What knowledge, experience and skills will help you get hired? And, once you are hired, how will you know you’ve actually made the right choice?
Whether you want to get into paraplanning, are just starting out, or know someone who would love to get their break, this online Assembly – recorded on 9 July 2025 – is jam-packed with insights on making your move into paraplanning.
Hear for yourself how our guests took their unique paths into paraplanning
Host Caroline Stuart is joined by paraplanning guests Chris Wormwell, Ceetal Katechia and Kez Condy, plus personal development expert Sarah Purves of Aegon.
Over the course of one podcast, you’ll discover how each of our paraplanners took very different routes into the profession.
One is a former barista who swapped one daily grind for another kind altogether. Then there’s the university marketer who yearned to change career. Finally, there’s the ex-administrator who set their heart on changing lanes into paraplanning.
Among the topics covered are
- The multiple pathways into paraplanning (because there’s never a ‘right’ route is there?)
- Tried and tested strategies for overcoming obstacles when starting out (or just started)
- Building a career plan that works for you
- Creating your support network
- Tackling imposter syndrome head-on
- Vital conversations to have with current or potential employers
Let’s be honest, how many of us can claim that we had our careers sussed out from day one? So don’t miss this fantastic chance to listen, learn and take your first step into paraplanning.
Don’t forget your CPD
Once you’ve listened to this Assembly, you can request a certificate for 1½ hours CPD. Just follow the link below.
Thank you Aegon
This online Assembly would not be possible without the generous support of Aegon. Thank you to the team at Aegon for supporting this Assembly – and for backing the development of paraplanners and paraplanning in the UK through their support of the Paraplanners’ Assembly.
Now don’t take this the wrong way, but is there a chance that last time you put together recommendations or financial plans for a woman, the approach was unknowingly influenced by assumptions that generally apply to a man?
As paraplanners, we have the power to directly influence financial outcomes that are better for women – whether we’re reviewing fact finds, drafting recommendations, or creating financial plans.
But are we truly creating plans for the individuals in front of us? Or are we unwittingly relying on conventional thinking and assumptions which are actually more likely to be rooted in men’s experiences rather than women’s?
It matters because, more often than not, women’s financial lives are very different to men’s. So to deliver genuinely effective financial planning, it’s important to understand the differences and how to adapt our approach.
A chance to challenge your thinking
In the recording of this online Assembly, host Sam Tonks invited Sam Secomb of Women’s Wealth and Susan Hope of Scottish Widows to explore how paraplanners can better understand and address the unique financial planning needs of women.
Together, they discussed women’s distinctive financial journeys and the stark disparities that exist – including the startling 30 per cent gender pension gap – and asked how paraplanners can help create better financial outcomes for female clients. During the session Sam, Susan and Sam discuss
– what makes women’s financial experience so different from men’s
– the real-world impact of the ‘parenthood penalty’ on long-term financial planning
– our assumptions about vulnerabilities, risk profiles and investment preferences
– practical strategies paraplanners can implement to better serve female clients
What will you learn from this Assembly?
You’ll gain actionable insights that we’re certain will help you improve your paraplanning approach, challenge conventional thinking and assumptions, and help deliver more tailored financial plans for your female clients.
Plus, you’ll discover practical tools and ideas so you’re equipped to improve financial outcomes for women right away.
Interested? Then tune in 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 19 June 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.
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 24 April 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.
From April 2025, the rules determining who pays UK inheritance tax are changing.
Instead of the complex domicile rules, a new ‘long-term residency’ test will decide whether someone’s worldwide assets fall into the IHT net.
Discover what’s changing
In this episode, Utmost’s international technical sales manager, Steve Sayer, explores how the new rules could affect clients in a range of scenarios – whether they’re UK residents planning to retire abroad or people returning home after years overseas.
Using worked examples, Steve demonstrates how changes affect trust planning, and explains when trusts might shift between excluded and relevant property status. He also touches on the implications of pension death benefits becoming subject to IHT from 2027.
Who is this Assembly for?
Whether you’re already dealing with cross-border IHT planning or want to understand how these changes might create new planning opportunities, this session is a great way to get to grips with the new framework.
What are the learning outcomes?
By the end of this podcast, you’ll understand the post April 2025 changes to:
- Inheritance Tax; and
- The taxation of non domiciles
- How trusts can help to mitigate IHT liabilities
- Discuss and explain these with a client in a clear and concise way
- Apply this knowledge to appropriate, individual, client scenarios
Once you’ve listened, make sure you grab your CPD
CPD: Take the quiz to receive your certificate
Want to learn more? Then tune in now.
