Ever thought about setting up your own outsourced paraplanning firm? Sasha Wakefield tells how it has been for her in establishing The Paraplan Project
Me – a founder of an actual real-life company? Getting to do something I love every day? NO WAY! Quite frankly if you had told me 16 years ago when I first stepped into the world of finance, that I would be doing this I would have thought you’d had too many wines.
I spend my day reviewing clients’ attitude to risk and feel comfortable with taking risk with my own pension pot. Yet, if you were to ask me my attitude when it comes to employment and financial stability, I would certainly be in the ‘I don’t like risk…get me out of here!’ camp. I can safely say that the idea of setting up on my own hadn’t been on the cards for me, until now.
A few months ago, in the midst of this financial crisis, I began squirrelling away so I could create The Paraplan Project. I knew I had the paraplanning side covered but actually running a limited company was something very new to me. So I reached out to others in the profession for guidance, including those on the PFS Paraplanner Panel, of which I am a part. So many kind paraplanning professionals shared their wisdom with me, from help with my multiple cyber security questions to simply giving reassurance that I was going to be okay.
Before launching I was super nervous, of course, naturally riddled with self-doubt (I mean what paraplanner isn’t at some point). But as soon as I launched those fears vanished. I received nothing but an outpour of love and support. The response simply reflected what I knew deep down all along – ours is truly an amazing profession to be a part of.
Our values
I knew what the values would be for The Paraplan Project long before I had even considered a name. For me, the company would always be built around a proposition with three values at the heart of what we do – time, collaboration and freedom.
While my working day will remain largely within the traditional paraplanning role, from carrying out technical research to being a sounding board to help agree the client outcome,
I am also using my experience to work with my financial planners to help shape any future growth aspirations they may have for their firms.
This might include a desire to build their own in-house paraplanning team in the long term. Whilst some may think I am doing myself out of work, I believe there are some great benefits to having both in-house and outsourced paraplanners working alongside each other in the same firm.
For the firms that are looking to grow, I am working with them on building a plan. In the short-term, using The Paraplan Project as their sole paraplanning resource and over the long-term, building and working collaboratively with their in-house team. The benefit is that we will already know their business inside out – their values, processes, compliance, reports and most importantly, their clients. This makes us the perfect fit to support and train their inhouse paraplanners, developing them into confident, self-sufficient, technical gurus of their own.
Long term plan
Over the last year I have seen so many positive changes within our profession, from more inclusion at conferences such as the PFS Festival to Caroline Stuart, (who runs the PFS Paraplanning panel) recently becoming PFS President. I think we can truly say that the sky is the limit for us paraplanning professionals.
For The Paraplan Project, I don’t envisage it will grow too much in size, but growing a small team of talented paraplanners would be a dream come true.
Whilst there have been so many highlights in my career, I now feel the happiest I have ever been since I moved into paraplanning. I mean what is better every day than getting to work alongside financial planners who truly value our profession, see me as a key part of their team and the most important thing of all, collaborating to get the best outcome for their client.
This article was first published in the December 2022 issue of Professional Paraplanner.
