Paraplanner survey 2024 - research round up

Three quarters of our paraplanners are under 50, with a 91% majority employed directly by adviser firms, either full or part time. 9% are freelance or employed by an outsourced paraplanning company. 27% of females work on a part-time basis versus just 9% of males, which aligns with the positive result about paraplanning offering the flexibility to achieve a positive work-life balance for those with caring responsibilities (69% agree it does; 4% disagree; 24% neutral). The overwhelming majority of paraplanners (92%) hold a financial qualification: 64% are level 4 qualified, 21% are level 6 qualified and 8% are fellows of the PFS.

Paraplanners still feel well supported by their firms, but the proportion who feel fully supported has slipped from previous surveys. When it comes to how firms could be more supportive, perhaps unsurprisingly, remuneration still comes out on top, but it scores materially lower than in the past. Meanwhile, ‘invest in better tech’ and ‘employ more paraplanners’ both score more highly than before. This suggests the heavy workloads mentioned in our first article are causing a relative shift in the nature of support paraplanners want from individual reward to improving the working environment via reducing workloads and improving working efficiency.

Following on from that firmer call for their firms to invest more heavily in technology, paraplanners are reporting a clear and present need. When asked if they feel the technology they use could be improved, 83% of paraplanners now agree that it could; a significant increase on the 64% level of our last survey. Greater “integration” of systems and tools and further “automation” of manual processes were the most cited ways in which paraplanners felt advice firm tech could be improved. Many paraplanners are still using a wide variety of tools off platform, which can increase the risk of errors due to the need to re-key data. Platforms that offer integrated, on-platform applications can speed up and strengthen back-office process by reducing data risks.

We still have a lot of processes which are done manually that I believe would be better if automated.

When it comes to switching platforms, paraplanners are clear that it would typically take a reduction in service (75%) or an increase in costs (53%) at their existing platform for them to consider switching. A due diligence review highlighting a potentially better platform (39%) was a distant third. These findings are consistent with our recent adviser research on platform selection, which highlighted that push factors are more important than pull factors in driving platform switching behaviour.