You’d be forgiven for thinking that a gathering of previous award winners could turn into a smugfest.
But it’s PARAPLANNERS that we’re talking about.
So this episode – recorded specially to celebrate the tenth annual Professional Paraplanner Awards – is far from self-congratulatory. In fact, it’s packed with thinking that will inspire every paraplanner wherever you are in your career.
Why? Because it illustrates how entering an award – or even just thinking about it – is one of the most helpful ways to reflect on your career, what you’ve achieved and what you would like to achieve in the future.
Host Caroline Stuart of Sparrow Solutions is joined by Natalie Dawes, editor of Professional Paraplanner, along with three paraplanners who’ve been through the process themselves: Hannah Hirons of Navigatus, Luke Sparkes of Sparkes Paraplanning, and Hannah Wynick of Core Financial Paraplanning.
In an hour-long chat they talk about
- overcoming your imposter syndrome
- why nominating yourself is OK even when it might not feel like it
- why being nominated by someone else feels ACE
- whether there’s a difference entering awards when you’re in-house versus outsourced
- why writing an award entry helps you realise what you’re actually good at
- what it’s like to sit in an interview with judges – and why it’s so valuable
What’s more, the conversation also recognises that some people just don’t want to enter awards or feel the need to do so and explores ways in which paraplanners can receive the recognition their work deserves.
Above all, this is an episode that illustrates how powerful it can be for paraplanning practitioners to reflect on their professional progress. And how the peer-led evaluation of entries has quickly established the Professional Paraplanner Awards as the preeminent standard for the paraplanning profession.
An odd feature of paraplanning is that quite a bit of our time is spent designing strategies that are all about the inevitability of death but – just like in our everyday lives – lots of our clients seem reluctant to talk about death and dying and being prepared for it.
Yet the financial grief that families and friends face following a death serves only to compound the overwhelming emotional kind.
That’s what this Assembly is all about. Kylie Clark of Wealthtime, Katy Hancock of Dorothy House Hospice Care and Lucy Halliday from Argonaut Paraplanning joined Richard Allum to talk about death and dying.
Because at a time when a growing percentage of clients are reaching an age when they should be dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s in plenty of time before they die, what can paraplanners do to help them get death-ready?
What you’ll learn
- Out-of-date expression of wish forms, account and app passwords, overseas accounts, tracking down former advisers and solicitors – what are the biggest and most frequent problems following death? And what can clients and their families do to avoid them?
- The way firms handle bereavement is one of the most significant sources of complaints across financial services. With bereavement support about to come under the FCA’s spotlight, what can advice practices do to improve things?
- Learn how the ‘last 1,000 days’ concept could offer a lens to help clients and their families plan
- Grief isn’t just the client’s, it’s the paraplanner’s too. How we’ve been able to acknowledge grief in the past influences how we’re able to help clients experiencing it now and in the future.
Watch or listen now
Paraplanners from all across the UK got together to share ideas, ask questions and break the big taboo about death. Plus there’s one hour’s CPD available.
Missed it? Then follow the links below and watch the replay or catch up with the podcast now.
Are you an outsourced paraplanner?
Whether you’re the only employee of your paraplanning practice, or you lead a paraplanning powerhouse with employees and a hefty bank of clients, outsourced paraplanners share lots of things in common.
You just do.
But here’s the thing: despite the growing number of outsourced paraplanners in the UK these days, opportunities to get together to talk only about things that matter in the outsourced world, are surprisingly few and far between.
Switch off. Show up. Join in.
So, if you’re an outsourced paraplanner, here’s our invitation: at 1pm on Thursday 25 June 2026, set your notifications to ‘do not disturb’, click on the Zoom link in your event invitation and gather with other outsourced paraplanners across the UK for an hour of conversation, ideas and practical insights.
There’s nothing to prepare.
We’re starting this Assembly discussing fees and see where it goes from there.
Spaces are limited. To save a spot hit ‘Book Event’ and look out for the calendar invitation in your inbox.
Salary sacrifice – or salary exchange – has been around for ages. But a proposal in last autumn’s Budget to cap the national insurance relief available on pension contributions has brought it into sharp focus.
We racked our brains but don’t think that we’ve ever explored the essentials of salary sacrifice for paraplanners so, while the Finance Bill is making its way through Parliament, we decided to invite Lucy Clark and James Jones-Tinsley from Barnett Waddingham to tell us what it’s all about and what’s changing in future.
Lucy explains:
- what salary exchange actually is
- the national insurance savings it can unlock – for employees and employers
- the different ways to structure it
- the things that can go wrong
James rounds off the 30-minute briefing by explaining the latest on the progress of the proposed cap, which is due to come into effect by 6 April 2029, and why its final form is far from settled – and may not even happen.
Are you an outsourced paraplanner?
Whether you’re the only employee of your paraplanning practice, or you lead a paraplanning powerhouse with employees and a hefty bank of clients, outsourced paraplanners share lots of things in common.
You just do.
But here’s the thing: despite the growing number of outsourced paraplanners in the UK these days, opportunities to get together to talk only about things that matter in the outsourced world, are surprisingly few and far between.
Switch off. Show up. Join in.
