Happy New Year!

The start of the new year is traditionally a time for looking back over the past 12 months and looking forward to the next 12 months. It’s also a time for making predictions and being optimistic about the future.Well I’m going to stick my neck out and make a prediction for the next 12 months and say 2009 will be The Year of the Paraplanner!

I say this with great enthusiasm, optimism and belief that 2009 will be a fantastic year for paraplanners and looking back over what has happened during 2008 I think there is good reason to believe this.

This time last year Richard and I had been working on this website jointly for a short time though we had each been working on this idea individually for a number of years. Last year our objective was to launch the site and for it to be used by paraplanners in the UK. We could never have imagined the response we received not only from paraplanners in the UK but paraplanners all over the world. We have paraplanners looking at the site from many countries including Australia and US.

The site was launched in April and is now firmly established as the site for paraplanners.

Our work with the site also led us to launching the inaugural Paraplanner of the Year Award which was a fantastic success. Run in association with the Institute of Financial Planning the awards were presented at the IFP conference in front of 600 of the UK’s top Financial Planners. A fantastic recognition for a role which didn’t officially exist in the UK.

This was another challenge. We are fortunate to be part of the Financial Services Skills Council Working Party charged with devising the National Occupational Standards for the role of a paraplanner.

These three things themselves (the website, the PPOTY award and the NOS for the role of paraplanner) should ensure that 2009 will be a brilliant year for paraplanners.

The FSSC work should be completed by the first half of 2009 and this will mean that there will be an official description of what a paraplanner is and what a paraplanners does. The types of tasks they do and the types of duties someone who calls themselves a paraplanner is likely to do.

My hope is that this will define the role of paraplanner more clearly and that there will be a much more widely accepted definition of what a paraplanner is and does. This will help everyone from business owners looking for a paraplanner; to recruitment agencies promoting paraplanners; to paraplanners themselves wanting to make sure they are doing what they believe they should be doing (and not spending too long doing tasks which should be done by someone else!).

The Paraplanner of the Year Awards will be organised again in September and we hope that many more of you will enter this year. There was a very high standard this year and we hope that the standard will be even greater in 2009.

Finally the site, theparaplanner.com will (we hope) continue to grow. We have a number of exciting developments which we hope to launch throughout the year but the main way the site will grow and the profile of the paraplanner will increase is by using the site and telling all other paraplanners you know about the site.

If there is something that you think would help let us know and we will try to get it added.

Finally, last year saw a massive amount of change within Financial Services and the global economy and I know there are many people who are not starting 2009 with the same employer they started 2008 with (me for one!). There are a number of IFAs who are finding things difficult but one thing is for sure they will all still need good quality paraplanners.

As more and more IFAs realise that the future lies in having a quality client base which provides recurring income and where the emphasis is on providing a high quality service to these clients, these IFAs will also realise that in order to provide the level of service they want to provide they will need to have quality staff, at least one of whom will be a paraplanner.

We wish you all a fantastic and prosperous 2009; lets all make it The Year of the Paraplanner.

Off the Road - for now!

We’ve now completed the first series of On The Road events and they can only be described as a great success!Events were held in Birmingham, Watford, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Southampton, Bristol, Manchester and London. At each of the events the delegates heard from a number of speakers and also had the opportunity to get to know each other and discuss paraplanning issues which were important to them.

Our two main sponsors Life Trust and Arm spoke at each event.

Life Trust spoke to us about the financial effects of living too long (something we all think won’t happen!) and the impact this has a clients’ income at a time when they are less able to do anything about it.

Arm spoke to us about investing generally and more specifically about investing in private markets rather than public markets. About the difference between the two, about the opportunities these markets contain and about how the alleged risk with these investments is not always as great as you’d imagine.

Standard Life as host, also demonstrated to us their retirement planner tool.

And Phil Billingham of Perception Support spoke at a couple of events about the role of the paraplanner, the growing importance of the paraplanner in the modern IFA practice and how the paraplanner can have a positive impact on TCF.

