The role of the paraplanner is gaining increasing prominence with a number of industry publications including sections for paraplanners.

Professional Adviser recently published a really interesting article under the heading ‘how paraplanners can make a difference in volatile markets’ which included comment from both an adviser and his paraplanner. It provided some interesting insights into how they work together and how the adviser has used paraplanners to his advantage.

You can read the whole article here

Many thanks to Professional Adviser for allowing us to republish the article.

A big thank you to all those who took a couple of minutes to complete the first 2-minute survey a month ago. The results were interesting if not surprising showing that paraplanners still spend the majority of their time writing reports and undertaking research.

Risk profiling is an area which is getting increasing attention and in the second 2-minute survey there are a few very quick questions about risk profiling; it would great if as many paraplanners as possible could take a couple of minutes just to answer a few very simple questions.

For those that have not taken part already the link is below

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ParaplanningRiskProfiling

If you know of any other paraplanners who may not have seen this, please feel free to send the link onto them also.

If you didn’t manage to complete the first survey (that takes only 30 seconds!) you can still do so by clicking the link below.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/739MC9X

Thanks for your help

The Paraplanner.com has been working with NMG now for over 2 years and together we have been conducting the most comprehensive survey of paraplanners and paraplanning in the UK.

The survey is now conducted twice a year and comprehensively looks at the individuals who are paraplanning, their demographics, their role and the influence they have within their practices.

The most recent survey was conducted in May 2011 and the results of that survey can be found here.

A big thank you to all those who took part; for those who have not yet been involved, it would be great to have you on board and for you to take part in the next survey which will be at the end of this month.

If you are not already involved please register your interest by forwarding your details to martin@theparaplanner.com.

Over the past year there have been a number of new initiatives for paraplanners which is excellent. The role is becoming more established and is proving popular for individuals coming into the industry as well as those looking for a long term career.

To get an appreciation of this Paragon Paraplanning is launching a series of 2-minute surveys. They are very simple with very few questions, which will literally take two minutes to complete.

It would be great if you could take part. It would also be brilliant if you could tell others who you think would like to take part.

Just click here and answer a few simple questions; it will take 2-minutes!

Thank you

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.

After coming a very close second in 2009, this year’s Paraplanner of the Year is Gary Tunstall of Brook-Dobson Brear Wealth Management Consultants in Harrogate.  Gary received the highest overall score from the judging panel for his essay and the testimonial received from Andrew Brook-Dobson and also achieved the joint highest score in the technical assessment although he just lost out in the tie break.  As the overall winner, Gary receives a cheque for £1,000, a full pass and accommodation to the IFP Conference (where the award will be made on Tuesday 4 October), access to Wizard Learning’s structured CPD system for 12 months plus online exam support for 3 years and a trophy.

The technical assessment was won by Sam Ogg of Hedgelands Financial Services in Devon and he wins an iPad 2 and £1,000 of training credits from Wizard Learning.

Well done to all those who entered – the standard was very high this year.

Jane Holt has recently joined Paraplan Plus and this blog records her first month as an outsourced paraplanner.

I never planned to be a paraplanner.

But having outgrown my previous job role of admin person / office manager / sometimes-paraplanner in a small but successful financial planning practice, I was excited as I started work with Richard three weeks ago to finally be able to call myself a ‘proper’ paraplanner.

I was also interested to see what life would be like “on the other side of the fence”, as Richard puts it. I was used to the client facing environment; familiar with the majority of my practice’s clients, having spoken to them on the telephone, greeted them at the office, written them letters, slaved over their reports, and had a hand in their financial strategies.

Week one was a whirlwind of information. New systems, processes, research tools, report styles.

Week two, things fell into place somewhat, and I felt confident about starting to write my own reports rather than just do the preparation as I had the first week.

Now in the middle of week three, I feel my feet have barely touched the ground since Monday, and the volume of work I’m getting through is astonishing me!

It has suddenly fallen into place for me just how much sense outsourced paraplanning makes. In my previous job; a small practice, as mentioned earlier, a client report could take us a week to complete. I would have a number of cases on the go at once, all with totally different objectives, requirements, and recommendations, and each would need a different sort of research process, a bespoke recommendation, and a carefully crafted personal report. The process took hours and hours, not just of my time, but of the adviser’s, who wanted to scrutinise every step of the process; every word of the report.

