There will probably be a change in ratio between advisers and support staff, says Alan Dick, partner at Forty Two Wealth Management.
“At the moment a typical business might have several advisers per administrator. I think we will see a switch towards a typical financial planning model where one adviser works with a team of professionals including one or more paraplanners and one or more administrators.
“You may end up with one adviser to five support staff instead of the other way round.”
Fiona Tait, business development manager at Scottish Life, adds that it’s essential for advisers to have a method of recording how much work they carry out for each client.
“If they have this information already they can use it to set an initial service menu. It should then be used each year to assess the charging structure and identify any changes which need to be made.”
Mr Dick also foresees the rise of the paraplanner role, or at least an alteration in how it is viewed.
“Some of these highly qualified paraplanners might be advisers today who don’t want to gain level four qualification to sign off advice but can still use their experience to carry out research and report writing type roles as a paraplanner.
“However, I think there will be significant growth in career paraplanners who either see a period as a paraplanner as a stepping stone to becoming an adviser – a bit like an associate solicitor working with a partner in a law firm while working towards partnership themselves – or as a long term career starting as a junior paraplanner and perhaps moving on to running a team of paraplanners within a firm.
“I would suggest that anyone interested in becoming a paraplanner should contact the IFP and take a look at the Accredited Paraplanner qualification. The accredited paraplanner qualification is a level 4 diploma that can serve as a stepping stone to full CFP accreditation if appropriate so there is no wasted studying.”
