Former president of the Personal Finance Society Adam Owen has joined an outsourced paraplanner as part of its growth plans for next year.
Mr Owen, who has spent the last year serving as the PFS president and is also a director and head of content at NextGen Planners, has joined Plan Works as an executive director.
It is the latest appointment at the outsourced paraplanning firm, which earlier this year welcomed Siân Davies Cole to partner with founder Nathan Fryer.
The business offers paraplanning services, such as suitability report writing, annual reviews and technical guidance, to financial planning firms.
Mr Owen said: "I have been interested in the development of the relationship between financial planning firms and outsourced paraplanners for a number of years.
"Complexity within financial planning continues to increase with added pressures on firms from regulatory changes and increasing regulatory costs."
Mr Owen said "now more than ever" planning firms were considering outsourcing options to broaden the knowledge and experience available to them.
He added: "I am excited to be joining Plan Works at a key stage of their development and will be focusing on how we can build truly interdependent relationships between the paraplanning and financial planning functions across businesses."
Outsourced paraplanners have enjoyed increased demand this year, with a number telling FTAdviser the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic had created opportunities for their business.
A spike in demand has seen one company create a waiting list for prospective adviser clients as it scaled up its team, and another increase its business fuelled by a boom in protection cases.
Siân Davies Cole, director at Plan Works, said: "A lot has changed this year, for me personally, the financial planning world and for Plan Works specifically and I see Adam joining us as paving the way for the future success of the firm.
"As part of the Next Gen Planners team, Adam has helped them to focus and grow which is what I want for Plan Works but also to ensure that we are acting within our own personal and professional standards in growing the firm."
Cost has been a particular selling point for outsourced paraplanning services in recent years, with the bill for alternatively employing the services of a recruitment consultant often running into the thousands for advisers.
rachel.mortimer@ft.com
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