Paraplanners should be encouraged to attend client meetings, whose role is too often seen as an administrative one, according to Sam Patterson, director and head of mentoring at The Paraplanner Club.
Speaking at FT Adviser’s Financial Advice Forum yesterday (September 24), Patterson said: “The majority of firms I speak to say that paraplanners are not in client meetings.
“Actually, if you had a paraplanner in the room listening to the client, knowing what motivates them, what their wishes are, and why they actually have come to see the adviser in the first place, paraplanners can write the reports far quicker, and far more personalised.”
Indeed, Harriet Johnson, a partner and paraplanner at Saltus Financial Planning, who also spoke at the event, said she enjoyed having more contact with clients as a result of reducing her workload of basic admin.
“As AI can act as a complement to me, I can act as a complement to my adviser,” she said. “The adviser often likes bringing a paraplanner along [to a client meeting], so they can almost have that backup of saying, ‘Here's the person who has had their nose in the book, who is going to give you the in-depth explanation of exactly how that trust we're talking about is going to operate.
“Or, ‘Here's my paraplanner who's going to take you through the pre-underwriting process for that protection we've spoken about.’
“It means that our advisers don't need to be working these systems, and they don't need to be delving into some real niche stuff that they perhaps don't need the minutiae of knowledge on.”
Johnson added: “I do think that many clients are more comfortable speaking to paraplanners than advisers in some respects, especially if they feel that their question is maybe silly or spurious.
“They often say they don't want to engage in formal financial advice, or even just bother their adviser; but they've got a query, they've got something they didn't quite understand, or they just want to reiterate something that was in the report for their own reassurance.
“And I feel that that is a better use of my time - building client rapport, getting to know the clients a bit better, than trying to get that 10 minutes with the adviser who is on the road, who is very busy, and possibly will take a couple of days to get back to the clients if they're otherwise occupied.”
Lisa Tipton, a co-founder and director at New World Financial Group, who was also on the panel, agreed. “It can free advisers up a little bit, to just have a little bit more space from work - to not feel like they constantly have to be monitoring their emails,” she said.
“For our clients, knowing there is another person who works on all of the cases that is there, who can answer all of their questions while an adviser is away, it gives the adviser a bit more confidence while they’re away.
