Advice Request Best Practice

What is seen as the best practice for advisors sending through a request for advice to be prepared to the paraplanning team? I can think of some ways using cases to have a task where the advisor comp...

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Tamara.Morey

Advisely Partner

2 years ago

Hi michael.kitselaar

Great question. The pre-paraplanning work is one of the biggest bottle necks in advice practices today. I'd challenge you to consider the best use of the adviser's time in this part of the process. Our research tells us that the average adviser takes 2-5 hours to prepare a file for paraplanning. That is time that could be better spent seeing their clients.

Our philosophy is that this process needs to sit with the paraplanner - not the adviser - which is exactly how many of practices we work with are operating. This model involves the adviser completing only the fact find and file note and having a brief 10-15 minute conversation with the paraplanner to convey their strategy ideas and desired outcomes. All plan requests, working papers, product comparisons etc are then completed by the paraplanner. This approach substantially increases adviser capacity, which is key for sustainable practice growth and our profession's impact into the future.

michael.kitselaar

Valued Supporter

2 years ago

Thanks for that. That's a great perspective, I would be curious if this results in an increase of rework on advice documents due to lack of documentation from the source of the advice? But as you say it is certainly time efficient from the adviser perspective and drives down some of that prep time. I think it is a good reminder that sometimes a short conversation can save everyone a lot of time when we get caught up in developing systems for efficiencies. It does certainly still need surrounding systems to be robust, especially with file noting and perhaps even providing an early executive summary from the paraplanner to the adviser for sign off prior to the full development of the advice, but I like this more, the more I think about it.

Tamara.Morey
Advisely Partner
2 years ago
Yes - you're spot on. We'd recommend a strategy brief is always confirmed by the adviser before the plan is produced. And we find there is much LESS rework of advice docs. This is an outcome of the paraplanner being involved in the process earlier and therefore part of the strategy formulation as well as more conversation in the process than in a traditional model, so there's less need for interpretation.

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