There’s an old accountant’s joke about financial advisers: the difference between us is that advisers want to look richer than their clients, while accountants want to look poorer.
It’s a quip, but it points to something real. Advisers – and today, mortgage brokers – build trust by projecting confidence and certainty.
Accountants build trust by projecting caution, prudence and modesty.
Two very different postures, both valid, but inevitably prone to clash.
And nowhere is that clash more obvious than in the self-employed mortgage market.
THE PAPERWORK PROBLEM
Accountants across the country will know the drill. A client approaches, excited about a mortgage application and within hours a request lands: “Can you complete this accountant’s certificate?”
Nine times out of 10 the form asks for information already in the SA302 and Tax Year Overview.
Sometimes it goes further, asking for forecasts, confirmations or opinions that stray well outside our professional remit.
The frustration is simple: HMRC, UK Finance and the accountancy bodies agreed years ago that only two documents should be needed – the SA302 and the TYO (Tax Year Overview). They’re clear, consistent, verifiable and designed precisely for this purpose.
Yet the requests keep coming.
TWO PERSPECTIVES
From a broker’s perspective, asking for more paperwork looks like good service. It feels proactive. It reassures the client that everything possible is being done.
From an accountant’s perspective, it’s maddening.
We’re being asked to provide documents outside our engagement, not covered by our indemnity insurance and expressly disclaimed by our regulators.
It looks like assurance – but in fact, it provides none.
And let’s be clear: when accountants push back, it’s not because we don’t care about the client.
It’s because our professional rules don’t allow us to step into a role that isn’t ours.
The irony is that by trying to help, we’d actually be putting both ourselves and the client at greater risk.
THE REAL TENSION
Underneath the paperwork, though, there’s something deeper going on.
Advisers don’t like to admit their dependency on accountants. It punctures the seamless confidence that’s so central to their professional identity.
Accountants, meanwhile, are trained to own risk, state facts and accept responsibility.
When we see advisers bristling at that dependency, it baffles us.
Both sides want to serve clients well – but they’re approaching the task from opposite ends of the trust spectrum.
Advisers build by saying: “Yes, we can make this work.”
Accountants build by saying: “Here’s the evidence, here are the limits.”
When those collide in the heat of a mortgage deadline, sparks inevitably fly.
A BETTER WAY FORWARD
It doesn’t have to be this way. The solution is already there: lenders and brokers should stick to the agreed standard – SA302s and TYOs, backed up where necessary by statutory accounts. No more bespoke forms, no more invented templates.
At the same time, underwriters should be trained to interpret those documents properly.
Too often, unnecessary requests are simply a substitute for understanding what’s already in front of them.
That training gap causes friction for everyone – advisers, accountants and most of all, the client.
If lenders stuck to the standard and underwriters understood it, we’d cut out the duplication, reduce the frustration and let both professions play to their strengths: advisers giving confidence, accountants providing clarity.
WHY THIS MATTERS
The UK has around 4.2 million self-employed workers. For them, access to mortgages is already more complex than it is for salaried employees.
Every unnecessary form, every bit of duplicated paperwork, every confused request adds delay, cost and stress.
Streamlining the process isn’t just about protecting accountants’ time or brokers’ patience – it’s about making the system work better for the very people it’s meant to serve.
So yes, there are two sides to the story. But there’s also a simple fix.
Stick to the agreed documents. Train underwriters to use them. And stop asking accountants to provide assurance that our regulators won’t let us give.
Do that, and we’ll all spend less time arguing about forms – and more time helping clients get the homes they want.