The way pensions are treated for inheritance tax (IHT) is set for a big shake up in April 2027 when unused pension funds will count as part of a client’s estate and become liable to IHT.
In preparation for the change, the government announced a consultation on the liability, reporting and payment of IHT at last October’s Budget.
That consultation ended late in January 2025. But what are its conclusions likely to be? And what do paraplanners need to know so you, your firm and its clients are ready when the reforms go live?
What do you and your clients need to know?
Those are the questions that M&G‘s head of technical, Les Cameron, addressed when he joined us for an online Assembly to explores what the changes could mean for paraplanners and your clients (or clients of clients if you’re outsourced or freelancing).
What you can expect to take away from this Assembly?
Together with Assembly host Richard Allum, Les shared his thoughts on how the new IHT framework will affect pension death benefits after 2027. The conversation to covered things like:
- Whether it makes sense to think about taking money out of pensions earlier than planned
- Why bypass trusts might be making a comeback
- How the pension reforms could affect red-amber-green assessment
- Practical steps paraplanners can take now to prepare for the changes
Stop press: post-event answers to questions raised in the chat
There were loads of questions from paraplanners in the chat but, because we ran out of time, Les posted his responses to them in this thread at The Big Tent.
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 10am on Thursday 27 February 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.
For our very first online Assembly of 2025, we asked whether we’d absolutely definitely seen the back of all the corrective legislation, clear-as-mud HMRC guidance, and lifetime allowance (LTA) limbo that paraplanners, advisers and clients endured for long periods over the previous two years.
So for those who wanted to be certain where things stood, and confirm for themselves that the LTA saga was absolutely definitely over, James Jones-Tinsley from Barnett Waddingham and Transact’s Brian Radbone joined us to put us all straight – once and for all.
Over the course of one lunch hour, James and Brian offered their insights on all the corrections, clarifications and considerations that you could possibly want to know when it comes to the lifetime allowance.
Paraplanners came armed with their questions and comments to share in the chat, and tuned in to hear what our experts – and paraplanners just like them – learned from the saga of the LTA abolition.
A couple of post-event answers
During the event, Colin Stewart of The Paraplanners posed the following question in the chat: ‘If you apply for a transitional tax-free amount certificates (TTFAC), and then fixed protection, can you have the TTFAC recalculated?’. Brian said he’d check and here’s what he found out following the event:
- HMRC’s Newsletter 165 (December 2024) stated that ‘A TTFAC should be cancelled only where the available Lump Sum Allowance (LSA) or the Lump Sum Death Benefit Allowance (LSDBA) is incorrect’. So, if someone obtains FP/IP16 before the deadline and already has a TTFAC, the certificate will become incorrect and must be cancelled. The individual can then reapply with the now correct information.
- It is not possible to withdraw an application either before or after a certificate is issued.
Here’s the relevant bit of the Assembly via Vimeo and Acast if you’re interested in tuning in to the conversation.
Each of us shares an ever more complex and connected planet. One where we’re all facing the consequences of a human-made climate emergency and conflicts. A world of profound inequalities in health, economic and social outcomes between – and within – populations.
So it shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that more and more clients are looking for returns that aren’t measured financially, but by effecting positive economic, social and environmental change.
But how many of your clients think this way? And if you did know how many, how confident are you that you can help clients make their social and charitable ambitions part of a practical financial plan?
What you’ll learn from this Assembly
To explore this topic we gathered together three wise people (appropriate for the time of year) to help us:
- look at different ways in which clients can give these days
- why they might want to give in the first place; and
- the evidence that clients do want to give but their advisers don’t seem to realise
Host Richard Allum is joined by pioneering ethical investing advocate and financial planner Jeannie Boyle of EQ Investors, Jack Chellman chief project officer of the innovative Global Returns Project and David McIntosh of chief executive of ShareGift – a brilliant service that has turned the shareholding equivalent of spare change into more than £50 million in donations to UK charities since 1996.
Watch or listen now
Once upon a time, philanthropy was something that only the very wealthiest would consider. But in this season of goodwill – and in a world that doesn’t half need it – find out why that’s no longer true – and how paraplanners can help clients put their money to work in powerfully positive ways more easily than ever before.
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 10am on Thursday 12 December 2024, 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.