Diary of a wannabe adviser: Week five

Lewis Benson is a member of the Aviva Future Adviser Academy. Each week, he shares with Professional Adviser his experiences as he takes his first tentative steps into the world of financial advice…

This week was spent at The Chester Partnership, an independent financial planning firm based in Hooton, near Chester.

My five-day visit focused on strategic changes pre-RDR. Steve Riddiough, one of Chester’s directors, believes there is much more to RDR than removing commission and raising the qualification level.

I couldn’t agree with this more. There seems so much more to do to be RDR-ready, such as ensuring you have a robust investment process and philosophy.

Discretionary fund managers came up as a talking point, and whether IFAs are putting too much pressure on themselves by trying to manage investments and provide financial planning advice? Not an easy one to answer.

During my visit, Aviva set me the task of finding out from the IFAs their views on client segmentation and levels of service that could or should be offered.

Views were varied, with some feeling a one size fits all approach suited their business best. It’s an interesting subject, especially when you consider that post-RDR there will be a greater emphasis on value added and associated costs.

Riddiough is a great believer in mind mapping, so after my questioning we mapped out the findings; it really made me feel part of the business.

Paraplanning was Thursday’s focus, particularly how communication and role sharing can be improved between the advisers and paraplanners.

Some feel paraplanners are mainly report writing, for others it can include technical administration and support from the beginning of the advice process.

Two in-house paraplanners explained that different advisers use the service they provide differently and that seems to work for Chester.

Next week I will be in Altrincham, spending time with network and service provider Sesame Bankhall.

If you want to know what I’m up to on a daily basis, you can follow me on Twitter @WannabeAdviser.