Advisor Agreement
A free, editable Word advisor (consultancy) agreement drafted for England & Wales, engaging an individual as a self-employed independent contractor, with IR35/employment-status protection, an IP assignment and moral-rights waiver, reasonable restrictive covenants, a UK GDPR clause, and exclusive England & Wales jurisdiction.
What's inside
A complete, UK-drafted advisor agreement
- Independent-contractor status with an IR35 / off-payroll tax indemnity
- Full IP assignment of work product (CDPA 1988) and a moral-rights waiver
- Confidentiality, fees and expenses, and a clear termination regime
- Restrictive covenants drafted to be reasonable under the restraint-of-trade doctrine
- A UK GDPR / Data Protection Act 2018 clause and a UCTA-compliant liability cap
- Governing law and exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales
How it works
- 1
Tell us where to send it
Enter your name, work email and organisation. We email you an editable Microsoft Word (.docx) file, personalised with your name.
- 2
Fill in the bracketed fields
Open it in Word, Google Docs or LibreOffice and complete every [bracketed] field with your details and commercial terms.
- 3
Review and adapt before use
Adapt the clauses to your circumstances and have it reviewed by a qualified solicitor before you sign or publish it.
This template is not legal advice. Writford is a software company, not a law firm, and is not regulated by the SRA. This document is a starting point that must be reviewed, adapted and approved by a qualified solicitor before use. It was last reviewed on 25 June 2026.
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What is an advisor agreement and when do I need one?
A short contract setting out what an advisor will do, what they get, and who owns what they produce. You need one before an advisor starts, because the two things that go wrong later are equity that was never written down and intellectual property nobody agreed on.
- Should an advisor be paid in cash or equity?
- Both are common, and many advisors take a small equity grant vesting over one to two years instead of a fee. The agreement should say which, over what period, and what happens if either side ends it early.
- Is an advisor an employee?
- No, and the agreement should make that explicit. An advisor is independent, provides their own equipment, controls how they work, and is responsible for their own tax. Blurring that line creates employment and tax problems.
- Who owns what the advisor produces?
- Whatever the agreement says. Without a written term, the position is often not what a founder assumes, so the template assigns work created for you to your company.
- How much time should an advisor commit?
- Say it in hours, not adjectives. A few hours a month is typical. A vague commitment is the most common reason an advisor relationship quietly stops without anybody addressing the equity.
- Can we end it early?
- Yes. The template allows either side to end it on notice, and sets out what happens to unvested equity and to confidential information when they do.