixed fees, agreed before anything starts, with a clear split.
- 87+ EOTs delivered since 2014, by the team that does this every week.
What you get
Feasibility
Honest yes/no, ballpark valuation, fixed-fee quote. If it isn’t a fit, you and the client stop there.Structure and legal
Trust deed, share purchase agreement, loan notes and trustee appointments, with legal partners covering the reserved work.Valuation and funding
A defensible market valuation and a repayment plan the business can actually afford.Employees and aftercare
Telling the team, trustee support, the £3,600 bonus scheme and compliance after the deal.
87+
EOTs delivered for owners
35
People at JLA Accountants
23 years
In practice
Who we are
Exit Better is the employee-ownership arm of JLA Accountants, a North London practice of 35 people that has advised owner-managed businesses for 23 years. Parag Patel, Strategy and Tax Planning Consultant, is the partner leading Exit Better. We understand what it is like to be the firm that knows the client’s numbers, because we are one.
Read next
- How white-label delivery works — the two ways of working, stage by stage
- EOT tax relief for advisers — the rules as they stand, with the legislation
- Adding EOTs to your practice — the market and what the niche needs
Ready to talk?
A 20-minute call about your firm, your clients and how you would want this to work. No pitch deck.
Got a client this could fit?
A 20-minute call about your firm and the client you have in mind. You keep the client whatever happens.
- Fixed fees, agreed split
- Your name on the work
- No marketing to your client
No volume commitment. Most firms start with one client.
Written by Parag Patel | Strategy and Tax Planning Consultant
Parag leads the Exit Better team at JLA Accountants, advising owners on employee ownership, succession and the tax that comes with both.
About the team