You will notice that we tried to have speakers who were able to ADD something or who had a unique angle on a subject. On that point I must say a big thank you to all those who came and spoke at our events, all the speakers were excellent and added value to the day.

In addition to the wonderful speakers a large part of the day was spent talking, discussing issues which are important to paraplanners and sharing ideas and best practice.

These events, like the website, were organised specifically for paraplanners and they allowed paraplanners to meet other paraplanners and to realise that some of the problems we face in our day to day job are also experienced by others.

As a paraplanner, when you go to an event, invariably the majority of attendees with are advisers and you will be hard pushed to meet another paraplanner let alone share and discuss ideas. These events allowed paraplanners to do that and for that reason alone were worth attending.

But don’t take my word for it! This is a selection of the comments we received after the event.

• ‘Good well constructed meeting and agenda’
• ‘Excellent day - thank you’
• ‘Excellent workshop - can’t wait until the next one’
• ‘Very useful to meet other paraplanners and find out what I could be doing’
• ‘Day was great - nice to meet fellow paraplanners and share experiences’
• ‘Most enjoyable’
• ‘Whole day was excellent’

Apart from the day being enjoyable and good value, we also asked what were the two most useful things they had learnt during the day? Here’s a selection of the comments.

• ‘Particularly enjoyed hearing about practices used by other paraplanners’
• ‘Useful info on what research tools people use’
• Other opinions on asset allocation and fund research’
• ‘That other paraplanners have similar problems’
• ‘Understanding the Financial Services Compensation Scheme’
• ‘Tips from other paraplanners on ways to organise work’

These events were the first we held and though you had requested them we were unsure what response we’d receive. Having completed them the response has been fantastic with everyone who attended saying they wanted us to run them again.

We are therefore looking at holding the next series of events in February/March 2009. Places will again be limited so to avoid disappointment please let us know if you are interested in attending now.

Thanks to all who attended and made the days such as success.

Martin

Update from the team

It’s been a very busy month for us with the IFP Conference, Paraplanner of the Year and On the Road workshops.  There has also been a little bit of activity in the markets and economy which have taken up some time.  We are aware that there has been little activity in terms of updates during this time and for that we apologise to all our readers.  However, we are back now with lots of plans for 2009 and lots of articles to publish before then.  As always, if you would like to write an article, review or simply share an idea, please let us know as the more people who contribute, the better the site will be.

Win an iPod Nano!

As you may well know, we are running the Paraplanner of the Year Awards in association with the Institute of Financial Planning.  Martin and Richard are also speaking as part of the dedicated paraplanning track which is being launched for the first time this year.  The Awards will be presented at the Annual Conference and the IFP is now offering special rates for paraplanners to attend the whole conference or just come for the day.

Day 2 offers a full day of conference sessions including keynote sessions from Michael Gerber (E-Myth) and Dr Codrington, track sessions and the ‘Bridge the Gap’ mentoring session along with the opportunity to meet with other paraplanners, new and experienced Financial Planners and key contacts within the profession (the exhibition will be 65 companies strong). A pass for Day 2 only costs £122.50 which is great value considering the sessions on offer.  You can download a booking form here.

Any paraplanners entering for the Paraplanner of the Year Awards who also book to attend the IFP Conference (for one, two or three days) will be entered into a draw to win an iPod Nano.  This applies to you if you have booked with the IFP already or will do so before the conference.  To register for the draw just send us your details via the contact form on the main site.  Of course the best way to get to the conference is to win one of the Awards.  Youhave just over two weeks to get your entry in.  Good luck.

Paraplanning in the news

I recently wrote an article for the Financial Solutions magazine which is published by the Personal Finance Society.  I am pleased to say that this has been reproduced in the most recent edition and, if you have not received a copy yourself, you can download the article by clicking here.

Join us at the IFP Conference

We will be presenting at the IFP Conference taking place between 29 September and 1 October at the Celtic Manor Hotel in Wales.  I have been a regular attendee for some years now and am looking forward to this year’s conference as it is the first to have a dedicated agenda for paraplanners.

• Martin will be part of a panel looking at paraplanning in practice.
• Meanwhile, I will be presenting on ‘Structures and processes for working with advisers’.

