Next Generation Planner: April 2022
Alex Hopkin, CFP®, AFC
Founder and CEO, Simply Paraplanner
www.linkedin.com/in/alexhopkin/
Long before the COVID-19 pandemic gave qualified candidates in far-flung places more leverage in the interview process, Alex Hopkin came to her business naturally—she wanted a virtual job that could sustain the occasionally transient nature of life as a military spouse.
“We’ve lived in Japan, the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma, and Hawaii. We’re in Alabama, and we’re going back to Japan this summer. I personally needed to work virtually, and when I was looking for positions to work virtually, they were impossible to find. I knew that there were so many people that needed to work virtually, so I wanted to create a space for them.”
It was while she and her husband were stationed in Japan that she started working on her career in financial planning.
“I got a scholarship to pursue some higher education, and I decided to pursue financial planning. We were still living overseas, and I flew to San Francisco to take the CFP® exam because back then you could only take it in a certain number of cities. When I got back to Japan, I started looking for virtual work, which was very, very difficult back then.”
That experience led her to create Simply Paraplanner, which provides a job board for employers and job seekers as well as recruiting services. Hopkin originally created the platform to support military spouses like her, but today Simply Paraplanner serves anyone working in financial planning, so long as the position is virtual.
“Now we have a huge audience. We have a lot of career changers, digital nomads, stay-at-home parents, expats. We have such a variety of individuals looking for that flexible, virtual work. Pre-pandemic, it was pretty unique to have a place where you could find virtual work, but now, many, many employers are offering virtual work.”
Paraplanning is typically a “middle office” role, Hopkin said, with the paraplanner focusing on crafting a financial plan and only interacting with clients as needed. That can make it easier for firms to commit to offering a virtual position for paraplanners compared to a planner who has relationship management responsibilities.
“Paraplanner positions are the easiest suited for virtual roles. Our platform started strictly with paraplanning roles for this reason. We now help fill all types of roles virtually (admin, operations, associate planning, lead planning, etc.), but for some firms, those positions are best suited in person. It takes a bit more convincing on our end to get a firm to hire for those positions virtually, while the paraplanner role just makes sense.”
Paraplanning can be a starting point for an associate adviser role, or a fulfilling career track of its own, Hopkin said. She noted that successful paraplanners are highly engaged by the planning process.
“They tend to love the technical side of financial planning. They love creating the financial plan, running those analyses, and digging deep into the various scenarios. Whether or not they want to go on to being client-facing really depends on the individual, but they can become what we call professional paraplanners and follow that track behind the scenes.”
The mindset that paraplanning is an entry-level position is an unfortunate obstacle that may prevent people from finding a career they love.
“I wish that more people realized that it can be a career track or a career path in its own right. It’s no longer just a stepping-stone or entry-level role. You can go on to become a very experienced lead paraplanner. You could even go on to become a director of financial planning in that paraplanner track.”
Some paraplanners may pursue a paraplanning-specific designation like the Financial Paraplanner Qualified Professional, while others may be CFP® professionals.
“When you look at the positions listed, many [firms] are looking for individuals who have completed their CFP® education, passed the exam, or hold the CFP® mark. There is that barrier to entry where they are looking for that minimum qualification, and then have that mindset where paraplanning is just an entry-level role.”
Hopkin recommended that planners who would like to advance in the paraplanning field familiarize themselves with as many financial planning platforms and CRMs as they can to stand out from other candidates.
“A lot of roles are looking for individuals who have experience in the various financial planning software technology, so [they should] at least be competent in one of the major financial planning software platforms, like MoneyGuidePro or RightCapital, for example. The CRMs are also big, so having some sort of experience [is valuable].”
Hopkin urges planning professionals to reflect on the things they care about to forge a career path that takes them where they want to go.
“We think it’s really important that people really pull from their inner strengths, but also their passion. Find what it is that you’re best at. You can be a CFP® professional and then go the internal planning route. You could even go into director of operations. Just because you pursue a certain education does not mean that you have to go down that single track to become a lead adviser.”
