Q&A: Paraplanning certificate one year on…

This July marks the first anniversary of the Institute of Financial Planning’s (IFP) Certificate in Paraplanning. Maria Merricks talks to CEO Nick Cann about its success so far.

Why did the IFP launch the qualification?
The last few years has seen a growing call to recognise and define the role of a paraplanner. No longer are they simply technicians providing support services, they are an intrinsic part of successful financial planning practices.

We thought it was important to have a way of both training and testing people within the role. So, we gathered together practitioners and paraplanners from past and present and set out what we believe the competencies of the role are. We also worked with the skills council, so there are national occupational standards as well.
Ultimately, that led to the Certificate in Paraplanning examination.

What has the take-up been like in year one?
We have only done two sittings so we are still in low numbers at the moment: eight have gone through the process and passed the examination.

We are currently setting out the sittings for this year so we expect to see those numbers begin to increase. We’ve got dozens booked in for the training sessions and they will soon move onto the examinations.

Feedback we have got suggests there is more focus on going through the regulatory diploma examinations before coming onto this one.

How are you looking to change that?
We have managed to find about 3,000-4,000 people from the paraplanning community we didn’t know and weren’t aware of before. With many of these things, it’s about communication and understanding and showing how it fits.
We have over 100 people coming to our first ever paraplanner conference this week and we expect a lot more to be familiar with the qualification following it. We think we’ll start to see the numbers increase.

Aside from current paraplanners, are you aiming the qualification at anyone else?
I speak to a lot of business owners and IFA firms who say there is a shortage of supply of good people to come into ambitious businesses.

By contextualising the role of a paraplanner, firms are able to look at new, young graduate type people as well as other professions. We hope it will bring people into the industry who perhaps don’t like the sales or customer engagement side of being an adviser but enjoy the behind the scenes or accounting side of financial planning, for example. There is a huge opportunity.

Is there anything else planned specifically for the paraplanner community?
There is clearly the role of a financial planner and the role of the paraplanner – both fit within the profession. This series of conferences is specifically for the paraplanner community so they know it will be relevant and valuable to them.

However, we’ve had feedback from businesses that having their valuable internal resources constantly out at conferences and events is not ideal. For this reason, online and electronic resources are going to play a big part in supporting the role in the future.