Booming interest in outsourced paraplanning services has seen one company create a waiting list for prospective adviser clients as it scales up its team to meet demand.
Efficient Paraplanning outsources paraplanning services, alongside a wider range of adviser support, and is in the midst of a hiring spree as it prepares to welcome six new employees in the final quarter of this year.
The business is also currently hiring for trainee paraplanner roles, with managing director Michelle Wilson-Stimson predicting outsourcing paraplanning services is set to become the "new normal" for financial advisory administration.
She said: "Outsourcing is becoming a far more viable and attractive option in today's market and business climate and not just for the one-man bands.
"We have large IFA firms using our bespoke full back office service whereby they have no or little staff and we work solely as their head office."
She added: "Having a team of 20 employees and paying for two is a very attractive option – it makes the IFA firm look like a very large organisation and raises the profile of the adviser.
"Having that instant 'ready to start work' team is becoming the thing to do – advisers just simply don’t have time to train employees and the costs to do so are very high, particularly when you pay recruitment agencies then six months later realise the CV you believed could play it’s a part in a good fiction novel."
Writing for Financial Adviser last month Damian Davies, managing director of The Timebank, said advisers employing the services of a recruitment consultant could expect to pay 20 per cent of the new hire's salary as a fee.
Employing a paraplanner on a salary of £30,000, Mr Davies said, would mean paying a fee of £6,000, with VAT bringing the total to £7,200.
Ms Wilson-Stimson said since September her business had seen such an influx in enquires that potential clients are on a waiting list while it "dramatically scales up" team numbers.
It is a similar pattern to that seen in the wider paraplanning industry in the aftermath of the first coronavirus lockdown.
In August financial planning business Paraplanning Hub, which also outsources its services to advisers, revealed plans to double in size over the coming year following a growth spurt during the pandemic.
Its founder Tony Slimmings said the outbreak and associated restrictions had created an opportunity to provide a "remotely-based, outsourced service that is more cost effective than employing people".
rachel.mortimer@ft.com
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