Career paraplanner
For Dan being a paraplanner is now a career choice, although for some time he thought the only way forward for him was to become a financial adviser. “It was the paraplanning powwows that were really useful for me in seeing there is actually a real career in paraplanning,” he says. “I really wasn’t keen on the idea of moving towards the financial adviser side primarily because of the sales element. I really enjoy the paraplanning role. I like the breadth of technical experience as well as the client-facing work. And working in a business like this you get exposed to so many different things; I really enjoy the variety of the work and not knowing what you are going to be doing when you arrive in the office in the morning, what kind of off-the-wall question you could be asked.
“But perhaps the most enjoyable part of the role is when you see the impact the financial planning can have for clients. For example, when we’ve done a cashflow model for the client and they see that actually they could retire right now if they wanted to, and the affect that has on people to know they are in control of their lives, that’s a really amazing experience.”
