Sample guide: how to check a firm in this index before you engage it

Sample guide. Published to show how a guide appears on the index. Everything in it is true of the index as it stands; it gives no advice about any firm.

1. Start from the register

Every firm in this index is built from the ICPAC public register, which lists individual practitioners. We group the practitioners who name the same employer into one firm. On a firm’s page, “On the ICPAC register” shows how many registered practitioners it has and each one’s registration number, and links to the register itself.

2. Read what the firm says, and what we have not read

Services and languages come from the firm’s own website, where we have read it. Where we have not read it yet, the page says “Not recorded”. That is not the same as “none”: it means nobody has looked.

3. Check the corporate and fiduciary permission

The register records whether a firm also holds the permission to provide corporate and fiduciary (administrative) services. A firm’s page shows it, under “On the ICPAC register”.

4. Ask the firm directly

Before you engage a firm, ask it to confirm the scope of the work, who will do it, and the fees, in writing. This index takes no fee from any firm and ranks no one: the order of a list is the one you choose.

Where each fact comes from is set out in Which record proves what.