Help me choose which paraplanner I need?

Paraplanner seniority and capability requirements vary based on your practice, adviser experience and workflow complexity. This article helps you assess which level of paraplanning support is appropriate for your firm.

Three paraplanner levels

Felcorp's financial planning BPO offers three paraplanner levels, differentiated by experience, capability and cost. Most practices benefit from a mix of capabilities rather than all staff at a single level.

Entry Level Paraplanners

Entry level paraplanners are typically new to financial planning and bring basic administrative and data entry capability. They perform routine, well-defined paraplanning tasks under close supervision.

Typical responsibilities:

• Administrative tasks and file management
• Data entry into practice systems
• Product research from defined sources
• Compliance checking against templates
• Routine SOA assembly and formatting

Supervision requirements: Entry level staff require regular supervision and structured feedback. Work typically requires review and amendment before being issued to clients.

When to choose Entry Level: Choose entry level for routine administrative work, data entry, file management and tasks that follow established templates. Entry level is cost-effective for high-volume, well-structured work.

Cost: Entry level paraplanner rates typically range from AUD 2.5k-3.5k per month depending on hours and location.

Mid-Level Paraplanners

Mid-level paraplanners bring 3-8 years of financial planning experience and can operate with less supervision. They handle complex SOA preparation, technical analysis and can identify compliance issues independently.

Typical responsibilities:

• All entry-level duties
• Complex SOA and report preparation
• Technical analysis and recommendations support
• Independent compliance checking
• Proactive identification of issues and risks
• File improvements and quality enhancement

Supervision requirements: Mid-level staff can work more independently. Work often requires minor amendments or review rather than substantial reconstruction.

When to choose Mid-Level: Choose mid-level for complex paraplanning work, when your adviser team has varied experience levels or when you want to reduce supervision overhead. Mid-level staff can handle more complex advice scenarios and provide advisory input.

Cost: Mid-level paraplanner rates typically range from AUD 3.5k-4.5k per month depending on hours and location.

Senior Paraplanners

Senior paraplanners bring 8+ years of experience, often including some team leadership or specialist credential (CFP, QFP or similar). Senior paraplanners can operate almost entirely independently and can mentor less experienced staff.

Typical responsibilities:

• All mid-level duties
• Complex multi-product advice scenarios
• Training and mentoring of junior staff
• Process improvements and workflow optimisation
• Quality and compliance oversight
• Specialist paraplanning in complex areas

Supervision requirements: Senior staff operate with minimal supervision. Work typically requires little or no amendment before client issue.

When to choose Senior: Choose senior staff for complex advice delivery, when you need to reduce adviser supervision time, for specialist paraplanning functions or when mentoring junior paraplanners. Senior staff add significant value beyond task delivery.

Cost: Senior paraplanner rates typically range from AUD 4.5k-5.5k per month depending on hours and location.

Choosing your mix

Most practices operate most efficiently with a mix of levels:

• Entry level for high-volume routine work (data entry, file management)
• Mid-level as the core delivery team (SOA preparation, technical analysis)
• Senior for complex scenarios, supervision and process improvement

Example: A mid-size practice might operate with 1 Senior Paraplanner (AUM oversight, complex files, staff supervision), 2 Mid-level Paraplanners (core SOA delivery, advice support) and 1 Entry-level Paraplanner (administration, data entry, file management).

Questions to help you decide

• How much of your paraplanning work is routine vs complex?
• Do your advisers require significant supervision and guidance?
• Are there specialist paraplanning areas that need experienced staff?
• How important is reducing your supervision overhead?
• What is your budget and is the value worth the cost?

Trial recommendation

During your BPO trial, test the capability levels that best fit your work. Most practices adjust their team composition after the trial based on practical experience of which capability levels are most valuable.

Next Steps

1. Assess your current paraplanning work using the questions above
2. See Paraplanning Duties and Scope for detailed work descriptions
3. Begin with a BPO Services Trial using a mix of capability levels