Spotlight on:

Paraplanner

Alternative title

Associate Financial Adviser

Average salary

Starter

Experienced

Usual hours

Scott worked in retail for 19 years before making the switch to finance with help from the Verve Foundation. Here’s what his role as a paraplanner involves…

The headlines

Alternative title

Associate Financial Adviser

Starter

Experienced

Working hours

Usual hours

Topics

Money

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What does a paraplanner do?

You do a lot of the legwork behind what a financial advisor (someone more senior) does, like writing finance reports and checking that advice complies with regulations. My job is very meeting-focused and lots work will be prep for those meetings.

How did you get into finance?

I did criminology at university wanting to become a police officer, but when I graduated in 2008 there was a recruitment freeze. I got on a grad scheme with Asda instead and stayed there for 19 years.

But it’s never too late to change your career. I realised retail wasn’t where I wanted to be long-term — you have to work a lot of weekends and late nights.I’ve always been interested in finance from a personal point of view but then thought “why not build that knowledge into a career?”.

It took two years to do the training with the Verve Foundation. Their training and support was absolutely brilliant — second to none!

Other than formal qualifications, what skills do you need for this job?

Attention to detail. This is other people’s money that they’re trusting you with, you can make one mistake and you lose that trust.

And team work. Everyone’s got specific roles but they’ve got to link together for everything to happen.

If you want to become a financial advisor (the next step up) you’ve got to have strong personable skills because your job is so client facing and you need to build that trust.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

When you go through plans that you’ve built and are able to tell someone that they can retire early. It’s quite life changing for some people.

Sometimes all they need is that confidence from someone else telling them they can afford to do that.

What’s the most challenging part?

The industry is ever-changing, so you’ve got to stay on top of things. The government budget is being announced next month, things will change and clients will get in touch to ask how it affects them.

What do you wish you knew when you first started out?

Don’t be frightened of doing something because it can always change. There are a lot transferable skills between two careers that might seem completely different — working in teams, how you learn, how you manage people etc.

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Paraplanner

Got any questions?Head to our Discord and join the conversation.

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Don't know what you want to do? We'll help you find a career you can care about.

Got any questions?
Head to our Discord and join the conversation.