It’s been five months since I embarked on a career in financial services and started as a junior paraplanner. The time has flown by.
After a short period of settling in, which consisted of attending an induction course and shadowing some of the paraplanning and administrative staff, I was first tasked with preparing the advisers for their regular annual reviews with clients.
This involved collecting the relevant information in one place, ready for the adviser to go through with the client; then, after each meeting, typing up the information gathered and preparing the annual review report.
I am much busier than in previous jobs, but I have enjoyed the change of pace
I soon progressed to simple report writing, including Bed & Isa and fund switching. These were fairly easy to master because much of the report was templated.
An early highlight was processing a Bed & Isa backlog prior to tax-year end, just one month in to the job. It was great to feel like I had made a difference despite still being very new.
I was then let loose on the phone, chasing providers for information and later summarising that information for the advisers.
Although the exams don’t prepare you for everything, it has been helpful to have a base level of technical knowledge
I had heard multiple times that phoning providers was one of the less enjoyable tasks. Problems arise when some employers have different providers looking after different areas of their pensions, which can lead to confusion. Even worse, I have come across a few providers that appear to want to make it as difficult as possible to contact them, not even listing a contact number on their website.
More recently, I’ve graduated to writing more complicated suitability reports. I’ve found these challenging but interesting. They are far less reliant on templates as each client is different, which can then give more opportunity for creativity and problem solving.
Progression
As time has passed, my role and responsibilities have slowly grown. Progression so far has been at a good pace — just fast enough to keep me on my toes but not enough to become overwhelming.
Already having the Level Four diploma has been beneficial. Although the exams don’t prepare you for everything, it has been helpful to have a base level of technical knowledge. It is also great finally to be able to put some of that theory into practice.
It was great to feel like I had made a difference despite still being very new
On the subject of exams, I’m not going to rest much longer. I’ve taken a break for most of the year while I settled into the job, but I’ve got a long-term aim to achieve the Advanced Diploma and my eye is on the next few exams.
Overall, I have found these past five months very interesting.
I am much busier than in previous jobs, but that added pressure has kept me more engaged and I have enjoyed the change of pace.
Ryan Sharpe is a junior paraplanner at Almond Financial
This article featured in the September 2023 edition of MM.
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