Deepen Connections With Paraplanning Services

Our interview with Kraleigh Woodford:

Q: What are we seeing in the current landscape in regards to financial plans?

Kraleigh Woodford (KW): First, investors are actually feeling less confident in their financial decision making with all that’s going on in the world, including market volatility. Second, investors actually have a lot less time in their daily lives to navigate that complexity on their own. Third, what we're seeing is the number of people actually seeking financial plans has reached an all-time high. It’s only a decade ago that 35% of investors said it was important to have a financial plan; now that number is 60%. But ironically, only 40% of investors have a plan in place.* That’s a big gap – and a big opportunity.

Q: Where do you see today’s financial advisor when it comes to planning?

KW: There are really three types of financial advisors when it comes to financial planning. Some advisors already work with most of their clients to create financial plans, some do a few plans a year but don’t have a system in place, and some don’t create plans at all. Advisors who adopt planning tell us that it helps sell new prospects, not on products, but on a path to reach their goals. And introducing planning into the annual review with their clients shifts the discussion from portfolio performance to progress against their plan.

Q: So what are the biggest challenges advisors face when either starting financial planning, or scaling to offer more planning?

KW: The biggest challenge for advisors getting started with financial planning is developing a system for fitting it into their sales and relationship management process. Doing one-off plans without an intentional process can feel inefficient and almost disruptive. Typically, once an advisor creates between three to eight plans, they feel confident about the process, deliverable, and results.

Advisors who wish to increase their planning face a different problem – maximizing their capacity and impact. Providing advice that stands out from the competition requires staying current on software and understanding a wide range of planning strategies. With plan creation often taking between five to ten hours, scaling usually means hiring staff, training a junior team member, or sacrificing personal time. How does an advisor do it all? 

Q: That’s the golden question, right?

KW: Exactly. And it’s what drove us to create Paraplanning Services. We saw that some advisors wanted to offer more for their existing and new clients through financial planning. For advisors who don’t want to reorganize their current staff, or go through the process of hiring and managing additional employees, that’s challenging.

Q: So what is Paraplanning Services?

KW: It’s a comprehensive solution for financial professionals – regardless of their practice’s size – to help them better serve their clients without having to hire more staff. And it’s available to all types of financial professionals through LPL, from bank program managers to independent RIAs. Our Paraplanning Services team, which includes CFPs and other experienced financial planning professionals, works with the advisor efficiently and effectively to create customized financial plans.

Q: How does this service work?

KW: It’s subscription based with options at various levels of desired support. We offer three plan types, so we can tailor the deliverable based on the investor’s complexity and goals, and the advisor’s use case. Many choose our core plan for prospects, comprehensive plan for existing client reviews, and advanced plan for their high net worth clients.

Paraplanning Services is an end-to-end solution. Our team creates a full financial plan in approximately two weeks. From there, the advisor can access, maintain, and adjust it based on future planning discussions with their client. The team will also provide a custom executive summary, and do a one-on-one review with the advisor to discuss the plan and help them prepare for a really thoughtful conversation with their client.

Q: That sounds really easy to implement.

KW: It really is. Every day, advisors are asked to do a lot. It’s about flexibility for the advisor and it’s backed by the power and expertise of LPL planning professionals.

Find out what advisors are saying about Paraplanning Services.

Discover the key advantages of Paraplanning Services in this short advisor testimonials video.

^{* Planning & Advice Services Segment: Advisor Financial Plan stat: Cerulli 2021 US Retail Investor Advice Relationship Report, Exhibit 9.05}

^{The views and opinions expressed by the LPL Financial Advisor(s) may not be representative of the views of other Financial Advisors and are not indicative of future performance or success. Neither LPL Financial nor the LPL Financial Advisor can be held responsible for any direct or incidental loss incurred by applying any of the information offered.}