Lyndsey Fraser, senior paraplanner at Rathbones Financial Planning and PFS Paraplanner Panel member, looks at the pros and cons of paraplanners attending client meetings, both for paraplanners and their firms.
I spotted an interesting poll on the PFS Paraplanner HQ Group on LinkedIn last month. The results from the poll indicated that 75% of paraplanners either attend client meetings or they’d like to but don’t get the opportunity to do so.
This is in stark contrast to the findings of Professional Paraplanner’s 2019 report Rise of the Paraplanner which reported that only 3.4% attended client meetings at that time. But a lot has changed since Covid struck with lots of client meetings now being held online rather than face-to-face.
I understand that it won’t always be practical for paraplanners to attend client meetings – they might work on an outsourced basis or simply not have enough time to be able to attend meetings alongside their other work. There will also be other paraplanners that prefer minimal client interaction.
Having given it some thought I have put the following pros and cons together which might give insight on some of the key issues.
Reasons why paraplanners shouldn’t attend client meetings:
1. Less time to write reports
Of course not all financial planners will be comfortable or agree with paraplanners attending client meetings. Some might think it’s counterproductive as their paraplanner will have less time to get their head down and get the work done.
2. Awkward client questions
Where paraplanners sit in on meetings it may raise a number of awkward questions from the client, starting with Why? Who is providing the advice? Don’t you do your own research? Why will somebody else be writing the report for you? How much more are the time and input of two people going to cost me than those of one?
3. Who is giving the advice
Another issue is the need to ensure that paraplanners who attend meetings do not give advice, unless they have CF30 status. The Paraplanner Report 2019 stated that 16% of paraplanners hold CF30, with another 19% working towards it!
4. Lack of client facing skills
I read an “interesting” quote from a financial planner in response to a similar poll run by Money Marketing. The financial planner said that “although paraplanners may be good back room technicians, how many of them have client-facing skills. If they did, they might well decide there’s no good reason why they themselves shouldn’t be advisers instead of being restricted to just writing reports for people who probably earn rather more than they do”.
Reasons why paraplanners should attend client meetings:
1. Allows financial planners to concentrate on building relationships
Creating a professional yet friendly atmosphere in a meeting is vital to developing a strong relationship with clients. Where financial planners have to break off from the conversation to record facts, interrupts the flow of the meeting and can make it feel awkward. As a result, a lot of financial planners rely on memory to later recall the main points instead of noting them down during the meeting.
Where a paraplanner attends the meeting they can record the facts and leave the financial planner to concentrate on developing the client relationship and providing the best advice to the client. The planner also has the peace of mind knowing that nothing will be missed or forgotten later on, because it isn’t noted down at the meeting.
Furthermore the client gets to see that there is a whole team working for them rather than just one person which helps to further build and strengthen the relationship.
2. Paraplanners can record the important facts
During the meeting the paraplanner can take notes of the facts they know will be important for the fact-find and suitability report. It also enables the paraplanner to ensure the clients objectives are actually bespoke to them using, as much as possible, the client’s own words.
One set of ears isn’t going to pick up everything in a client meeting…so at the end of the day if a paraplanner joins the meeting there can be better outcomes for the client because all of that goes into the suitability report.
3. Efficiencies for financial planners
Once the meeting has finished, the planner can leave the meeting knowing the information has been recorded and the suitability report is then ready to be worked on. This can free up the financial planners’ time, allowing them to concentrate on the next client and developing new business.
Also as the paraplanner was present at the meeting, they will understand whether there are any technical issues the planner needs to be aware of. If there are, these can be dealt with quickly, ensuring the suitability report is not delayed.
4. Easier for paraplanners to write suitability reports
As the paraplanner has heard first-hand what the client is looking to achieve, it makes it easier to put the plan together and write the suitability report, which in turn may mean that reports are issued to the client sooner.
5. The paraplanner is more engaged
Whilst all clients are important, I think it’s likely that paraplanners will feel more engaged in a case where they have met the client. Also, it adds further variety to our role.
6. Technology leading to cost & time savings
Now that we all have access to the likes of Zoom and Microsoft Teams, it’s less time consuming and costly for paraplanners to attend client meetings. Furthermore this technology allows financial planners to choose when to bring paraplanners into meetings at the relevant times rather than for the whole meeting.
Even where a paraplanner doesn’t attend client meetings, there are other ways to improve the quality of information making its way to the paraplanner. Client meetings can be recorded or transcribed so there is no real reason why financial planners have to spend an excessive amount of time producing written meeting notes.
Even the ability to watch back a recorded meeting speeded up will save the paraplanner some precious time if any points in the written notes need clarifying, or the paraplanner needs further detail.
Reaching a balance & future trends
Over the years I have from time to time sat in on meetings and found it really interesting to get to know the clients at a deeper level, but I’m aware my report queue isn’t getting any shorter, so a balance is important. But I think there will be a gradual shift away from a sole focus on technicalities and the need for paraplanners to develop skills which will serve in client meetings, which paraplanners are becoming increasingly involved with.
If you are interesting in continuing with the debate or you wish to discuss other paraplanning related issues you’re welcome to join the PFS Paraplanner HQ group on LinkedIn.
