Thinking of becoming a paraplanner, changing the way you paraplan, or even considering venturing out on your own? Jo Campbell – Chief Operating Officer at Verve, talks us through some of the pros and cons of each.
Paraplanners come in many shapes and forms, but as one who’s been many things to many people, I often get asked which is the ‘best’ option between being in-house and being an outsourced paraplanner.
(Spoiler alert by the way, there are no definitive answers in this, it really is personal preference, but I thought I could help with listing out some pros and cons if you’re thinking about making a move in your career into one or another area).
The in-house paraplanner
Working inhouse means you’re employed directly by a financial planning firm.
You’re part of the team, you’ve got your desk (or your dedicated corner of the kitchen table if you’re working from home), and you know the advisers, the clients, the processes, and where they keep the good biscuits.
The pros are pretty compelling. You’ve got some stability. A salary lands in your account every month regardless of how busy things are, and you’re not lying awake at 3am worrying about where the next client is coming from.
You’ve also got a team around you, having colleagues to sense-check things with, sound off to about a particularly tricky pension transfer, or just have a natter with about the World Cup (this was written in June if you can’t tell) is genuinely valuable.
There’s also the development piece. In-house roles often come with study support, structured progression, high benefits and exposure to the same client bank over time.
You get to really understand a firm’s philosophy, their clients’ goals, and the nuances that make a suitability report sing rather than just tick boxes.
Building relationships with the same clients can really enhance the financial planning service they receive, especially in an industry where trust is so paramount.
The cons? You’re at the mercy of one firm’s workload. Feast or famine can be real, and if the firm has a quiet spell, your role might start to feel precarious.
You’re also in a regulated business, and that carries a risk premium which isn’t often talked about. Will they retire? Will they be acquired? Will the Regulator just pull their permissions?
While the general consensus is that an advice firm is the more ‘stable’ option, there is always this risk. Scary stuff.
There’s also less variety. If you thrive on seeing different types of cases, different adviser styles, and different client demographics, being tied to one firm can start to feel a bit like eating the same lunch every day.
Fine for a while if you’re doing Keto. Less fine after three years as the boredom kicks in and those nice biscuits are suddenly slightly staler (and you can’t eat them anyway, because of the bloody Keto).
The outsourced paraplanner
Outsourced paraplanners work across multiple firms, either employed by a paraplanning business or, as is becoming increasingly more popular, running their own show as a self-employed professional.
The variety is very real and it is glorious for those of us who get easily bored or can’t think of anything worse than just processing pension contributions for the same client, onto the same platform, into the same portfolio, over and over and over again.
The pros are significant. You’ll see more cases in a month than many inhouse paraplanners see in a year. DB transfers, complex IHT planning, business owner advice, across all of the platforms, all of the portfolios and all of the providers, everything, everywhere, all at once.
That breadth of experience is genuinely brilliant for your development and your confidence. You also tend to build a really strong technical skillset quickly because you have to.
There’s no hiding behind “that’s just how we do it here” and learning by rote.
The flexibility is another big win. Many outsourced paraplanners work remotely and have more control over their hours. If you’re a 6am person (hello, me), you can crack on before the rest of the world has found their phone.
If you’re better after the school run, or working nights (hello, not me), that works too.
They are often working from home roles too, which offer even more flexibility and that all important work-life balance that is oh so important, especially when doing a high pressure, high intelligence role.
The cons are worth being honest about. It’s not for the faint hearted. It can be relentless. Dealing with multiple firms means juggling multiple styles, templates, back-office systems, providers and sometimes conflicting deadlines.
You need to be seriously organised and able to context-switch without losing your thread. I often say the greatest skill we build as an outsourced paraplanner is time management. If this is not your forte, then less diverse cases would be more beneficial.
The timeframes are also more constrictive. Cases are expected to be turned around much quicker (we do a five day service at Verve) which is faster-paced than the average in-house advice firm.
Add that to high volume variety and you really have to become comfortable with being efficient and brilliant, all at the same time. The elite of the elite.
There’s also the isolation piece again. If you’re working independently, you need to be proactive about building your network and staying connected to the profession.
The paraplanning community is a brilliant one, without bias, and so welcoming.
Running your own outsourced paraplanning business
This is where it gets interesting. More and more experienced paraplanners are taking the leap into self-employment, and it can be an incredibly rewarding (though not always easy) path.
The pros are obvious. You’re your own boss. You choose your clients, your rates, your hours, and your direction.
Financially, the earning potential is higher than most inhouse salaries once you’re established, and the freedom that comes with it is hard to put a price on. There’s also a real pride in building something of your own.
But here’s those good old cons. You are not just a paraplanner anymore.
You are also the marketing department, the accounts team, the compliance officer, and the person who has to chase that invoice for the third time this month. Running a business takes time and headspace away from the actual work, especially in the early days.
I’ve said that a pro is that you’re your own boss, but actually you are beholden to all of your clients and some days it can feel like you have 30 bosses, and that can be challenging.
You’ll also need to get comfortable with income fluctuation. Some months are brilliant. Others are quieter (August can make or break a self employed paraplanner), and you have to have the financial buffer and the mindset to ride those out without panicking. A good accountant is worth every penny.
And client relationships take time to build. You won’t go from zero to fully booked overnight, so plan for a runway period where you’re building your reputation and your client base before expecting the diary to be full.
And speaking of clients, you need to be comfortable with the odd awkward conversation or difficult decision and it really is a “buck stops here” mentality that can be a skill in itself to learn.
So, which is best?
Honestly? It depends entirely on where you are in your career, your personal circumstances, and what you want from your working life. Not one path is any better than the others. They’re just different.
If you’re early in your career, in-house gives you grounding, support, and the space to learn properly. If you’re experienced, technically confident, and craving variety or flexibility, outsourced might be exactly the change you need.
And if you’re thinking about going it alone? Do your homework, talk to people who’ve done it (my inbox is always open!), build your network before you need it, and back yourself.
The paraplanning profession needs great practitioners in all corners of it and there are enough financial planners to go around.
Paraplanning is genuinely the most rewarding profession and community you could ever be in, in whichever iteration you choose to approach it and I, for one, welcome into it every newbie in whatever flavour they may be!
Main image: ice cream, courtney-cook-QYsRxRPygwU-unsplash
