The IFP continued with their theme of promoting the role of the paraplanner at this year’s recent conference held at Celtic Manor near Newport in Wales.
The conference had the usual format of ‘track’ sessions where you could select from a number of different sessions depending upon your interest along with Key Note speeches, the Gala Dinner and a number of Panel Sessions.
For a paraplanner the conference was particularly interesting as the committee had tried to include sessions which would be appropriate to their role.
Paraplanners were not restricted to any particular session however there were some like Tax and Financial Planning by Tony Wickenden, or Behavioral Finance by Colum Wilde which they may have felt were appropriate however there were many other sessions they could attend depending on whether they were interested in a technical aspect, business planning, personal development or perhaps compliance.
There were however two particular sessions which were of particular interest to paraplanners; the first was the session by our own Richard Allum on assessing risk and the role of cashflows. This was extremely well attended and not just by paraplanners. Richard eloquently discussed the FSA assessing suitability paper and gave us all an understanding of the importance of using an appropriate risk profiling tool along with the necessity to increase your understanding of not just a client’s risk profile but also their capacity for loss.
He then linked this to lifetime cashflow planning, showing how the two are intrinsically linked and complement each other when looking to create an investment strategy to help clients to achieve their goals.
The second were the ‘Bridge the Gap’ sessions held during the lunch break and at the end of the second day. There were a number of these sessions one of which was ‘Paraplanning’. They were small groups which were in an open forum where the attendees could ask questions or advice or gain ideas from the Chairperson and Expert Panel.
The Paraplanning session was chaired by Keri Carter (Broadway Financial Planning) and the panel comprised Gemma Davies (Bluefin), Damian Davies (the Timebank) and myself. The discussions were very open and constructive and included topics such as paraplanner career progression, outsourcing paraplanning and working effectively with Planners.
Both sessions were a great opportunity to talk to other paraplanners and most importantly to share ideas and hear how other people manage their roles and add value to the Planners they work with.
Paraplanning is considered an important role in a Financial Planning practice and the IFP are continuing to show their commitment to this belief by their support of the role at their conference each year.
