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.

During the On the Road events I mentioned that one of my objectives was to raise the profile of paraplanners and for people generally, both within the industry and without, to know what a paraplanner is and what a paraplanner can do.We discussed this on various occasions and it was suggested that my challenge should be to get the word ‘paraplanner’ in the dictionary.

If this happened then anyone could go and look up what a paraplanner is.

My challenge to everyone on the site therefore is to supply a definition for the word paraplanner.

There is the word ‘paralegal’ in the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary and it is described as follows:

Paralegal  - chiefly N. Amer.

• adjective relating to auxiliary aspects of the law.
• noun a person trained in subsidiary legal matters but not fully qualified as a lawyer.

So how would you describe a paraplanner?

Let’s start the ball rolling by getting a whole load of definitions and then we’ll put it to the vote for the best one.

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

This is an article I wrote for New Model Adviser last week.

As the role of the paraplanner becomes more and more understood, and as IFA businesses develop and change, one of the challenges facing the modern IFA business particularly in this time of RDR and Treating Customers Fairly, is to ensure they are profitable but at the same time professional and produce high quality work.An integral part of this high quality work will be the production of reports for clients.  In many practices this type of work will be the domain of the paraplanner (though this is not all they will do) and clearly the more complicated and comprehensive the report the more qualified and experienced the paraplanner needed to complete it. This can cause concern for IFAs because it is not always economically viable to employ a paraplanner of this standard full time.

A solution which more and more IFAs are using is outsourcing some or all of their paraplanning requirements. This is where the report writing function, and indeed some of the other paraplanning functions, may be outsourced to a company who specialise in this type of work.

Outsourced paraplanning is not new; Richard Allum (also of TheParaplanner.com) set up the first outsourced paraplanning company in the UK, Adviser Assist, in 2002. Paraplanning Direct has been providing paraplanning services for a number of years and so has Hately Services. More recent entrants to the market have been Perceptive Paraplanning, Outsourced Paraplanning and Absolute Paraplanning. Indeed, there are a number of other companies who also provide outsourced paraplanning services and a directory of outsourced paraplanners will soon be available on www.theparaplanner.com.

Some benefits of outsourcing are:

• The ability to spend more time with your clients knowing that your reports are being written for you.
• Knowing that your reports will be to a very high standard.
• Knowing that you will receive your reports to a deadline and on time.

All of the above are vitally important when considering the TCF requirements.

There are also further benefits of outsourcing:

• The ability to pay for what you need - when you employ a paraplanner the cost is constant and though it may be advantageous to have a known cost it is not very flexible. One of the benefits of outsourcing is that you can use the paraplanner as much or as little as required (within reason).
• The ability to discuss a client case with an experienced and knowledgeable individual - having another, or possibly another two or three other highly experienced people to discuss ideas and to help create a strategy for a client is a major benefit for a small business.

Outsourced paraplanning is now a real option for IFAs and it is not just about deciding whether or not outsourcing is right for you, you are now able to select the most appropriate outsourced company for your needs as they are not all the same.

If outsourcing is something you are considering you may like to think about the following:

1. How are you going to pay for the work? Is this going to be on an hourly basis or on a case by case basis?
2. How much work are you going to give the outsourced company? Some companies require a retainer; others just work on an ad hoc basis.
3. What type of work are you going to give to the outsourced company? This is important because you need to ensure that the outsourced company are able to deal with the work you give them. If it is highly complex and technical work that requires a high degree of technical ability then you will need to make sure that the person doing the work has the appropriate skills to be able to undertake that work.
4. If you are a Financial Planner and you wish to outsource some of your report writing work you would need to ensure that the outsourced company understands the difference between a Full Financial Plan and a suitability report. Better still check whether they are CFP qualified.
5. Don’t underestimate the length of time it takes to write a comprehensive report. Too many advisers still believe that a full, comprehensive, high quality report can be written in about four hours - It can’t!!!

These are just a few of the considerations you may have, there may be others but if you decide to outsource your paraplanning work there is now plenty of choice so you should be able to find the right company for you.

