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About us
People
John Malthouse
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John Malthouse set up the firm in 1976. An economics graduate, he was, until recently, a council member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and Chairman of its Practice Society, but has now handed on these jobs to go back to full-time practice. He deals with all aspects of the firm's work but specialises in Estate planning and business advice, and he carries out all our litigation support work. E-mail address: john@malthouse.com |
Mark Herbert
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Mark is a history/economics graduate who trained with us before qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1990 and he has been here ever since. He became a partner in 1999. He runs a general practice portfolio which contains a wide range of businesses with quite an emphasis on the legal sector, helping out a large number of solicitors and barristers. He also deals with a significant amount of personal tax. He and John Malthouse look after London clients, and Mark specialises in business consultancy. E-mail address: mark@malthouse.com |
Stephen Beckwith
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Stephen trained with a big 4 firm and spent time within a Business Services Department as a manager. He joined us in 1985 and became a partner in 2001. As well as carrying out the usual general practice work he has also been involved in our Litigation Support department and is available for other one-off projects or research assignments. Stephen is good at very complicated tax and other problems and in particular at tax investigations. E-mail address: steve@malthouse.com |
Our staff are our biggest asset. This is a list of everyone, and what they do:
We are always on the look-out for good staff, so please do contact us if you know of anyone. Young people to train are always in demand and we can offer really good career prospects. It's how we grow.
History
Our Founder
This letter from James Finney is all that we have left of the history of this firm.
It says: "11 Dale Street, Liverpool, 26th November 1856 I beg to announce that I have this day commenced business as an Accountant at the above address. My long experience in Commercial and Banking affairs enables me to assure those of my friends who favor me with their support that any business placed in my hands will be conducted to their satisfaction. I am, respectfully, Your Obedient Servant, James Finney" and so sets up the original firm of Finney & Son.
For 100 years after that, the practice contained various Finneys, more or less in direct line, and continued to operate in Dale Street. By the time John Malthouse joined as an articled clerk in the 1960s, it consisted of a sole practitioner - Frank Frodsham - who became his principal. Frank, who had in turn been articled to one of the last of the Finneys, was a man of exceptional ability and integrity and much is owed to him for the guidance he gave and the foundations he laid for the future.
John Malthouse qualified with Finney & Son and then took the practice over in 1970 when Frank retired. He merged with another two firms and then became part of a national firm. In 1976 there was a split and Malthouse & Company, for a very short time a one-man firm, was set up overnight, practising from Corn Exchange Buildings. More accurately, from one end of a borrowed table in a small borrowed room in Corn Exchange Buildings. In 1978 we moved to offices at 14 Castle Street, where the firm stayed until 1994, when it moved to the present offices in our own grade II listed buildings in the heart of Liverpool. We incorporated the general practice side of the firm in 2008.
The practice is much bigger now than it was in the days of Finney & Son, but many of the old clients are still with us. We are approaching 20 staff - 30 including Malthouse & company Wealth Managment - looking after a wide range of clients, from individuals for whom we prepare Tax Returns and look after their finances generally to large commercial, professional and charitable organisations where we provide a whole range of services. It is a source of great regret that in 1976 the name Finney & Son was lost, but we are conscious of the fact that the practice has been a part of Liverpool city life in an unbroken line since 1856.
Our Building
The building we're in - in the inner court yard of a quadrangle built in 1841 and restored in 1990 - was once the unofficial Confederate Embassy in Liverpool during the American Civil War. The raiding ship, the Alabama, was commissioned from these offices. They've had a long and mixed history since then, but the essential character hasn't changed. For example, there's a labyrinth of vaulted cellars below all the buildings in the group and the yard, too, and much that we think lies undiscovered. Rhett Butler referred to keeping his money in Liverpool and there are those who think that it might still be around somewhere.
 Whatever the case, this is a part of old Liverpool that has endured and although it's in the heart of the city, in spring - with the windows open - we can listen to the birds and St Nicholas's church bells, so it suits us just fine. We actually own two adjoining buildings and although they are full of IT equipment and all the trappings of a modern practice, there's no doubt that Victorian architecture is just perfect for professional life.
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