- Role of Para-planners

Role of Para-planners

Written by Wilfred Ling

Sunday, 14 February 2010

I heard of this word "para-planners" a few times. But I didn't really have the time to investigate what this really means especially in Singapore's context. So, what exactly are para-planners?

I found an article at FPAS website interviewing a local para-planner and another one who hired a para-planner. You can read more about it HERE.

After reading it, I realized that many highly skilled and competent financial advisers are more suited for the role of para-planner whose role is to provide a valuable backend support for the front-end person. Their role is somewhere in between an administrative staff and the financial planner. Moreover, their qualification required is no less stringent than the financial planner. With the highly skilled personnel focusing on what he or she is best suited for the job, the financial planner need not be burden multi-tasking so many things to do. I think this model is quite interesting as it increases the quality of advice to the client. Ultimately the client will benefit from such specialisation.

Unfortunately it is not well adopted in Singapore's context because Singaporeans are not willing to pay for fees and that many financial advisory firms are not willing to abandon their commissions-based structured which is much more lucrative.

Not surprisingly, para-planners are often associated with financial advisory companies providing fee-based comprehensive financial planning services which is hardly in existence in Singapore since Singaporeans are mostly free-riders.

Do you agree with my opinion?

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