I recently had the privilege of sharing a stage at the IFP conference with Marlene Shalton and the theme of her excellent presentation was whether a Paraplanner was an expense or an investment. The simple answer to this question would be, any employee not used to their full capacity could be seen as an expense rather then an investment and paraplanners are no exception.One of the problems which arises however is that there is no industry definition of what a paraplanner is or what a paraplanner does so how do you know whether they are being used effectively?  I am pleased to say that this issue is being addressed by the Financial Services Skills Council (FSSC) who has set up a working party of which I am a member, with the intention of producing a set of National Occupational Standards for the role of a paraplanner.  This will mean there will be an agreed industry wide understanding of the tasks someone who is called a paraplanner will be likely to undertake. It may also give a suggestion as to the minimum qualification requirement for a person to be called a paraplanner.

I believe a paraplanner should have at least the Certificate in Financial Planning or the old Financial Planning Certificate but there are a growing number of paraplanners who are much more highly qualified than that; many to Diploma level and a further group who are Chartered.

The majority of paraplanner related work can be broken down into three main categories:

• Research
• Report writing
• Client Management

I don’t intend to discuss these in this article and indeed it is possible to write a book on the different work a paraplanner will do. Perhaps it’s more important to consider how you use a paraplanner effectively assuming they are doing the type of work mentioned above.

1. Make sure they do tasks that are commensurate with their level of experience and qualification. If someone has studied hard and achieved the DipPFS, don’t get them doing the photocopying all day. It’s soul destroying and not a very good use of resources. There are many more appropriate tasks they could do so understand their skills and attributes and use them accordingly.
2. Explain each task fully. There is nothing worse for a paraplanner than spending time on a task only to find that the work that’s been done was not actually what’s required.
3. Encourage further study and personal development. Most paraplanners enjoy learning so encourage this, it will benefit the business. Paraplanners can provide a fantastic technical resource for you and your clients.
4. Encourage them to take ownership of their role and develop it in a way which benefits the business. Most paraplanners do not own IFA businesses, but that does not mean to say that paraplanners are not commercially aware in fact I would argue that one of their attributes should be commercial awareness and this means that occasionally paraplanners see things from a different perspective or alternatively they can shed light on a subject or offer an opinion which had not previously been considered.  Therefore the paraplanner may suggest changes to their role which had not been considered previously so let them develop the role in the way they want to - it doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
5. Allow paraplanners time for reading and research. Many people view this reading and research time as non productive but this is actually some of the most important time a paraplanner can spend. Paraplanners need to be aware of changes in legislation, the impact of those changes, the potential business opportunities resulting form that legislation, developments of new products, how those products are used. How they work and which clients they are most appropriate for. Changes in the financial markets and how this may affect clients, fund research and performance, which funds are performing well and which are performing poorly. I could go on but it is vitally important that your paraplanner has a good all round knowledge of the recent changes and developments within the industry. This will be of great value during your case discussions when designing an appropriate solution for your clients.

The majority of paraplanners I’ve been fortunate enough to meet enjoy their work. They enjoy studying, they enjoy learning about new developments in the industry, they enjoy the analytical part of the work but like everyone they appreciate it most when the skills and experience they can bring to the business are used and valued.

Paraplanner of the Year

Rebecca Kowalski from Milne Craig in Scotland.

I am 41 and am married with 3 children.

I started my career in insurance/ financial services at 18 in Bristol. I worked for Sun Life HO for 4 years and almost completed the Associate of Chartered Insurers ( the final quants paper is the only exam I have ever failed!)

After 4 years, I decided it was time to escape Bristol and spent some time travelling. I worked aboard for the summer and helped run a bar on the Aegean coast of Turkey. I returned to England to go to University and get a degree and study languages (having got a taste for travelling, I had decided to become the next Kate Adie!). I started a course in Russian and Spanish at Sheffield University in 1990, age 24. This was a great 4 years, which included 6 months living and studying in the Ukraine and 6 months in Cuba.