I have been working with Winterthur Life in recent months delivering sessions for and to paraplanners around the country and it has been great meeting so many of you and sharing experiences.  Hopefully some of you can come joins us at the IFP - we’ve got a tab behind the bar!  Special rates are being offered for paraplanners and you could find out more information by looking on the IFP’s dedicated conference web site here.

Apart from the sessions being run by Martin and I (!), two others not to be missed are:

• Michael E Gerber - bestselling author of the E-Myth, and small business guru and
• Dr Graeme Codrington - An international expert on talent and the future of work

I have been fortunate to meet Graeme on a couple of occasions and his presentation is one of the best I have seen in recent years; thought provoking, eye opening and amusing all at the same time.

If you are planning on coming, let us know and we can arrange a paraplanners meeting in the bar.

The Paraplanner - On the Road!

The Paraplanner has been up and running for virtually 2 months now and during that time has established itself as the primary resource for all things paraplanner. We have had excellent feedback to the site along with lots of fantastic ideas and ways to improve what we do.  As you can imagine it’s very difficult to put everything into practice immediately and some things are taking longer to organise than others but we hope to have implemented the majority of your ideas in the very near future.Your ideas are very, very important to us so please keep them coming!

When we set the site up we always wanted it to be much more than just another website and it was always our hope that we would be able to set up regional meetings where paraplanners who are geographically close to each other, would be able to meet, share ideas and best practice, receive some training and discuss the burning issues of the day. It has been very pleasing to see that a number of you also felt that this was a good idea and asked us to let you know when this was likely to happen.

Well, it’s happening!

We are hoping to run a number of roadshows/workshops/get togethers throughout the UK towards the latter part of this year and need your feedback to ensure that they are what you want and are held where you want them.

We would like to start planning the days to make sure we give you what you want so if you could register your interest by adding a comment below or on the forum and let us know what you think about the following:

• Where is the most convenient location? (e.g. 30 mile radius of Manchester)
• How long would you like the event to last? (e.g. full day, half day, couple of hours)
• What time would you prefer it to be held?
• Are there any specific topics you would like to see covered?
• Are there any specific topics you would like to see excluded?
• Would you be prepared to pay to attend to help cover the costs?
• How many other paraplanners do you know who would come with you?
• Are there any particular industry professionals you would be interested in meeting/hearing speak?
• Would you be willing to help organise an event?

Please pass this message on to anyone else who you think may be interested. Thanks for your help, we look forward to hearing from you all very soon.

New Sponsor - The Hartford

We are pleased to announce that The Hartford has become a sponsor of The Paraplanner and in particular our pension and investment categories.  It is especially pleasing that their decision to sponsor the site is due to a large part in their understanding and recognition of paraplanners and the importance of our role in the advice process.  This site could not work as well as it does without the support of our sponsors and so please take a look at their page here for details of The Hartford and their investment and pension proposition.

Keeping you informed

The amount of content being added to the site is set to increase at a rapid rate in coming weeks. Although all new articles will appear on the front page of the site (at least for a day or two), you may miss them.  As well as visiting each section of the site, don’t forget that you can subscribe to our email update service.

When viewing any post, article or page on the site, you will see the email updates box in the top right hand corner.  Signing up cannot be simpler; just enter your email address and you will be taken to a verification screen.  Once this has been completed you will be added to our mailing list.  On each day content is added to the site, you will be sent an email at around 18:00 containing each article.  You can unsubscribe at any time.  For information on other ways to keep up to date, please see this page.

Welcome to The Paraplanner

The Paraplanner is now live and we would like to welcome you if this is your first visit. There is lots of information here already and lots will be added in the coming weeks. Please feel free to have a good look around by using the menus above. The following pages may be a good start:

• About Us - find out about us and the aims of this site
• Using this site - says it all really!
• Site Info - see all the categories and recent posts

You can also visit the new forum where you can register and post your own topics, questions and comments. We have already had several people contacting us wishing to write articles and blog entries for the site - if you would like to be part of the editorial please click here for details.

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