What are the wealthy doing now Burnham is PM?

Clients are asking questions, but very few are making immediate changes. My advice is simple: don't make knee-jerk financial decisions based on headlines or speculation. Governments set direction, but tax policy takes time to develop and reacting too early can do more harm than good.

For wealthier clients, we regularly review plans to ensure they're flexible. That includes making use of today's allowances, checking tax-efficient structures and ensuring liquidity, but not ripping up long-term strategies.

Business owners are watching closely, but their biggest concern is policy certainty rather than any single tax change. Confidence encourages investment, hiring and growth.

The key message is to stay calm and stay invested. Financial plans should be built to adapt to changing legislation over decades, not rewritten every time there is a change of government. Until policies are confirmed, measured planning beats political guesswork.

The wealthy aren’t heading for the exits, but they are checking where the doors are. Burnham’s arrival in No 10, coupled with John Healey at the Treasury, has prompted clients to ask what could change on tax and how quickly. We’re seeing greater interest in reviewing pensions, ISAs, capital gains and estate planning, but the message is not to make rash decisions based on speculation. The mood is ‘get your house in order before the decorators arrive’. Wealthier families know tax rules can shift quickly, so they would rather review their affairs now than find a valuable opportunity has disappeared after the next Budget.

We are already seeing some business owners bringing forward dividend payments because they fear the new government could align dividend tax with income tax.

This is not just an issue for the extremely wealthy. A typical tradesperson operating through a small limited company, taking a modest salary and £37,500 in dividends, could face roughly £4,000 more tax each year if dividends were taxed in the same way as earned income.

We are also hearing from investors sitting on substantial capital gains who are considering selling assets now and paying Capital Gains Tax at 18% or 24%, rather than risking future rates of 40% or even 45%.

The danger is that speculation itself changes behaviour. People should not make costly irreversible decisions based solely on political rumours, but uncertainty over tax rates inevitably encourages business owners and investors to act while the current rules are known.

Speculation is not a plan, and confusing the two is how people talk themselves into an expensive mistake. As an accountant, my message to clients this week is simple: nothing has changed. There is no Burnham Budget, no new rate, no new rule, only talk. We have been here before. Not long ago the rumour mill had National Insurance going on landlords’ rental income. It made headlines, worried thousands, and never happened. Restructure your affairs around a tax that never arrives and you can hand yourself a real bill chasing a hypothetical one. So treat speculation as speculation until it is law. But here is what the wealthy do differently, and it is worth copying. They do not gamble on rumours. They get their numbers, their structure and their options ready now, so the day something is genuinely confirmed they move faster than everyone else, inside the window before it bites. Do not act on the headline. Be ready to act on the fact.

Feedback both from my HNW clients and wealth manager and IFA contacts point to a pragmatic defensive restructuring and accelerated planning rather than outright panic. Burnham's signal on a possible 50p top rate has triggered immediate action, with business owners and executives rushing to bring forward bonuses and dividends to lock in current tax points. Wealth is also shifting away from residential property: anticipating tougher council housing mandates and rent controls, landlords are selling buy-to-let portfolios and redeploying capital into commercial property, green infrastructure, or overseas holdings. On estate planning, families are accelerating lifetime gifting and updating Family Investment Companies ahead of expected IHT relief tightening. And currency volatility from Burnham's flexible borrowing plans has HNW clients hedging sterling by holding more US Dollar and Euro liquidity.

Most wealthy clients are still planning around the tax changes set in motion under Starmer and Reeves - but there's a growing sense that things could get worse rather than better.

Markets initially took comfort from the appointment of a more fiscally conservative Chancellor than expected. The wobble in gilts the moment Burnham started talking about greater flexibility within the fiscal rules was a useful reminder that the bond market, not Westminster, remains the real constraint on this government.

For wealthier clients, the focus now is squarely on the Budget. That means doing the sensible things: use existing allowances, review pensions and estate planning. What it doesn't mean is making irreversible decisions based on policies that haven't yet been written.