On “the other side of the fence”, though, the process is much more efficient, streamlined and slick.

This doesn’t for a moment mean that our reports aren’t personalised. Providing our IFA provides a reasonable summary of their client’s personal situation and objectives, each case is worked around the individual scenario.

However, it’s considerably more efficient to write, say, ten reports recommending a risk-appropriate portfolio of mutual funds held via a wrap, than it is to write just one, even if each client’s attitude to risk is slightly different, appropriate wrap provider is different, and portfolio of funds is different. Our technical knowledge is up to date, the software and research processes are familiar, and while the reports are worked around what the adviser wants to provide to their client, the basic structure of each report is similar. Hey presto, many more reports can be written in the time it originally took me to write one or two!

Do I think, though, that the individual financial planning practices are losing that personal touch in their reports; that by going through a process, their clients are somehow losing out?

Quite the opposite; I feel that if providing a robust and repeatable process is one of the fundamental principles of TCF, then putting each client through a paraplanning process carried out by a paraplanning specialist, rather than an overstretched adviser or administrator who hasn’t used such-a-piece of software for a month, is a great leap towards this.

And the amount of adviser time that is freed up by the outsourcing of the paraplanning can be used to focus on more face-to-face client projects, which, as numerous studies will tell us, is what the clients value most.

It sounds like a win-win to me.

Interesting comments about how Colin Lawson of Equilibrium has set up their advice structure and paraplanning team.  I would say this of course, but he’s right.  Read the full article in Money Marketing.

Lawson and Equilibrium’s two other advisers are well supported, each assigned a team of five paraplanners who sit in on all client meetings. “It is an unusual structure but the use of paraplanners will increase as the retail distribution review approaches. Advisers are going to have to become more efficient, whether that means having people in-house or outsourcing. I believe using paraplanners is the best route for the industry but first the gap between adviser and paraplanner pay needs to narrow.”

At Equilibrium, the paraplanners are the most qualified employees, although Lawson says this will change after the RDR. “I have got one more exam to do myself and have chosen financial regulation. I figured it would be useful to know something about that area.

My business is in the fortunate position of being able to turn away new clients as we are so busy with our existing ones. However, we still get lots of enquiries each week and I felt quite bad not being able to help as most wanted to engage with a paraplanner.  This lead to the idea of the directory.  It’s the first time an IFA or financial planner can go to one site and see a listing of freelance and outsourced paraplanners (and administrators), review detailed information about them and make contact with as many as they want with a single click.

It’s a simple idea but I think it will work.  The profile of parapalanners has grown rapidly in recent years and this is another step forward in meeting the demand for our services.  You can find the Directory here and follow us on Twitter here.

The NPAC in association with UBS and theparaplanner.com is pleased to announce details of its inaugural Paraplanning and Networking events taking place throughout the UK in May 2011.

The theme for these events will be lifetime cashflow planning – what is it, what is it for, why you should use it and how to produce a professional report. These free sessions will be excellent for those new to cash flow planning and want to understand how this fits into their financial planning practice as well as those who have been using cash flow planning for some time and want to sharpen their skills.

As with all NPAC events, the day will be highly interactive with the opportunity for networking, discussions and to share experience and best practice being just as important.

The dates and locations for the events are as follows:

10^thMay – London, UBS Finsbury Avenue, London

17^thMay – Edinburgh, John McIntyre Conference Centre, Holyrood Park Road, Edinburgh

19^thMay – Manchester, Cottons Hall Hotel, Manchester Road, Knutsford

All three events will run from 9.30 am until 1.00 pm, there will be coffee and tea on arrival and a break for brunch, allowing you to leave immediately after the close of the event.

A brief agenda for the day can be found here.

These inaugural sessions are freeto practising paraplanners and administrators however in order for all delegates to get the maximum out of the event numbers will be kept small and spaces are limited.  

In order to avoid disappointment, to reserve your place please send an email to npacevent@parappl.com stating which event you would like to attend. We will then confirm your place in due course.

I look forward to seeing you there.