Alex
Thomson

Private Client Tax Assistant Manager

LinkedIn

Alex Thomson, an AAB member sitting at board room table

WHO I HELP

High net worth individuals. Sole traders. Partnerships and trusts.

HOW I HELP

Income tax. Capital gains tax. Inheritance tax. Tax compliance. Tax advisory.

SECTORS/SUPPORT

Business services. Agriculture. Property & construction.

“BUILDING CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH CLIENTS IS INVALUABLE AS GOOD CLIENT SERVICE ENABLES OUR CLIENTS TO PUT THEIR TRUST IN US.”

Alex Thomson is an Assistant Manager in our Private Client team. Alex is based in our Glasgow office but works with teams across offices and clients across the UK.

She assists a variety of clients with tax compliance and advice, including partnerships, self-employed individuals, trusts & estates, and high-net-worth individuals.

OPEN COMMUNICATION

“The best client relationships are built on trust and communication. It’s important that clients feel comfortable expressing their needs, expectations, and any concerns they may have. This open communication enables us to give them the best possible advice for their personal circumstances.”

ADVICE TAILORED TO CLIENTS’ NEEDS

“Clients expect us, as their advisors, to be reliable, knowledgeable, and trustworthy. We need to ensure that deadlines are met while also providing high-quality work and advice, tailored to the client’s needs, as this is key to building and maintaining trust.

GETTING TO KNOW CLIENTS

“The most satisfying thing about working with clients is not just helping them with tax compliance and advice, but also getting to know them on a personal level. In turn, this also helps us give clients better service, as we are able to understand their needs better and therefore give them more bespoke advice.

When it comes to colleagues, working with a team of specialists is very rewarding as you can learn and develop your own expertise, as well as share your knowledge with others.”

EMBRACING BEING TECH-ENABLED

“It is great to meet with clients face to face, however, this isn’t always possible for a variety of reasons. So, it’s important that we embrace the fact that we are a tech-enabled business, as this allows us to meet with clients virtually at their convenience while still enabling us to understand their needs and build strong, lasting relationships.

As the team grows, it has also become more important to be able to easily work with and contact our colleagues remotely across various offices as it enables us to utilise the various areas of expertise and specialist knowledge across the whole business.”

STAYING ON TOP OF CHANGES

“Tax legislation is constantly changing, so we need to ensure that we stay on top of these changes and anticipate how they may impact our clients. In addition to changes to legislation, clients may have changing needs or unforeseen challenges, and so we need to be flexible in our approach and adapt our advice where necessary or beneficial.”

WORKING TO TIGHT TIMELINES

“It can get particularly busy around filing deadlines and so it is essential that we stay organised and on top of things to ensure that we are able to turn around work within the timeframe available. One of the key factors in making sure we achieve this is keeping open communication with both the team and clients to keep things moving as much as possible.”

COLLABORATING ACROSS TEAMS

“For me, the group value that stands out the most is that ‘collaboration is our superpower’ – at AAB, we work closely not only within the Private Client team, but also across other departments to ensure that we are giving our clients the best possible service and the most comprehensive and accurate advice.

In addition, with our ever-growing team, we have been able to collaborate more and more with specialists in various areas of Private Client Tax, enabling us to learn from one another and share valuable knowledge across the team. This allows us to provide high-quality services and advice to our clients, no matter what their needs, as well as develop and grow our team’s collective expertise.”

TAKING TIME TO GET TO KNOW CLIENTS

“Building close relationships with clients is invaluable as good client service enables our clients to put their trust in us. Clients often thank me for taking the time to get to know them and put their minds at ease when they have any problems or concerns as well as tailoring my approach to their individual needs.”