Sparrow Blog

Setting the Standard...

I love my job!

Reports are boring!

Thinking of financial planning as a career.... As a profession, we are crying out for new people to come and join us, but are we an easy career to get into or do we have barriers that those on the inside just don’t see? On a recent Linkedin post, someone asked a number of questions about the financial planning profession that a new person may want to know: 1. Can you be a paraplanner without being qualified? 2. Why are there junior/senior administrator and paraplanner roles? 3. At what point does the administrator become a paraplanner? 4. How confusing is this for a new entrant? These are all very good questions so I thought I’d try answer some of them with what’s my view but hopefully helpful! 1. Can you be a paraplanner without being qualified? ‘Technically’ no, you don’t ‘have’ to have any qualifications to be a paraplanner, but this is also true of the administrator role. However, do you ‘need’ qualifications? I would say, to be able to do the paraplanner role fully, to understand the technicalities of how to put together and then continue to monitor and review a client’s plan, th en yes, you would need the technical knowledge that comes from studying. Again, to what level and in what type of exams very much depends on the type of paraplanning work you are doing, and the level you and your employer want and feel you need to get to, to be able to look after the number and type of clients your business has. Do exams give you the competence to be able to do a paraplanning role? Again, yes and no. The best paraplanners I know and work or have worked with have a balance of qualifications and experience. I have worked with some who had not yet got to level 4, and were excellent paraplanners, some who were not. I’ve worked with some who are level 4, or chartered and/or Fellow, and are excellent, and again some are not .

Lockdown is really giving people the opportunity to take stock, review the way they do things and look for improvements. I don’t know if the two are related but recently I’ve also noticed an increasing number of people from all areas of the financial services sector, voice their views on where we are as a profession. I use that word quite deliberately. We may have started as an ‘industry’, but I firmly believe that over the years, we have developed into a profession: Any type of work that needs special training or a particular skill, often one that is respected because it involves a high level of education.

We live in the modern age, we have apps, gadgets and gizmos galore to make our lives easier and more convenient but unfortunately no-one has invented anything giving the one thing that most people would really like a bit more of – time. At the start of lockdown, I saw lots of posts on social media giving really good ideas for all the different things you can do to while away all the spare lockdown hours. Several weeks in, and I’m still waiting for all this extra time to materialise! I’m sure I can’t be the only one; how often have you felt you could just do with a couple more hours in the day? I’m not going to be wandering into HG Wells or Marty McFly territory here obviously (although a time travelling DeLorean would be terrifically useful) but how often have you felt you could just do with a couple more hours in the day? Being busy is a good thing and many people thrive when under a certain amount of pressure. However, if ‘busyness’ turns to ‘overwhelmed’, it can lead to stress or anxiety if we no longer feel we're in control; this is exacerbated if we are not always the best at delegating or asking for help. I, like many pe ople I’m sure, have been in situations in the past where you have so much to do that you don’t even know where to begin, and don’t feel you have the time to do it. There are tips and techniques to deal with this of course, but the best thing is having top quality people around who can pitch in and pick up the slack when you need a bit of help, giving you just that extra bit of time you’re needing.