I met my husband during my last year at University and we got married soon after. His career path brought us to Glasgow and I re-entered Financial Services, as it was the best way to get a job that would cover the nursery fees!

Much to my amazement, I found I really enjoyed working in the IFA environment, unlike my previous Head Office admin function . I loved the pace, the challenge of the sales environment and the variety of the work. I worked in a Sales Support role for 2 years at the IFA arm of a major bank and completed my FPC. Shortly after, I obtained a position as Trainee IFA at a very large firm specialising in pensions management and employee benefits, which allowed me to develop skills as a fee based adviser. However, both my second and third child arrived on the scene in rapid succession at that time and I decided to stop working for a while, although I continued to study for and pass AFPC papers while taking a break.

I started my career as a Paraplanner in 2000, when my youngest child was about 9 months old and ever since I have worked part time in this role, initially for a small family run firm and latterly for a larger firm of Chartered Accountants, which provides opportunity for me to return to full time hours as the children grow up.

My children are now aged 8,9 and 12 and I combine my role as a Paraplanner with the usual domestic chores, taxi driving etcetera. I have always used the fact that I work part time to allow me to play an active role in my local Community,and at various stages I have run the Play Group, the Out of School Club, coached football and athletics to local kids, been a member of the Community Council. helped out at Girl Guides and taken part in the School ‘Eco Committee’.

I really enjoy being a Paraplanner, it’s interesting and stimulating and your efforts are so much more appreciated than your efforts as a parent! I guess it also suits me because I get to do the investigating and reporting that Kate Adie did, but am not in danger of getting shot at the same time!

Rising Star of the Year:

Alison Helm - Mearns & Co also in Scotland

Originally from South Africa, I moved to the UK after finishing school and went to Edinburgh University where I obtained a Neuroscience Honours degree. After university, I took a temporary job as a Customer Services Adviser with Bank of Scotland Mortgages while I thought about what career path I might follow. This temporary job turned into a permanent job and I decided to obtain qualifications to help me progress further.

While studying for the Certificate in Mortgage Advice, I was exposed to other areas of financial advice and became interested in pursuing a career in holistic advice rather than focusing solely on mortgages. I was offered a job by Mearns & Company, based in Edinburgh, in November 2005 as a Client Support Administrator.

Mearns & Company are holistic financial advisers and improving knowledge through exams is an important part of the firm’s culture, with the Director and firm as a whole having achieved Chartered status. Over the last few years, I have obtained CF1-6 and started working towards my diploma, which I hope to complete in October this year. At the same time, my responsibilities at Mearns & Company have increased and I am now a full paraplanner and mortgage adviser as well as being responsible for ensuring that the firm meets its regulatory requirements.

I have written several articles for New Model Adviser recently about the benefits of paraplanners and here is the first one.
As if any further evidence were needed, the events of the last few weeks will have highlighted to many Financial Planners and Advisers the benefits of having a qualified, experienced and technical individual, based in the office. To have someone who can keep up to date with what’s happening, deal with any incoming client calls and provide you with regular updates will have been invaluable.

I would guess that in the majority of cases, where there was someone who performed all these tasks, that person will have been a paraplanner.  I as a paraplanner, probably along with many of my paraplanner colleagues, have spent most of my time during the last few weeks with one eye constantly on the internet trying to keep up with events.

The reason for doing this is twofold.  Firstly to be able to answer any generic questions clients may have when they telephone the office and secondly to be able to share information with my Planner and indeed other colleagues.

Events have moved so quickly it’s been difficult for anyone to keep up to speed completely, particularly if they’ve been spending time with clients or working on a client case. For Planners and Advisers, to be able to come out of a client meeting knowing that there was someone in the office who could explain what’s happened during those few hours and the impact this could have on clients and at the same time know that there was somebody sufficiently knowledgeable and technically proficient enough to be able to speak to any clients who telephoned, is a great weight off their mind.  The last thing Planners need is being disturbed during a client meeting because there is no one else in the office who can take the call.

