Steve Coleman, Director of Product at Morningstar Wealth, reflects on the importance of using feedback to improve processes and outcomes.
Paraplanners are the unsung heroes of the financial planning process. They bring everything together and are a vital part of any financial advice business.
Creating clear and accessible client reports that effectively explain the recommendations and advice provided is a key part of the job. However, these reports can be time-consuming, and time is an increasingly valuable commodity for advice firms.
Understanding the specific pain points and sources of friction for paraplanners is crucial. By listening to their feedback, we can streamline the process for everyone’s benefit.
One of the most prominent issues we identified is the amount of time required to generate packs for regular adviser-client reviews.
These are essential and require a great deal of data to give clients a comprehensive view of their current position, where they are on their financial journey and how they’re progressing towards their goals.
No matter the platform firms are using, the paraplanners we spoke to are spending substantial time on this task.
How can we streamline the process to not only make their lives easier but also ensure the client’s current position is presented in a clear and accessible way?
What we heard from paraplanners
One paraplanner told us that having the ability to create bespoke reports with the flexibility to apply linkage or family groupings would be highly beneficial. This might be a consolidated report from a traditional family group or a consolidation of several individual accounts and multiple products.
Another told us, if they had a magic wand, they would want to be able to generate a single, consolidated report for a client with multiple products, covering portfolio movements, income movements, cash and fees, instead of having to run separate reports for each and then manually consolidate them.
An additional theme was flexible branding, allowing firms to maintain a consistent look and feel for their client-facing material.
It seems obvious once you hear it, but it highlights the importance of listening to those working in advice businesses and developing a simple and efficient solution.
Collaboration is key to making progress, and it’s important to remember how small efficiencies can add up.
Saving time on manual calculations, or data entry can ultimately free up time to focus high-value client conversations and business growth.
That ‘value’ word is increasingly important to advisers, as now more than ever they need to be able to demonstrate how they deliver it for clients. It has become a big focus since the introduction of Consumer Duty.
While the new rules have been great to ensure everyone is working to improve customer outcomes, they have undoubtedly increased the administrative pressure on advice firms. There is an obligation to document all stages of the advice process and investing journey, and demonstrate how advice benefits clients, and helps them towards good outcomes.
Simplifying the client review process helps paraplanners and advisers to meet the rules more efficiently. Paraplanners emphasised the importance of having a single, concise view of client’s investments as a priority.
That has been our priority. A clear, bespoke summary will also better support advisers in their client interactions. The ability to link accounts, whether it be different family members or a range of accounts a client holds has also been ticked off the to-do list.
The ability of a paraplanner to coordinate platforms, providers, and fund managers to gather information and present clear reports for advisers to share with their clients is invaluable.
We believe that involving users at every stage of discovery, development and delivery is essential to ensure we are meeting their needs and delivering value to them
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