Other key findings

The majority of our Paraplanners are under 55 (86%). 95% are employed directly by adviser or discretionary firms, with 5% employed by an outsourced paraplanning company. 52% are male, with responders spread around the United Kingdom.

Paraplanners still feel well supported by their firms, with 87% stating that they feel their firm is supportive of the para planner role, and encouragingly 69% of those surveyed feel that advice firms better value paraplanners than in the past.

When it comes to how firms could be more supportive, perhaps unsurprisingly, visible reward and recognition comes out on top, with strong support for ‘more involvement in client meetings’, ‘clearer career development pathways’ and ‘reducing administrative burden’.

Strong feeling among the paraplanners we surveyed that frequent changes to tax policy and allowances are affecting their processes, with most paraplanners also reporting that regulatory changes are resulting in increased workloads for advisers and paraplanners.

However despite the challenge of frequent changes to policy, allowances or regulation, paraplanners are remaining resilient with only 4% strongly agreeing that they are worried about their future ability to support advisers.