Matt Harrison, paraplanning manager, The RU Group   

28 November 2019

When we interviewed Matt Harrison for our October 2016 issue, he was a paraplanner working one-to-one with an adviser at Brown Shipley. Fast forward three years and he is now the Paraplanning Manager at The RU Group, a medium-sized and growing financial advice firm based in Nottingham with offices in Sheffield and Derby, where he is part of a team of 10 paraplanners serving 12 financial advisers.

Just before the interview in 2016, Brown Shipley had acquired Hampton Dean, the firm with which Matt had been for nearly 10 years, working one-to-one with the same adviser for that whole time.

It was partly because of that long standing partnership, he says, that he stayed for three years with Brown Shipley before moving on. But given the more corporate environment and a change to the proposition, he decided it wasn’t where he wanted to be, he says. “It was a hard decision to make, to break up a long standing and successful partnership but I started to speak to other companies and I found I had my eyes opened to what was out there and, more importantly, how I could use my skills and experience gained over my career to add value in a new role.”

What it particularly highlighted, he says, is his experience. “While I hadn’t had a formal management position, over the years I had been gradually taking on more and more training and mentoring as part of my role, while outside of work I was heavily involved with managing and running football and cricket teams. These experiences, I believe had all added to and broadened my skills sets.”

So, when the position at Russell Ulyatt Financial Services (The RU Group) came to his attention he was keen to pursue it.

Five months into the role, he describes it as one of the most challenging of his career to date but also the most satisfying with scope to support in the development and shape of the business.

Management role

Now, while he still undertakes client work and attends client meetings, a large proportion of his day will involve the oversight of the team. “I attend management meetings; I undertake presentations and training. We have also recently changed our back office system to Intelligent Office and our cashflow modelling software to i4C, so I have and will continue to be heavily involved in helping to facilitate these changes.

“We are also developing an apprenticeship scheme for the company. Something that I am also keen to support.”

However, perhaps the most significant part of his role since joining has been working on the restructuring of the paraplanning process to build an improved support proposition.

“Coming from outside a company, when you start to follow the workflow and procedures, you can see where there may be gaps and how things could be improved, not just for the business but for the end client,” he says. “The RU procedures were very much task orientated, which meant several people could be working on different aspects of the same client journey. I felt that by restructuring with teams, consisting of a financial adviser, paraplanner and administrator, for example, there would be more continuity and consistency of handling, and therefore, greater engagement and ownership as well as greater job satisfaction for the team members.

“In my experience, the client benefits when there is a good relationship between those three roles in a close-knit structure.”

Matt stresses it wasn’t that the previous system didn’t work, “but I think it is healthy from time to time to challenge the way we operate to see if it can be done more efficiently and more effectively by making some changes.”

In the 2016 interview, Matt expressed the view that good paraplanners develop through hard graft and experience and cannot be fast tracked, and that has not changed. “I stick with my view that you need the ability to see the bigger picture, the hard facts as well as the nuances of paraplanning, which is why I believe you need a team working on the client’s case.”

Matt says he has been revitalised by his move to The RU Group. “It’s not until you decide to move outside of your comfort zone and take on a more challenging role that you realise your potential. I feel here that I am able to use my experience and skills learned over 30 years in the industry to add value.

“There are definitely challenges in my new role, in taking on a formal management position as well as working on restructuring the processes and procedures. They are healthy challenges and ones that I am enjoying. I am someone who stays with a company for a long time, but I am glad I took the decision to look around and I believe I can play a big part in the development of the business. This role is something I can get my teeth into.”

Professional Paraplanner