Paraplanners believe technologies such as automation could be crucial in saving them time on key financial advice processes.
A paraplanner provides support to financial advisers and their clients by compiling research, compliance checking, writing suitability reports and answering technical queries.
A poll of paraplanners by Wealth Wizards saw 100% agree that if their firm adopted hybrid advice it would help them save time on key advice processes such as client onboarding, completion of fact finds, diagnosis and recommendation, and suitability report writing.
In addition, 91% believed their senior management would either be very likely (29%) or somewhat likely (69%) to consider a hybrid advice model for their business.
“Paraplanners are right in the thick of the issues faced by adviser firms – such as incomplete fact finds, slow onboarding of clients with communications going back and forward to obtain the information required, writing long, repetitive suitability reports and systems not talking to one another,” said Wealth Wizards’ head of advice Nick Hall.
“Hybrid advice, utilising self-serve capabilities, automation and digital services, can cut through the inefficiencies that are being suffered at present and make paraplanners’ lives a lot easier.
“By digitally onboarding clients, including use of chatbots to help them through the process, clients can be guided to the type of advice they need. They can complete a fact find in the process – user case studies show 95% of clients who undertook a fact find digitally completed it pre the first meeting allowing the adviser and paraplanner to focus on the soft facts, dreams and aspirations of the client – and the data that is input into the fact find can be used to not only automatically populate the client’s record but build the suitability report.
“For paraplanners, using an algorithm to self-populate a suitability report, can significantly reduce the time to produce a report aligned to the advice firm’s policies. It can help to cut out repetition and make the report more streamlined, easier to read for the client whilst also being compliant under FCA rules.
“As the results of our poll show, paraplanners were quick to understand how removing these time-consuming tasks alone could massively impact their working day and allow them to focus on the aspects of their role that deliver the most value for the client and their advice firm.”
The full webinar from which this poll was taken is available to view here.