The directory provides outsourced and contract paraplanners with the ability to list their business and services on the site.

“Listing information such as the paraplanners logo, detailed information on their services and their contact details on a professional directory will not only enhance the paraplanner’s brand with existing clients but also enable new adviser clients to find them,” said Lea Clothier,  Paraplanning Network Australia’s co-founder and Managing Director of Contract Paraplanning Services.

“A few factors are driving advice practices to look to outsourcing their paraplanning work including: increases in technology, the continual struggle to find and retain good quality paraplanners and the need to control costs in the back office at a time of industry change,” said Cath Sharples, Practice Management consultant, financial services trainer and facilitator for Paraplanning Network Australia.

“The directory will assist advice practices looking at outsourcing paraplanning work with sourcing and engaging with the appropriate provider for their needs.  It lists detailed information on each paraplanner’s service offering and allows advisers to search based on location, software used by the paraplanner and specific areas of expertise.”

For further information, click here.

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Paraplanning is a vital, yet often confusing part of the business to resource – is it better to outsource or is it better to undertake the function in-house?  Given that there are as many answers to this question as there are businesses we endeavour to provide you with some factors to consider when answering this question for your business.

1. Do you currently have an in-house paraplanner?  Is this working as effectively as you would like?  If so, are you and your paraplanner on the same page when it comes to their career goals and your business goals?  Are they a career paraplanner or likely to want to transition to become an Adviser. What could be improved? 

2. Do you want the additional responsibility of the requirement to manage, train and develop people or is your real passion in networking, business development and managing your ongoing relationship with clients?  Is managing the people aspects of the business eating away at your time and energy to do the things you love and want to do? Will freeing up the time you spend doing these tasks enable you to see more clients and generate more business?

3. Is business succession important and do you see the paraplanner being part of that succession plan?  Does the paraplanner realise this? 

4. Are you having trouble hiring a paraplanner?  Are you in a remote location?  Do you have the cash flow to support the level of expertise that you would like? 

5. Is your paraplanning process as efficient as you would like?  Is the quality up to scratch?  Do you have the time and resources to put into developing and training your paraplanner if this is required?

6. Would you like to partner with an expert in their field who has additional experience and insights that you may not ordinarily consider? 

7. When it comes to the costs and cash flow in running the business is it important to you whether costs are fixed or variable?  Would you like costs to fluctuate in line with how the business is going?  Or would you like to know exactly what your costs will be regardless of your level of activity?  Do you have the capital to support – additional technology requirements, hardware, log-ins for software, office space and recruitment fees?

8. How important is it to you to control the paraplanning function?  Do you want to work on the strategy together or do you want to provide the recommendations and get assistance with the technical and compliance requirements in forming a Statement of Advice? Do you wish to have access to a “sounding board” for your strategy and recommendations?

9. How important is it to you that plans are completed within agreed turn-around times? What is your time lag between seeing a client and providing them with a Statement of Advice? Does your outsource provider give a guarantee or are your in-house paraplanners KPI’s aligned to this?

10. Do you have a solid, quality work flow process?  Are parts of your advice process heavily segmented with people in your office sure of your expectations of their work and a clear job role?  Or is your business more fluid – with people changing from administrator to paraplanner to client services depending on the needs of the business?  Do your staff have the expertise and training required for this? 

With staffing costs accounting for over 50% of the total costs for boutique financial planning practices getting the correct mix of resources for your business is critical. 

This mix of resources is likely to change over time depending on the requirements and nuances of your business.  So what is the answer for your business?  Pure in-house support?  Partnering with an out-source provider?  Or a combination of the two?

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It’s like asking “how long is a piece of string?” without ever having seen the piece of string and unfortunately can show a lack of understanding by the adviser on the behind the scenes advice process. Similarly, a simple answer of “about 4 hours” by a paraplanner in an interview can show a lack of understanding of the various factors that go into the preparation and completion of a Statement of Advice.

To answer this question, we asked the members of Paraplanning Network Australia for their insights into “the key factors that impact the time it takes to generate Statements of Advice,”  Some of these insights follow:

1. It’s all about the integrity and completeness of data – a fully completed fact find is a good place to start, but often additional information is required when it comes to research and developing recommendations for a SOA. Having a checklist to ensure you have all necessary information, obtaining an Authority to Access Information and asking clients for current investment, loan, insurance and super statements from the outset can all help to speed up the paraplanning process. 

It’s also important to consider who is responsible for obtaining any required information and consider what their workload is. How long will the task sit in their “to do” pile and add to SoA turn-around time?

2. Am I making myself clear? – Noreen Les, Senior Paraplanner at Circle Paraplanning Services  says “One of the main factors for me is the quality of advice notes and documents provided by the adviser, i.e. the level of detail they provide and the personalisation, specific to client goals and why the advice is being provided to address those goals.”

To build a strong reasonable basis and create a more personalised Statement of Advice, the adviser can assist the paraplanner greatly by providing clear and concise instructions outlining discussions with the client; their specific goals and objectives.

3. Relationship is the key – it’s important that the paraplanner understands the adviser’s preferences for style and tone of advice.

“This includes how to interpret what an adviser is saying and writing/developing these into legible recommendations in a compliant SoA… if you don’t have a good understanding with the planner, there can be a lot of time spent making changes and updates to the SoA, even doubling the time spent sometimes.” – Lindsay Ross, paraplanner and owner at Wealth Leaders Pty Ltd.

Customising standard text can be a worthwhile exercise to reduce the time spent re-writing text that the paraplanner has written.

