Paraplanner Online

Cost efficiency and having the flexibility of an ‘on-demand’ service are two of the main reasons for utilising an outsourced paraplanning service for financial advisers, financial planners and wealth managers. Richard Allum, Managing Director of outsourced paraplanning specialists Adviser Assist, identifies the most common scenarios for employing outsourced or freelance paraplanners; “Based on the feedback receievd from our clients across the UK, the main reasons for using an outsourced paraplanning service are:

• Utilising the tehcnical knowledge and experience of the team
• Providing professioanl reports to set themselves apart from their peers
• Cost efficiency
• Time saving, and
• Flexibility

With smaller businesses, it is often difficult to justify employing an in-house paraplanner and even then, one paraplanner is unlikely to have the same level of technical knowledge and market experience as a team of four or five. With larger businesses, where we would be doing the majority of their paraplanning, it would be to save them the hassle of managing a paraplanning division.” Succession planning for a paraplanner within a small practice is often difficult, and so another reason for outsourcing, although many larger practices have their own internal paraplanners for this reason.

Far removed from anonymous temps, third-party paraplanners place a great deal of emphasis on building relationships with their clients, with sometimes a bit of trial and error required to find the right match between adviser and paraplanner. You’re always going to have teething problems because the paraplanner has to understand the adviser’s style and vica versa.

It does take time for the paraplanner to get to know the adviser, to appreciate the way the adviser likes to deal with the client, and the level of detail and the strategies they operate with. Establishing systems and procedures and implementing templates is another crucial part of initiating an external paraplanner/adviser relationship.

In most cases, advisers and paraplanning professionals alike say the most likely reason to terminate the arrangement would be the advising business growing sufficiently to support an internal paraplanner. Until then, in terms of time and cost, it’s far more efficient having an external paraplanning service allowing advisers to get on with giving advice, as opposed to report writing and research, which can be extremely time-consuming.