Epiphany moment
After several years working for a number of firms, her ambitious nature led her to what she describes as an epiphany moment. “I realised that the most important thing was to be working with people and in a company ethos where I really believed in the company and enjoyed everything about being with those people and working with those people.
“It’s about doing something you believe in, where you are challenged and respected and you get a chance to get involved in the areas you want to get be involved in,” she says.
The fact that she has been able to fulfill that ambition has come about in part because of the changing nature of financial planning and the recognition of enlightened planning firms that paraplanners can play a more strategic role and bring something valuable to the business, she believes. “In the past there was a silent barrier between advisers and paraplanners; you might be asked for an opinion but really it was only ever the advisers who made decisions,” she says. “That is less and less the case. Certainly, where I am now, I am at the table when the business decisions are being discussed and shaped and I know that my opinions really are listened to and given a great deal of weight. It’s all about being able to make a contribution and if you have a valid opinion, it is knowing that it counts and that it is going to be listened to.”
More than just paraplanning
Cornerstone Asset Management is a new company, established in 2011, with six advisers spread across two offices, in Glasgow and Edinburgh. “It’s a very growth orientated firm, very dynamic. It is constantly looking to redesign its model, raise its presence and win more business. That was the kind of challenge, the kind of firm I was looking for,” Rebecca says.
There are just three administration/paraplanning staff, a ratio she says “sounds quite scary” but with workloads coming in peaks and troughs, good systems and templates in place, “we are managing fine at the moment”.
However, with expansion of the number of advisers on the horizon, that ratio is going to change and the company is currently in talks with outsourced paraplanning firms. “It’s going to be a new challenge to manage the split between outsourcing some of the work and keeping some in house but we’ve got certain advisers whose work tends to form a pattern and we can outsource their work quite easily, while others have clients that need highly technical and bespoke reports that we will keep in house. I’m quite looking forward to running both sides of that,” she says.
As well as running the paraplanning side of the operation, other areas of the business that Rebecca is involved with are marketing and compliance. “We use threesixtyservices for our compliance but I am the first port of call within the firm. I’ll identifying whether the advisers have discussed all the areas that should be covered, that they approached the case in the right way and that the proposition they’ve put together is fully compliant. All of that’s coming through me so that’s quite a challenge in itself as well.”
