Now considered an essential part of a financial support team, skilled paraplanners are highly sought after. But what’s right for your firm – how do you choose between in-house and outsourced paraplanning?

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Pros and cons: In-house paraplanning

Let’s explore the pros and cons of in-house paraplanning.

Employing an in-house paraplanner has lots of positives for your firm.

• ‍Part of the firm
  In-house paraplanners will be very much part of your firm, soaking up the company culture, part of the Teams chats and in most cases, just a short walk round the office if you need to get together. ‍
• Data control
  As part of your firm, an in-house paraplanner lives and breathes all your client data controls. ‍
• Investment
  When you bring on an in-house paraplanner, there’s scope for training and promotion. They may be with your firm for many years, contributing their knowledge and growing expertise.

What about the cons?

• ‍Limited scalability
  When you have an in-house paraplanner, that’s exactly what they are – a single in-house paraplanner. It’s much easier to scale when you outsource – especially over short periods of time.
• ‍Training
  Depending who you hire, your in-house paraplanner may require a great deal of training both at the start and ongoing to offer the level of support your firm really needs. ‍
• Costs
  Being part of the firm can be costly. Consider office space, equipment, salary, benefits and more.

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Pros and cons: Outsourced paraplanning

Now onto the pros and cons of outsourced paraplanning.  

There are considerable positives to outsourcing your firm’s paraplanning.  

• ‍Scalable
  When things get busy, it’s easy to upscale outsourced paraplanning – and vice versa. Simply increase or reduce the support from your provider in line with changing business needs. ‍
• Cost effective
  With outsourced paraplanning, you’re not paying for the office, the equipment, or anything else other than the paraplanning service. ‍
• Broad and specialised expertise
  Outsourced paraplanning gives you access to a pool of experienced paraplanners specialising in specific areas of financial advice.  ‍
• Time management and efficiency
  Outsourcing paraplanning allows the rest of your team to focus their attention on core business, save time on repetitive tasks and feel confident a reduced risk of errors: good outsourced paraplanners will offer quality assurance on your reports.

‍But what about the cons?

• ‍Communication barriers
  Outsourced paraplanning normally means connecting and communicating remotely, so make sure to choose a team that’s great at keeping in touch.  ‍
• Data security
  When your paraplanning is outsourced, client data changes hands – so you need to be confident that it’s handled with utmost respect by the team on the other side.  

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Deciding between in-house and outsourced paraplanning

How do you choose between in-house and outsourced paraplanning? Making the right choice is specific to your firm needs.  

Consider the pros and cons carefully – our list above is not exhaustive! We recommend reaching out to prospective paraplanning providers before making your decision, to understand what they can offer.  

We understand that selecting an outsourced paraplanning provider involves collecting as much information as possible, so our paraplanning team is happy to chat.

There’s a reason we have the largest, longest-established and most industry-recognised paraplanning team in the country. They’re forward thinking, supportive and backed by Dextera™ - our tech platform designed to make running a financial advice firm easy.

Learn more about the paraplanning service here, or drop us a line with any questions – the team would love to help.