Mel Holman, director and founder of Compliance and Training Solutions (CATS), has joined The Paraplanner Club as a mentor.
The Paraplanner Club was founded in 2020 by Sian Davies Cole and Chloe Phillips to help paraplanners find experienced mentors able to help with a range of issues. It is now supporting over 60 mentees with 23 mentors. An increasing number of mentees are people outside of financial services, as well as school leavers and graduates, who want to find out more about financial planning and what it means to be a paraplanner.
Mentoring is voluntary and Mel has been through the induction process and has taken on her first mentee. She joined the Club, she says as a way for CATS to give back within the profession and to help get the word out there about the great opportunities that exist in financial planning.
“I’m on a mission to be more vocal about the careers on offer, compliance and paraplanning. When people start looking at financial services they tend to think about banking or investment management, paraplanning and compliance rarely come up as obvious career choices. I think we need to be more vocal about the career paths in the financial planning profession and to help people who are interested to find out more,” she says.
“When I heard about The Paraplanner Club, which is doing just that, as well as providing mentoring for existing paraplanners, I thought it would be a great way to walk the walk.”
Mel says she’d urge other people, with experience in the industry also to consider mentoring. “I think if we can help nurture and bring people on within the profession that has to be good for everyone. There will be people out there with a lot of experience and insight that they can offer. At CATS we deal a lot with paraplanners and I think that is important if you want to be a mentor, you have to know your audience.”
Sian says: We are always looking for people with experience to help paraplanners in their professional journey. Mentors find it is hugely worthwhile and it can really make a difference. If anyone is interested in becoming a mentor, they can find the application form on our website: The Paraplanner Club
