Paraplanner Zone: Wayne Vernon, The Private Office

Wayne Vernon is a paraplanner at The Private Office, an appointed representative of AWD Chase De Vere. He says, while others dreamed of being astronauts, he knew he wanted to work in financial advice…

Q. How did you get into paraplanning?
A. As soon as I left university I knew I wanted to be a paraplanner, but at first I started work for Aviva, and then Standard Life. I’ve also been a personal assistant to an adviser at Chase De Vere, and a financial researcher for three months. So I only actually became a paraplanner three years ago, but built up a body of really useful experience in the financial industry beforehand.

Q. What made you switch focus from provider to adviser?
A. The job at Aviva was a really good sounding ground from which to see developments in the profession. But I really wanted to try the other side of the fence and once I started work for an adviser I knew I wanted to work on that side of the business.

When you work for insurers you don’t speak to the client. But when working for an adviser you get to speak to clients, and products are not as important because you are independent.

Q. The Institute of Financial Planning is piloting the UK’s first Level 4  paraplanning qualification. If this had been offered during your degree, would you have taken the course?
A. At 18 I probably wasn’t clear what I wanted to end up doing, I just wanted to do something which interested me. Ten years ago I wouldn’t have even known what paraplanning was. That is definitely different now as there is greater acknowledgement of paraplanning as a profession, and not as just a stepping stone to becoming an adviser. That said, I am looking to move into advising in the future.

But I believe you need a lot of experience in the industry first. I see people coming straight to advising from university, but those with industry experience, as a personal assistant or whatever, are so much better prepared for change when it happens. I’ve seen people come from sales and do quite well as an adviser, but when the market turns you need experience to fall back on.

Q. What qualifications do you have?
A. I am qualified to Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) diploma level, as well as having a masters in business. The Private Office decided advisers must be chartered and paraplanners must be at diploma level. They will pay for and look to support anyone who wants to do the exams because they believe it reflects well both on them and the industry. At university I studied business and IT, focussing on change management, skills I have really been able to apply to financial services in light of the massive changes it is going through. The days of an IFA knocking on the door with a briefcase full of papers are over. I studied high level change management at university and this applies directly to the changes small businesses and the sector as a whole have been going through in the last 18 months.

Q. How does your role differ from the researchers and administrators at The Private Office?
A. Because we are quite a small firm everyone pitches in with the research and admin but we have six paraplanners who do the lions share of the research, letter writing and reports.

Paraplanners’ contribution is taking the research and applying it to the clients’ benefit, taking it through to the next stage. This is very important as it’s easy to be pulled into the jargon on investment companies’ websites. Paraplanners take information and explain it to the advisers, who then explain it to the client. Sometimes the client doesn’t even know we exist, though this is changing. As a company we try to show people it’s not just an adviser but a whole team.