Paraplanner - Independent Financial Advisers in Reading

Immediate Start - Full Time & Part Time Options

About Our Client

The company is a well established player in the financial services industry. As an ambitious and growing organisation, they are dedicated to providing personalised financial advice and tailored solutions to their clients.

Job Description

Core Duties, Experience and Responsibilities

• 5 years Paraplanning experience; you will have the vision and ability to write two multi-pension and investment suitability reports per week, or 5 simple suitability or review reports per week, for our HNW Clients.
• Familiar with core Consumer duty principles, and able to put them at the heart of everything we do.
• Put the Client needs and outcomes first in every situation, in a fully compliant manner.
• Lead the preparation of suitability reports for approval by the Financial Adviser, and prepare associated documentation as required.
• Work with the Administration Team to ensure all information is available for a suitability report to be produced, including the pre-completion of documentation ready for clients to check and sign.
• Have at least Level 4 Diploma in Financial Planning or equivalent to act as a knowledge bank for queries of a technical nature, when the adviser isn’t available.
• Responsible for day-to-day paraplanning tasks - identifying what’s required, where client cases have information missing or outstanding actions, and working with the advisers and administrative team to obtain this information and subsequently writing a suitability report ready for adviser approval.
• Act as a Paraplanning mentor for less experienced team members as they join the team, adopting an inclusive and inspiring leadership style to help future team members identify any development areas they need to address to achieve their own career aspirations.
• Record any client communications (whether that communication is written, oral or electronic) including client related communications with third parties.
• Identify areas for financial planning and developing solutions suitable to meet the client’s needs and objectives, including the preparation of tax calculations where necessary.

The Successful Applicant

Essential Education, Qualifications & Training

• Level 4+ Financial services qualifications, RO exams are preferable.

Your Persona

• Ability to achieve agreed outcomes without supervision.
• Articulate, detailed and accurate.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, both written and verbal.
• Ability to multitask and prioritise effectively.

IT Skills

• Fully competent in all the major desktop applications (proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook etc).
• Previous experience using report writing software is a distinct advantage.
• Previous experience of all the main Platforms and IO will be advantageous.

Personal Skills

• Communication: Ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in writing, and to deal with individuals at all levels.
• Team working: Collaborative and proactive mindset. Ability to contribute as part of a team, and deal with individuals at all levels within the business. Able to work within defined business processes.
• Professional integrity: The strength of character to explain a professional point while having empathy with a customer or colleague.
• Relations with others: The personal qualities and skills that promote open and constructive working relationships with colleagues and customers.
• Flexibility: The flexibility for, and commitment to, continual self-development and improvement.

Location

Reading based. The role is currently 100% office based. Offices are open from 8am to 5:30pm to allow for flexible working hours.

What’s on Offer

• Hours of Work: Full time – 37.5 hours per week or Part time – 20, 25 or 30 hours per week are available. It may be necessary to occasionally work outside of normal office hours to meet the demands of our Clients.
• Salary: Range from £45,000 to £50,000 dependant on experience full time (pro-rata for part time).
• Benefits:

• 25 days per calendar year (plus Bank Holidays).
• Life Cover for everyone – You will get 4 x death in service.
• Income Protection – For team members out of probation, you will get 66% of your salary, after 3 months with indexation by 5% per annum.
• Health, Optical and Dental Cover – This will cover you, and with a variable extra amount it will cover your spouse and cover your children under 18.
• Cash Plan – To assist with policy excess amounts and other incidentals i.e., some optical and other benefits.
• Flexible Hours – Everyone works their contracted hours per week, but these can be flexible across three shifts; Early shift between 8am and 4.30pm; Standard shift between 9am and 5.30pm; Late Shift between 9.30am and 6pm. All shifts have up to 1 hour for lunch. If you choose to, you could take 30 minutes instead of 1 hour for lunch instead and finish a little earlier (with your line manager's approval). Part time Workers will work their hours within the shift patterns above.
• Paid Sick Leave – Up to 5 days per year at full pay.
• Long Service Annual Leave – an extra day every year after 5 years at Berkshire IFA have been completed, up to a maximum of 5 extra days annual leave.
• Upgrade in Maternity / Paternity / Shared Leave – At the moment we offer statutory. After 5 years' service, we will offer 12 weeks of full pay, followed by statutory up to the end of week 39.