Of course this is not all paraplanners do.  The majority of their time is spent on research and report writing.

The research can be anything from researching a new product,  (some of the new ‘third way’ annuities for example) or looking at the performance of the underlying investments (whatever they may be) within a clients portfolio or simply obtaining some life assurance illustrations and then making sure that the differences between the different providers products was known and understood.

Similarly they could be writing reports for clients. This may be anything from a very short suitability letter to a very complicated Financial Plan including all the appropriate cash flow analysis.

But whatever the paraplanners’ tasks, if used correctly they will be able to take a great deal of the office based activities away from the Adviser/Planner to allow them to continue to do what they do best; talk to clients.

For this reason, it is vitally important for a paraplanner to be able to speak to other paraplanners and share best practice. This was the main reason behind setting up theparaplanner.com. The most active part of the site is the forum where paraplanners from all over the UK (and sometime from other countries) can talk to each other and share their ideas, solutions and experiences.

Half the battle with completing research is knowing where to look and if as a paraplanner you are asked to research a product or service you’ve never looked at before, where do you start? Well the ability to ask hundreds of other paraplanners for help is a fantastic resource.

I’ve never known a time like this during my 16 years in the industry and with all the uncertainty in the global financial markets (perceived or real) clients are concerned that they will lose all their money. For that reason many more clients have been contacting their Adviser/Planner, in many cases for nothing more than reassurance. But whilst you are speaking to these clients as indeed you should, the business has to continue and who better to assist you with this than a paraplanner.I hope you can see that having access to a technically minded, highly qualified and competent individual can add many benefits to your business not least of which is undertaking a number of office based tasks giving you more time to spend with your clients.

As  one of the leading IFA Businesses in the UK, Origen is continuing to expand.

At Origen we are changing the way we do things to ensure we can offer the best possible service to our customers.  Origen is opening a new Business Support Centre at our offices in Farnborough at Pyramid House, Solartron Road, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 7QL.

We are looking for Paraplanners to join our dynamic new team supporting Financial Consultants in the preparation of research and recommendations.

• You must have excellent analytical skills teamed with outstanding written and verbal communication skills.
• This is a role for someone who is confident, self motivated, willing to learn, take responsibility and work well under pressure.
• Paraplanning experience is essential and you must have started studying towards the Certificate in Financial Planning.

In addition to a comprehensive salary and benefits package, for ambitious, dedicated Paraplanners Origen can offer you the support and development you need to become a Financial Consultant through its in house academy programme.

To apply for one of these positions or to enquire about a career at Origen please send a covering letter and CV to HR@origenfs.co.uk or Human Resources, Origen Ltd, Pyramid House, Solartron Road, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 7QL.

For further details call our recruitment hot line on 0845 833 6566

However we’ve never shied away from believing that there was a need for a site like this and that people would appreciate it.

We just hope that in some small way the paraplanner.com has helped you do your job more efficiently and that you’ve enjoyed the experience of using the site.

It was also our intention that we would try to make the industry aware of what paraplanners are! It certainly seems that the role of the paraplanner and the important part they play in a modern financial practice is slowly beginning to become more understood and recognised and that all of us who work as paraplanners and slowly beginning to become more valued and recognised for the contribution we make.

If you have enjoyed visiting the site, whether it be to contribute via the forum or to look at the articles or to get some insight on a particular topic we thank you and hope that you have found what you’re looking for. We couldn’t have achieved what we have achieved without you!

The reason for writing this short article is simple. The categories for the Online Finance Awards have been announced and the organisers are looking for nominations. We would like to think that we have created a site which helps you and one which you return to time and time again.

If you think this is the case please nominate us. You can do so by clicking this link and it will only take about 30 seconds. We would suggest that ‘Online Community’ and ‘Education’ are the most appropriate categories but we will leave that decision to you.  You can vote here.

We hope that by receiving a lot of nominations the organisers will be able to recognise the skills of paraplanners and the benefits they bring to both the modern financial planning practice and the industry as a whole.

Thanks for voting

Martin and Richard