Why the Future of Financial Advice Is Outsourced Paraplanning
A professional Independent Financial Adviser should be focused on doing what they do well and not on providing their own paraplanning services. Whether an adviser is an expert at building client rapport or providing complex and innovative solutions to financial planning conundrums or even has that rare skill of being able to provide clear and simple explanations of difficult and technically challenging concepts, he should not have to be an expert paraplanner.
A paraplanner is there to take the responsibility and ownership of the time consuming (whilst still important and necessary for compliance and audit reasons) tasks that an IFA is simply not utilising his main skillset for.
Most Financial Advisers will acknowledge the utility and convenience of having a full time and professional paraplanner at hand. By professional I mean an individual who has chosen paraplanning as a career and is not either a glorified administrative assistant, or a trainee financial adviser.
Having a qualified and dedicated paraplanner makes the routine paper work and administrative burden lighter and frees up valuable time for the adviser. The only decision an IFA should be making is how best to structure his business to incorporate a professional paraplanner.
There are usually three choices:
1. Employ a full time, professional and dedicated paraplanning specialist - put them on the payroll, pay for holidays, temp cover, pension, health care, give them desk space, their own phone line, computer hardware, inductions and training, etc...
2. Use either the current administrative assistants who are not qualified and often not suited to the role of paraplanner, or make each new and trainee adviser spend the requisite six to twelve months as a paraplanner and then, just as they are becoming valuable members of the administrative team... take them away and bring in a new one.
3. The only real solution. Outsource your paraplnning to a dedicated and professional paraplanning operation. Ideally one with a Chartered Financial Planner who can write and check all the reports and recommendations. A modern, streamlined outfit with most of the processes required already in place and online.
Save time and money by outsourcing the paraplanning work. The benefits are multiple; consistency, professionalism, cost saving, time saving. Often you can pay on a per case basis saving huge overheads associated with employees. Or you can pay a small monthly retainer and use whatever hours are needed each month.
For all Financial Advisers who have not yet considered outsourcing your paraplanning needs - now is the time to think about it.
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Why the Future of Financial Advice Is Outsourced ParaplanningA professional Independent Financial Adviser should be focused on doing what they do well and not on providing their own paraplanning services. Whether an adviser is an expert at building client rapport or providing complex and innovative solutions to financial planning conundrums or even has that rare skill of being able to provide clear and simple explanations of difficult and technically challenging concepts, he should not have to be an expert paraplanner.