Breaking into paraplanning: ‘Where do I even start?’

Caroline is a leading figure in the UK’s wealth management and financial advice community.

In a career spanning more than 20 years, Caroline's worked in-house as a paraplanner, senior paraplanner and head of technical for small and large firms until, in 2019, she founded outsourced paraplanning practice, Sparrow Paraplanning. In 2024, Caroline launched Sparrow Solutions which offers training, learning and development, and operational support to financial planning and outsource paraplanning businesses. Soon after, she co-founded The Co-Laboratory with Melissa Kidd - a service which offers planners, advisers and paraplanners help and training with the ‘human skills’-side of financial planning and advice.

Ceetal is Head of Paraplanning at PSA Financial Services. She's been a team leader for 4 years and leads a great team of paraplanners. She really enjoys the support side of things providing research and analysis for clients.

After a 25 year career in university marketing, developing a particular interest in student finance, Chris took the plunge and retrained to work in financial services. Last year he started a new role as a paraplanner for Wesleyan Financial Services. After work he enjoys cricket, comedy and walking his Labrador, Quin.

As a learning professional based in Aegon UK’s People function, my role is to empower colleagues to thrive and grow their career with us. As part of this, I design and deliver programmes to develop our aspiring and existing managers and leaders to support their skill development in an ever-evolving landscape in our organisation and in the wider sector. I also lead on work around performance management that supports great performance and development conversations and processes. I’ve spent the majority of my career working at Aegon, doing a variety of roles across Operations and moving to the people function in the last three years

I’ve worked in financial services for more than 25 years, most of them spent at pension providers. In 2017, I decided to broaden my knowledge and move into the advice sector, where I quickly discovered a passion for paraplanning. Keen to build my skills from the ground up, I successfully undertook a paraplanning apprenticeship, gaining hands-on experience and technical expertise alongside the usual exams before qualifying with a distinction in 2021.

I am now working as an outsourced paraplanner at Navigatus, supporting a wide range of financial advice firms. My journey from pensions to paraplanning via an apprenticeship gives me a unique perspective on the practical steps and mindset needed to enter the profession, insights I am looking forward to sharing with others starting out.