It now seems every junior or senior IFA administrator, fired bank financial adviser or failed IFA moving into an IFA administrative role is now a ‘paraplanner’. Really?
I recently received four CVs for a ‘paraplanner’ job and yet three of the applicants (although diploma-qualified) had zero real experience of producing a proper financial plan.
A big clue: if it doesn’t have a lifetime cashflow forecast, it’s not a financial plan. Only one of the candidates had a working knowledge of Truth® and none had worked with other cashflow software like Voyant. What have they been doing? A ‘reason why letter’ will never be a financial plan. Transferring five pensions in to one isn’t financial planning, either.
Recruitment consultants are jumping onto the paraplanner bandwagon too, as the pay for a good one (in Edinburgh anyway) appears to be considerably more than what most administrative staff get paid.
Richard Allum penned a great article on theparaplanner.com entitled ‘What is a paraplanner and what do they do?’ Anyone calling themselves a paraplanner should read it.
Iain Wishart is chartered financial planner and proprietor at Wishart Wealth Management.
