RUNNING A SYNDICATE

It’s a basic rule of Pools that the more you stake the more likely you are to win and the best way to raise stakes is to get together with family, friends, workmates or colleagues and run a syndicate. Not only will you be more likely to win, but if you win big you’ll be with a whole lot of guys all in the same boat.

Being part of a syndicate can be fun and running them can be trouble-free as long you establish ground rules at the start and everyone sticks to them.

If you are forming or are already part of a syndicate, we suggest that all involved should sign a version of the following form, and that each should keep a copy. By all means copy this into your DTP or word-processing package and edit it as you see fit.

Apart from making sure that everyone knows exactly where they stand, there are two other reasons to have a formal agreement. First, should the person whose name is on the entry sadly die (or die laughing - it has been known), then the other syndicate members need to have no problem disentangling themselves from Inheritance Tax. And secondly, although we have never heard of the Inland Revenue pursuing members of a Syndicate for Gift Tax or Income Tax, a letter like this means there can be no problem whatsoever.

If you are the syndicate organiser, we suggest you take a tough line on the payment of stakes and treat all individuals in exactly the same way. There’s nothing worse than having to chase up contributions for an entry that has already lost. It might be less hassle to collect stakes two, four, or even eight weeks at a time.

Open a special Building Society account for these stakes, and pay into this account any small wins that are hardly worth distributing amongst your members. At the end of the year, you might put the interest earned plus the accumulated mini-wins towards a Christmas lunch somewhere, or maybe a summer barbecue – all part of keeping people involved and making the syndicate experience fun.

If your syndicate is a group at work, ask the members to be conscientious about informing you of their holidays, so that they are paid up IN ADVANCE for the whole period they are away. And when you yourself go on holiday, appoint a Deputy to do the Classic Value entries and ensure they are submitted.

There are many possibilities, but it’s best to agree what you are going to do BEFORE YOU START and state your intentions clearly in the Group Policy section of the agreement form --- Click here for printable version.