Martin is the featured paraplanner in Professional Adviser this week which has recently introduced a paraplanner section.  It’s good to see another publication recognising the importance of paraplanners and dedicating resources.  Here is what he had to say.

Martin Vaughan is founder of Paragon Paraplanning.  He is also co-founder of theparaplanner.com, the UK’s first website dedicated to paraplanning.

How did you become a paraplanner?

I have been working in financial services for 17 years, initially as a financial adviser for Prudential, HSBC and others. I reached a point, around nine years ago, when I wanted to get into the IFA field. I looked at where my strengths lay, and found I was best suited to research, writing reports and other tasks which we now associate with paraplanning. I have not been a regulated individual since then, and worked as a paraplanner for a several IFA firms before setting up on my own last year.

Has the role changed much over the years?

The role, and its profile, has changed dramatically over the years. When I first started doing this nine years ago, paraplanning wasn’t really a recognised career in the UK. There have been paraplanners in the US for about 25 years, and they became common in Australia around 10 or 15 years ago, but in the UK paraplanners have only started to become a major part of financial advice in the past five or so years.

The actual tasks a paraplanner undertakes on a daily basis haven’t really changed, but the profile of the job has increased as we can see from steps taken by the IFP to formalise the role.

I think advisers are really starting to see the value of having a paraplanner to work alongside them. It is a more cost effective way of delivering advice, as the adviser can spend more time doing what he is good at and the paraplanner can focus on what they are good at. It is all about making sure your business has the right people, at the right price for the right job.

What do you think of the IFP’s new paraplanner qualification?

Bearing in mind that I helped put the qualification together, I think it is superb. It’s a step in the right direction for the industry as it helps recognise paraplanning as a role in its own right. It identifies paraplanning as a job that requires specialist skills and knowledge, filling a vital role within a business.

The development of this qualification shows people in the industry they can go on and take more advanced qualifications without necessarily becoming an IFA. You can move up in the financial advice sector without becoming a regulated individual, and it can open doors to other related careers, such as compliance or office management.

What is the most rewarding part of your job?

The most rewarding part of being a paraplanner is helping advisers create a fantastic solution for clients. It is especially satisfying when you have a tricky case as you work with the adviser to examine everything needed and you come up with an excellent plan and clients really appreciate it.

If you have logged in to the site today you may have noticed that things look a bit different.  We have given the site a bit of a make over and added some new features.

The previous version of the site was set up as an online magazine with lots of sections and features which required a great deal of time to keep up to date – far too much time actually.  Martin and I run the site in our ’spare time’ and we simply don’t have enough of that to fill all the space.  This meant that some areas of the site were embarrassingly out of date.

The new site is much simpler with any new articles posted to the front page which should keep things fresher.  We have also updated things behind the scenes to make the site easier to run and update.  This will hopefully mean that more articles are added on a regular basis.

We always welcome articles from anyone who has something to say – please feel free to email copy to us and we will happily publish on the site.

The comments function on the site has not been used as much as we had hoped as many people prefer to post in the forum.  That’s fine by us and hopefully as more articles are published the comments area will thrive.

Social media has seen a massive uptake, especially in financial services, and you can now see direct links to our Twitter feeds to the right of the page.  If you haven’t tried Twitter yet, have a go, it can be very rewarding and informative as well as a great way to while away time when you are in ‘brain dead’ mode!

Lastly we have changed the colour scheme and logo.  The red and black had a very dramatic effect and we have gone for softer tones with this version.  We hope you like the changes and continue to use the site.

The 2009 Paraplanner of the Year is Svenja Keller from the John Lamb Partnership.

The overall competition was of a very high standard and we would like to thank all those who entered for your time and effort.

The winning margin was a narrow 4% and Svenja just edged the win with the joint highest score in the technical assessment of 93% backed up by a great testimonial which you can read here and her own essay submission which you can read here.

As part of her prize, Svenja will be attending the Institute of Financial Planning Conference next week where the trophy and cash prize of £1,500 will be awarded as part of the main opening session.

There were 3 runners up who each submitted entries which were highly commended by the judges:

• Rebecca Williams of Hoares Bank
• Elizabeth Andrews of Albert Goodman, and
• Gary Tunstall of Brook-Dobson Brear

They will each recieve an iPod.

We would like to thank our main sponsors, AXA Winterthur Wealth Management, and Wizard Leaning for their help with the technical assessments. The awards will be back again next year and so, if you didn’t win this time, better luck next year.

Registrations are well up on last year but there are only 2 weeks left to complete your entries.  If you have not registered yet there is still time.  Some of you have completed your technical questionnaire but not yet sent in your testimonials or short essays.  Don’t leave it to the last minute or you could miss out on the chance to be Paraplanner of the Year 2009 and win cash, education prizes and a paid for trip to the IFP Conference.

You can get more details and enter at www.ppoty.co.uk.

Good luck.

Following the success of the Awards last year we are pleased to announce that the 2009 Awards are launched today. There will be lots of publicity and press announcements next week but you can see all the information and details of how to enter now on the Award’s very own site by clicking here.  The winner will receive a prize fund including a cash prize of £1,500 as well as the recognition which goes with being The Paraplanner of the Year. Your comments and feedback will also be welcome.

We would like to thank the sponsor’s of the Awards as, without their help and support, we would not be able to do this:

• AXA Winterthur Wealth Management
• Wizard Learning
• ParaPlan Plus
• Paragon Paraplanning

The Awards are being promoted in association with the Institute of Financial Planning who have shown a great deal of commitment to paraplanners and will be hosting the awards ceremony as part of the annual conference later this year.

Good luck!

I am writing this short article to ask you all for your thoughts and comments.

Richard and I were asked to participate in the Institute of Financial Planning’s (IFP) North of England Conference to be held in Leeds on 24 March.

We agreed because we thought this would be a fantastic opportunity to raise the profile or paraplanners and to make Financial Planners aware of the benefits a paraplanner can bring to their business.

It is a one day conference and details can be found here

http://www.financialplanning.org.uk/planners/events_details.cfm?ID=594

Richard was unable to make the day so I have agreed to attend and speak.

You will see the main theme of my presentation on the above link but I want to include as part of the presentation the following:

• The one thing a Financial Planner / Adviser could do to help you as a paraplanner.

This may be anything from giving you more time to talk to them, to giving you more time to study, to making sure they keep all their paperwork in order. Everyone may have slightly different things which they would like their Planner to change so please, please let me know.

I’m sure that there are things which, from a Paraplanners perspective, you would like your planner/ adviser to change to help you.

Of course it may not be possible; it’s a matter of working together for the greater good but if we can make some suggestions to some of the country’s leading Financial Planners it will not only make the industry aware of the importance of paraplanners and the benefit they bring to a modern financial practice but will also make other planners / advisers aware of small changes they could make for the benefit of not only paraplanners and themselves but also their clients.

Please, please, please let me have your comments on

martin@theparaplanner.com

I look forward to reading all your replies.

Incidentally, the conference is open to paraplanners as well as Financial Planners so if you have not booked a place yet I would urge you to do so, the day promises to be very interesting. If you are already going let me know so that I can make sure I say hello.

Thank you for your help

Martin

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.

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

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.

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.