GPs – Do you have a Partnership Agreement?
We have teamed up with an AISMA member firm of accountants and a firm of financial advisors to bring you a FREE seminar on 21st September at the De Vere Hotel in Cheadle focusing on a number of matters that are affecting GPs and consultants today.
During the seminar we will consider the importance of partnership agreements and the key protections that a properly drafted, up-to-date agreement can provide. To give you a taster we have set out below a couple of the key reasons why all GP practices should put a partnership agreement in place:
- Uncertainty - If you do not have a partnership agreement in place your partnership is known as a partnership at Will and is governed by a law which is over 100 years old! This is an unstable platform to operate a business as the law does not provide for many of the key issues facing GP practices today such as holiday leave, study leave, maternity and paternity leave, expulsion of underperforming partners, treatment of property owning partners.
- Dissolution - If any of the partners wish to bring the partnership he can do this by serving a notice terminating the partnership immediately. You may think that this is not a problem, the remaining partners will just start up a new partnership but be aware:
· The unplanned dissolution of a partnership at will could lead to the loss of your GMS/PMS contract;
· If you dissolve the partnership and immediately form a new partnership this will mean that, for employment law purposes, the staff transfer to the new partnership and you are legally obliged to go through a consultation exercise with staff members. If you do not do this you could be liable to compensation claims from staff.
· The dissolution may trigger a redundancy situation for staff and you will then have to fund redundancy payments – not attractive if you have staff who have long service records!
· The dissolution could mean that you have to sell your premises to pay the outgoing partner his share – your premises may be in negative equity and this may not be a good time to sell.
A properly drafted partnership agreement provides certainty for all partners on the rules that they must adhere to. If you would like a FREE initial meeting to discuss this please contact Lindsey Farrelly (details below).
To obtain further details about the seminar or to book your place please contact Lindsey Farrelly by telephone 0161 234 8802 or email lindseyfarrelly@georgedavies.co.uk
