Associate Financial Planner

Job Description

People

• Proactively assist senior members of the team
• Manage and develop sub-team of less experienced members of the team effectively to maximise productivity, profitability, individual performance and encourage / promote commercial thinking and behaviour
• Set SMART objectives for reports and engage in regular 1:1s
• Take responsibility for reports’ personal and professional development
• Train Assistants and CSAs, both on the hard skills, such as dealing with providers or transaction summaries, and soft skills, such as LWP style and communication

Existing Clients and Ongoing Deliverables

• Assist in the management of client relationships
• Prepare for (with assistance from Assistants / CSAs) and attend client meetings, where necessary, and deal with any related follow up on a timely basis including the meeting notes
• Identify opportunities for additional chargeable work and referrals, and ensure charging is appropriate for the scope and complexity of the work
• Check NWPAARs from Assistants and CSAs
• Ensure the Client Take on process is completed by CSAs
• Draft / review pre-review emails
• Write reports for their assigned clients each month (the number will depend on team and month)
• Manage the process of ensuring all the ancillary tasks associated with a report (such as transaction summaries, notional accounts, children’s Invested Asset Reports) are ready sufficiently in advance of the report delivery to ensure there are no delays
• Draft or check pre-review emails
• Draft or check tax packs assigned to them such that they are all ready to be sent by the end of November
• Provide any Initial Reviews within 6 - 8 weeks of receipt of information from providers (including ensuring we have all information from the client and providers)
• Accurately draft responses to client emails such that they can be sent within 24 hours of receipt
• Ensuring that any follow ups (for example, on information requests from providers or responses from clients) are diarised and actioned under your own initiative at the appropriate time and the task remains on your to do list until completion
• Know your clients’ situations well

Prospecting and Business Development

• Assist in management of sub-teams allocation of prospects
• Support more experienced members of the sub team in the identification and initiation of potential prospects
• Assist team (of which sub-team is a part) in meeting new business targets of annualised fee income of £50,000 - £100,000 p.a.
• Make prospecting calls with team leader

Firms Core Values and Extra-Curricular

• Demonstrate the firms core values and code of ethics by actively and positively participating in staff meetings, team building exercises and other firm-wide activities
• Actively volunteer and participate in extra-curricular activities (such as membership of committees, technical specialisms, giving of training, attending and offering assistance at functions, interviewing, attending recruitment fairs)
• Show strong alignment to the firm’s culture by always putting the client first
• Assist in the communication and promotion of the firms messaging to your sub- team, encouraging active participation

Personal and Professional Development

• Ensure technical and industry knowledge is up-to-date and disseminated more widely throughout the firm, as appropriate, and that required CPD hours are attained
• Continue taking exams, ideally every 3 months (including AF exams)
• Be aware of FP rules, theories and techniques - including keeping up to date with any changes in tax regulations or other changes

Competencies

• Learn from feedback (i.e. not make errors multiple times) and pass this on to less experienced members of staff
• Ensure no follow ups / tasks are forgotten - such that a team leader can assign a task and trust it will be completed without needing to chase
• Gain the trust of not only their team but also the partners and other senior staff, such that they are respected members of the firm, whose opinions and actions can be relied upon
• Meet target deadlines set by team leaders (/ others) - communicate professionally and in a timely manner if any targets are not going to be met
• Have a high attention to detail and be accurate to the extent that work is correct first time and there are limited factual and grammatical / spelling errors
• Demonstrate a positive attitude of competence, confidence and proactivity
• Demonstrate a strong client ethos both for existing clients and the internal customer (colleagues)
• Think commercially and raise any issues of efficiency with team leader / ops / etc.
• To have the confidence to provide and receive honest feedback to / from more and less experienced members of staff
• Work autonomously
• Start to challenge the thinking of the wider team