So, if you’re an outsourced paraplanner, here’s our invitation: at 1pm on Thursday 30 April 2026, set your notifications to ‘do not disturb’, click on the Zoom link in your event invitation and gather with other outsourced paraplanners across the UK for an hour of conversation, ideas and practical insights.
There’s nothing to prepare. Just come along ready to share your answer to one question:
‘What’s on your mind today?’
Spaces are limited. To save a spot hit ‘Book Event’ and look out for the calendar invitation in your inbox.
We’ve been recording ‘Technically speaking’ sessions with Utmost’s Steve Sayer for a few years now.
And because they offer really crunchy case-study based content, they’re really popular with paraplanners.
But we like to plan ahead so late last year, we sat down with Steve and the team at Utmost to talk about the ‘Technically speaking’ plans for 2026. During the conversation, Steve talked about each of the major tax planning milestones that stem from the measures announced by the Chancellor since October 2024 and stretch ahead to 2031.
And when Steve revealed that he had a single slide that set out each of the changes against a timeline, we decided – there and then – that was definitely something paraplanners would like to hear more about.
So we invited Steve into the studio to talk us through it.
And here’s the result: Steve Sayer’s guide to the tax change timeline until April 2031. In it, Steve covers inheritance tax and the domicile regime, excluded property trusts and the new foreign income and gains regime, the agricultural and business property relief changes, pension death benefits in 2027, plus the effects of the freezing of tax bands until 2031.
Plus you can download his slide using the link below.
Are you an outsourced paraplanner?
Whether you’re the only employee of your paraplanning practice, or you lead a paraplanning powerhouse with employees and a hefty bank of clients, outsourced paraplanners share lots of things in common.
You just do.
But here’s the thing: despite the growing number of outsourced paraplanners in the UK these days, opportunities to get together to talk only about things that matter in the outsourced world, are surprisingly few and far between.
Switch off. Show up. Join in.
So, if you’re an outsourced paraplanner, here’s our invitation: at 1pm on Thursday 26 February 2026, set your notifications to ‘do not disturb’, click on the Zoom link in your event invitation and gather with other outsourced paraplanners across the UK for an hour of conversation, ideas and practical insights.
There’s nothing to prepare. Just come along ready to share your answer to one question:
‘What’s on your mind today?’
Spaces are limited. To save a spot hit ‘Book Event’ and look out for the calendar invitation in your inbox.
In the second of her two-part special on AI in paraplanning, Zara Okoro asks where we are heading as a profession. What plans are AI tool providers and financial planning practices likely to pursue in future? And what could it mean for the role of paraplanner itself?
In conversation with Benjamin Fabi of Principled Paraplanning, Aram Kupelian of Holden and Partners, Jonny Stubbs of Brooks Financial, and Ben Wright of Melo, Zara asks how far and fast AI adoption should go, what could go wrong, and what needs to happen to get this right?
Our last episode looked at where AI in paraplanning stands today.
For this concluding episode, we’re looking ahead.
Useful links and downloads
As well as links to the podcast episode on Spotify, Apple and Acast, we’ve included downloads of Harriet Mayer’s slides on AI and paraplanning from The Big Day Out in 2025, and Harriet’s glossary of AI terms too.
In the first of a two-part special on AI in paraplanning, Zara Okoro (pictured above) hears about the tools paraplanners are using now, the ways they’re being adopted, and the boundaries practitioners are drawing when it comes to their use.
In conversation with Benjamin Fabi of Principled Paraplanning, Aram Kupelian of Holden and Partners, Jonny Stubbs of Brooks Financial, and Ben Wright of Melo, Zara discovers how AI is already influencing multiple parts of day-to-day work that will be very familiar to paraplanners, such as meeting notes, research and collaboration.
But we also hear about reasons for caution: concerns about accuracy, security, and the pace of change.
What is clear is that we’re at the beginning of widespread adoption of AI tools in paraplanning. And no matter how much exposure you’ve had to AI at work so far, this episode (and the next) make for essential listening to understand what’s happening to paraplanning now and in the future.
Useful links and downloads
As well as links to the podcast episode on Spotify, Apple and Acast, we’ve included downloads of Harriet Mayer’s slides on AI and paraplanning from The Big Day Out in 2025, plus Harriet’s glossary of AI terms from the same event.
Are you an outsourced paraplanner?
Whether you’re the only employee of your paraplanning practice, or you lead a paraplanning powerhouse with employees and a hefty bank of clients, outsourced paraplanners share lots of things in common.
You just do.
But here’s the thing: despite the growing number of outsourced paraplanners in the UK these days, opportunities to get together to talk only about things that matter in the outsourced world, are surprisingly few and far between.
Switch off. Show up. Join in.
So, if you’re an outsourced paraplanner, here’s our invitation: at 1pm on Thursday 16 October 2025, set your notifications to ‘do not disturb’, click on the Zoom link in your event invitation and gather with other outsourced paraplanners across the UK for an hour of conversation, ideas and practical insights.
There’s nothing to prepare. Just come along ready to share your answer to one question:
‘What’s on your mind today?’
Spaces are limited. To save a spot hit ‘Book Event’ and look out for the calendar invitation in your inbox.