4. Templates, templates, templates! We all know the benefits of having templates in place, however if these haven’t been reviewed for some time then these can often become more of a hindrance than help to a paraplanner, with considerable time wasted editing and re-formatting a document.

“The more complex the plan the greater the need to stray from standard text and the need to develop own wording. This can take extra time if the adviser does not concur with the style that this has been written by the paraplanner,” says Quinton Sosnowski, Technical Specialist at Managed Financial Strategy.

5. It’s complicated! – The more complex the strategy, the more time spent by the paraplanner on researching the technical aspects, legislation, ramifications and compliance requirements and analysing the cost benefit of particular strategies. In situations where multiple scenarios are considered, this then further increases the preparation work for a SOA undertaken by the paraplanner.

To assist your paraplanner with this process, ensure that you are utilising the resources available to you, are you sharing these with the paraplanner? Does the paraplanner have access to the support services of a technical team to assist in the strategy development, or have similar strategies been recommended in the past, especially where you have been comfortable with the way the strategy was presented and explained in the SoA? Assisting the paraplanner in these ways can cut down the time it takes to develop complex advice documents.

6. Have you ever considered modelling? – Projections are an integral part of the paraplanning process. If a paraplanner is not confident with the calculator or software then errors are easily made and time is easily wasted. The key to a paraplanner being able to complete modelling efficiently is mostly in the accuracy and level of data provided and how confident they are using the calculator or tool.

One tip to make the process simpler is to provide a list of default strategy, investment return and general assumptions to be used for all projections. This helps to build consistency in your projections, reduce errors and more easier identify where data has been incorrectly input.

7. How about the software? – A paraplanners lack of experience or familiarity with financial planning software can double the generation time of a SoA.  “Financial Planning software is really a paraplanners domain. They’re going to use it more than any other employee,” says Dave Perry – Director at Accurate Admin Solutions Pty Ltd.

“I think one of the biggest factors in determining the time it takes to prepare advice is how good the templates are and your ability to “feed” data into them. If they are not particularly well designed and linked to the data sections within the paraplanning tools, you spend a great deal of time editing SOA’s,” says Noreen Les.

It’s vital that your paraplanner keeps up to date with upgrades and changes to the financial planning software and that they are provided an opportunity to attend additional training to up-skill and speed up the time it takes to use the tools, modelling and template wizards.

At the end of the day, there is no one size fits all when it comes to the time it takes in preparing Statements of Advice but there are many factor that impact on timely preparation. Identifying the part in the advice process where the time lag occurs, fostering better communication with your paraplanner and reviewing your templates and standard text could all help to streamline the process, reduce turnaround time and assist in building a better quality Statement of Advice.

The post How long does it take to write a Statement of Advice appeared first on AdviserVoice.

The Collins English Dictionary defines a paraplanner as “a person who assists a financial planner, especially in compiling reports and conducting research.”

While the core of the paraplanning role is to compile reports and conduct research there are many different types of paraplanner.  Understanding this can assist you with finding the right paraplanner for your business.

Most paraplanners in the industry work in one of the following models:

• As part of a centralised paraplanning team – this model is often employed by many major banks / dealer groups and super funds
• Alongside a number of paraplanners in a mid-sized boutique financial planning firm
• As the sole paraplanner in a boutique financial planning practice
• In a self employed / contract paraplanner capacity (often an outsourced paraplanning business)

Other duties that are often incorporated with different paraplanning roles include:

• Administration – paraplanners in smaller businesses often get involved in administration and paperwork aspects from ensuring that compliance documentation is filed correctly to preparing paperwork and implementing recommendations.  A role which incorporates administration elements can give a paraplanner a hands on understanding of the practicalities of the financial planning role and can be especially useful for those starting out in the industry and those wanting to become financial planners.
• Client Service – meeting with clients – some paraplanning roles incorporate a mix of meeting and liaising with clients as well as paraplanning.  This is common for Associate Financial Advisers who gain experience in formulating and constructing advice through paraplanning and experience in connecting and relating with clients through client service responsibilities.
• Compliance / Technical aspects – as the role of a paraplanner incorporates compliance and technical aspects, over time paraplanners can become experts in a compliance / technical field.  Many paraplanning professionals become compliance / technical experts within their business or within a dealer group / financial institution where they are called upon by financial advisers, practice managers and product providers to provide insight and expertise.
• Practice / Paraplanning Management – depending on the size of the business and the seniority of the paraplanner, management of the practice / paraplanning team may also be incorporated into a paraplanning role.  Some practices run a system where Senior Paraplanners are involved heavily in complex advice work and oversee the work of Junior Paraplanners.  Many large centralised paraplanning teams employ Paraplanning / Operations Managers to oversee teams of paraplanners, liaise with other corporate business units and manage workflow.
• Financial Planner – some financial planners are involved in doing their own paraplanning.  This is often a common starting point for Financial Planners in smaller practices who meet clients, write Statements of Advice and implement the advice themselves.

Although, a quick look at seek.com.au will show you that there are many different types of paraplanner, there are some key skills common to all paraplanning professionals including the ability to:

• Construct / formulate / understand advice documents (namely Statements of Advice – SoAs and Records of Advice – RoAs)
• Document and write reports
• Research and analyse / interpret facts and figures
• Understand the financial planning compliance framework
• Manage time effectively
• Communicate effectively (both in writing and verbally)
• Use software and employ IT related skills – as a lot of paraplanning professionals are required to use financial planning and other software.

Our articles will focus on how you can identify and attract the right paraplanning staff or outsourced paraplanning solution to fit your business. We will also be taking a closer look into how best to structure remuneration, set KPIs and establish professional development plans for your staff to enhance their development and encourage staff retention and loyalty.

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