What does a paraplanner do?

The financial services industry offers a selection of different career roles, but while you may be aware of what a financial advisor does, the role of a paraplanner may not be quite as clear. In this blog, we explain exactly what the job entails, look at the different types of roles and how you could kickstart your career in paraplanning.

What is a paraplanner?

A paraplanner is responsible for carrying out a lot of the background work required for clients who want help with financial planning. Often operating alongside a financial planner and a financial administrator, they will create, implement and review a client’s financial plan. They will also carry out other tasks including conducting thorough research, facilitating compliance checks, creating suitability reports and answering any technical queries put forward by the client.

What a paraplanner does:

What a paraplanner does will depend on exactly what area they work in. Below, we’ve highlighted some of the different types of paraplanners and the jobs they do:

What is an insurance paraplanner?

With expertise and experience in the insurance industry, an insurance paraplanner specialises in helping clients that require insight and guidance on picking an insurance provider and a package that is suitable for them.

They have a deep understanding of the different policies available, and with this information, can offer the best possible options to clients. Within this role, the paraplanner can help clients with a range of different types of insurance based on their own knowledge and experience. The types of insurance they may be able to help a client with include life, home, car and business.

What is a mortgage paraplanner?

With an emphasis on mortgages and the types of insurance that relate to buying a home, such as life, house and contents insurance, a mortgage paraplanner helps clients pick the best options when choosing a mortgage provider.

Mortgage paraplanners can guide clients by providing the information they need in order to choose the right mortgage provider and package for them. They also keep in close communication with lenders, maintain client records, adhere to compliance regulations, update clients with progress of their applications, produce reports on potential mortgage and life insurance packages to choose from and other technical duties.

Which paraplanner role is the best for career development?

For anyone considering a career in paraplanning, specialising in a certain area such as insurance or mortgages can seem like a good way of being able to kickstart a career within a specific area. However, while some will have a stronger knowledge of certain areas, you could also choose to help clients with multiple solutions. As such, working as a paraplanner allows the opportunity to avoid being limited to any one particular area.

If you want more information on becoming a paraplanner, Simply Academy offers apprenticeships that allow you to earn the qualification and knowledge you need to become fully qualified.