My transition from Paraplanner to Financial Planning Consultant

I am often asked ‘why do you work in Financial Planning?’ Those who know me assume it has something to do with ‘being good with numbers’. While this has obviously played a part, the main reason I work in Financial Planning is for the stories.

Listening to people as they tell their stories about their lives and getting to know their passions and dreams is what I see as being the main responsibility of a Financial Planner; I cannot help someone achieve their dreams without first knowing what they are and how important they are.

I first caught the bug when I was asked by a consultant to lead a cashflow presentation to their client. It was the first time I was entrusted to take a lead in the meeting and when it was done, I felt like I nailed it.

I had been given free reign to work with the clients to create their income strategy, and we all came out of that meeting with confidence. The clients knew they could live their best retired life with their finances in good hands, and I knew I had helped them achieve that level of comfort and had found myself a new passion. It felt good to know that I had helped them achieve that level of comfort, but that was not what had me hooked.

Coming out of that meeting, the best part was hearing their story about what they had achieved in their careers, about their extended and ever-growing family and their plans to spend the next five years travelling the world as they enjoyed the freedom retirement would give them. It was after this that I made the decision to begin my transition from a Paraplanner to a Financial Planning Consultant.

I have been involved in Financial Planning in some form or another for the last 17 years. First spending time in an administrative role for seven years followed by a further 10 years as a Paraplanner. This has provided me with a long history of not just understanding how our processes work, but also why they are important, which will stand me in good stead to provide my clients with the best outcomes possible.

I achieved my Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning in 2015, and have begun the journey of taking exams for the Advanced Diploma to achieve Chartered Financial Planner status.

Having spent the majority of my career to date working behind the scenes, has also provided me the opportunity to work closely with a wide variety of Financial Planning Consultants and not only pick up valuable skills, but also see where improvements can be made.

Day-to-day, my role is slowly progressing from that of a traditional paraplanner to more of a hybrid role, in addition to retaining some traditional paraplanning duties such as report writing, I have been providing support to a Senior Consultant on his client bank.

This shift in duties is designed to provide me with a window of opportunity to develop my soft skills by increasing my client contact and raise my profile to begin generating leads of my own.

However, one of the biggest challenges to transitioning from a Paraplanner to a Financial Planner is moving from a role that requires you to be as technically sound as possible to a role that requires a need to translate the technical jargon into a clear, ‘client-friendly’ language.

These skills cannot be taught, but that does not mean they cannot be learned, and I have found that attending as many meetings as I can with as wide a variety of consultants as possible is helping me to understand what is required.

Whilst taking a risk and setting out on a new career course can be a daunting prospect, my transition will gradually take place over the course of the next year as I develop my skills and begin to take on some clients.

This has allayed some of the pressure that comes with new responsibilities and will allow me to enjoy the process a little more. For now, though, I am excited to get started and eager to hear more stories.

Unsure what the role of paraplanner involves? Read more on our insight which talks about paraplanner responsibilities.