We continue our series of interviews with a paraplanner to gain an insight into his or her career, working day and top tips for the rest of us. If you would like to feature in this section in the coming weeks and provide useful information to your peers (as well as raising your own profile) please contact us.
Name – Tracy Airey
Current Role – Paraplanner
Employer/Company – Applewood Asset Management, Cheshire.
Qualifications – Full FPC, CF9, SV1, MAQ, JO1
Awaiting results of JO2 & AF1
How long have you worked in Financial Services? – Eleven years
Have you always been a paraplanner? - No. I began my career in an administration/ sales support role at Canada Life in 1997, before moving to a small IFA practice in 2001. From there I moved to a larger IFA as a Paraplanner in September 2001. I was headhunted late 2002 to work in Broker Sales at Zurich where I stayed for over two years.
In 2004, I was offered the chance to become an IFA and as that was my dream I moved into the role. Unfortunately, the reality did not match my dream and just 5 months later I went to work for National Australia as a Technical Consultant. I thoroughly enjoyed my work, which involved a lot of travelling, and relocated to Glasgow within the Group to offer more focused support in Scotland. I was made redundant in July 2006 and moved to Cheshire to take up my current position.
How would you describe a typical day as a paraplanner for you? - . I am responsible for the clients of one of the Partners here at Applewood and I also have responsibility for my own Client Support, Dean. I fully trained Dean from his first day with the company.
The three of us work as a team to ensure that our clients receive the highest possible level of initial and ongoing service. My team currently takes care of around 75 clients who each have portfolios with assets ranging from £100,000 to £1 million. Our focus is on risk, return, costs and taxation. It is my responsibility to ensure that these issues are analysed for all clients prior to each meeting and then taken into account in the recommendations made by the adviser as I am also responsible for writing all Suitability Reports .
I attend client meetings along with my Adviser and am responsible for taking the meeting minutes and issuing these to the clients within 24 hours. I produce Portfolio Returns charts on an annual basis showing the portfolio growth, making allowances for any additional investments and any withdrawals. Each client is reviewed quarterly, so are always aware of any changes to their portfolios. Their annual review involves an in depth view of the funds, asset allocation, equity split and returns, along with an analysis of their Income, Capital Gains and Inheritance Tax positions.
How do you fit into the overall paraplanning support within your company? – Each adviser has a team structured in exactly the same way and we all offer the same support and management of our individual teams. Applewood ensures that whichever Adviser a client sees they would be offered the same advice in line with our service proposition and the Applewood philosophy.
What aspect of paraplanning do you enjoy most? – I enjoy all the aspects of my job as it remains varied and carries responsibility which I personally thrive upon.
In what ways can you add value as a paraplanner? – I am the client’s primary contact allowing the Adviser to focus on his unique abilities of communicating advice. This approach allows the adviser to conduct an average of ten meetings every week and produce £500,000 per annum on average in income, the majority of which is from existing clients.
What tips would you offer any other paraplanners? – Whether you use the Paraplanning role to increase your knowledge as a step to becoming an Adviser or become a Paraplanner as your career focus, always ensure that you use best practice by sharing your knowledge with others around you. Also, remember how valuable you are to your team, you may not be on the front line but you are crucial in ensuring compliance standards are met and providing technical knowledge that is invaluable to the Advisers.
What websites do you regularly use? – Paraplanner.com for the information and forums, fundslibrary.com for fund details and Analytics for performance charts. I also monitor the FTSE 100 throughout the day and keep an eye on the business pages on Moneymarketing.com and bbcnews/business.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? – Focus on your strengths and instead of focusing on your weaknesses, work to improve them!
What exam are you taking next? – Having focused on my strengths, I guess its time to improve on my weakest area so probably JO4 & JO5!
What one thing could make your job easier? – Nothing, I love being busy, I love my job and I love the company I work for and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Thanks to Tracy for a very useful insight.
