What is a Paraplanner?

If you’re interested in entering the field of finance as a paraplanner or wanting to understand a little more about what a paraplanner does, then we have some essential points for you below. 

We’ll take a look at everything from a few of the duties you’ll be undertaking in your day-to-day as well as some of the qualifications you’ll need to become a paraplanner. You might also be wondering about the career trajectory that comes from being a paraplanner and where an Advanced Diploma of Paraplanning can get you in Australia’s financial service industry, so we’ll take a look at this too. 

All that said, let’s take a look below at the role of a paraplanner and what you can expect your life to be like should you succeed in landing in this role. 

The Paraplanner Qualifications

For you to understand a little more about what a paraplanner does, we’ll first take a look at the qualifications required. This might give you a bit more insight into what the field entails and what sort of responsibilities you will be given. 

To start, following the Australian Corporations Act, any individuals interested or planning on offering financial product advice to a party will be required to meet a specific educational requirement as outlined in the ASIC Regulatory Guideline 146 (RG146). 

It’s important to note that employers will look at this guideline when planning on hiring a new paraplanner to ensure you’re offering the knowledge and meeting the requirements as quoted in this guideline. 

To keep things simple, a paraplanner meeting the guideline’s requirements will need to have either an Advanced Diploma of Financial Planning under their belt or an Advanced Diploma of Paraplanning from a reputable educator. 

With this education, you’ll be on the way to being employed as a paraplanner. 

Who Do Paraplanners Work For

Briefly, a paraplanner will often work under individuals in the financial advisory industry to offer State of Advice documentation, thus enabling a financial advisor more time in their day to work with clients and provide financial advice. 

It’s important to note that many financial advisors often don’t have the time to spend around six hours each day working on their Statement of Advice documentation without being caught up, which is where paraplanners come in. 

You’ll be offering these advisers faster turnarounds and a general better experience for their clients. 

What Does a Paraplanner Do

Although most workplaces will have a range of different duties for their paraplanners, there are some tasks that will be common across the board. Most paraplanners work in financial modelling and administration and typically assist in client meetings and with research tasks. 

A few of the more common duties of a paraplanner include: 

  • Drafting and finalising State of Advice documentation
  • Undertaking financial modelling procedures
  • Updating in-house Statement of Advice templates
  • Taking care of outscored paraplanning team member workflows
  • Preparing insurance cover quotes for personal insurance
  • Preparing Record of Advice paperwork
  • Drafting letters to clients
  • Finalising documentation such as rollover forms, application forms and redemption requests
  • Making phone calls to clients and finalising general information
  • Updating documents such as financial planning templates
  • Assisting with reception work 
  • Dealing with website management
  • Training other paraplanners or new staff

With all of these workflows in mind and a whole lot more, it’s clear to see that paraplanners do a tonne of work in the office beyond just the preparation of financial documents. 

That in mind, this is good news for those looking to become a paraplanner as you’ll be able to rely on your day being segmented into a few different tasks, breaking the monotony. 

Career Trajectory of a Paraplanner

A paraplanner is an excellent occupation to land in when it comes to moving up the financial industry’s career ladder. You’re able to move up to financial advisor or even the owner of a practice during your time in the industry. 

Typically a paraplanner’s career progression is as follows: 

  1. Administration Assistant — $40,000 Salary
  2. Junior Paraplanner — $50,000 Salary
  3. Paraplanner — $60,000 Salary
  4. Senior Paraplanner — $80,000 Salary
  5. Financial Advisor or Contracted Paraplanner — $100,000 Salary
  6. Senior Financial Advisory or Practice Owner — $120,000 or Higher Salary

With that career path noted, it’s quite easy to see that moving directly into an Advanced Diploma of Paraplanning will enable you to jump the queue so to speak and gain the knowledge to move up the ladder in a financial services business a whole lot faster than if you were to start at the very bottom. 

Summary 

To summarise a paraplanner’s career details above, a paraplanner’s role is essentially to undertake a range of different administrative duties that are typically required by a financial advisor. 

A paraplanner is a team member or an occupation developed to assist directly with financial planners and enable them to better perform their tasks by removing a large swathe of the administrative or ‘paperwork’ duties involved with the profession. 

Drew Neisser