When an advice firm starts to feel stretched, the obvious answer is often:

“We need another paraplanner.”

And sometimes, that’s exactly the right decision.

But before you start writing the job description, I think there’s one question worth asking…

What problem are we actually trying to solve?

Because needing more support doesn’t always mean needing another permanent employee.

Recruitment is a big investment. Not just financially, but in the time it takes to advertise, interview, wait out a notice period, onboard someone and help them get up to speed.

We know that first-hand. We’ve been recruiting ourselves recently, and finding experienced paraplanners isn’t always quick or straightforward. Even when you find the right person, there’s still a notice period to work through and time spent helping them settle into the business.

That’s not a reason not to recruit.

It’s simply a reminder that recruitment solves one problem, but it isn’t the answer to every problem.

 

Is it really a capacity issue?

Perhaps the business has grown and there genuinely aren’t enough hours in the day.

If that’s the case, recruiting may well be the right decision.

But sometimes the pressure is temporary.

It might be tax year end.

It might be a maternity leave.

It might be someone handing in their notice.

It might be an unexpected increase in new business.

Or it might simply be that the team needs a bit of breathing space while recruitment is underway.

They’re all slightly different situations, and they don’t necessarily need the same solution.

 

Or is something else causing the pressure?

Sometimes a team feels overloaded because the workload has increased.

Sometimes it’s because the process around the work has become inefficient.

Cases bounce backwards and forwards because something is missing.

Reports sit waiting for approval.

Advisers spend time chasing updates.

Paraplanners end up doing work that could sit elsewhere in the process.

Adding another person might ease the pressure.

But it might not solve what’s creating it.

 

Do you need another person, or different capability?

One of the things I’ve noticed over the past couple of years is that the support advice firms need has become much broader.

It isn’t always about writing another suitability report.

Sometimes it’s an experienced technical sounding board.

Sometimes it’s implementation support.

Sometimes it’s help with annual reviews.

Sometimes it’s improving workflows.

Sometimes it’s simply having extra capacity available when things get busy.

They’re all different challenges, but it’s easy to bundle them together under one sentence:

“We need another paraplanner.”

 

It doesn’t have to be in-house or outsourced

I think this is where the conversation is changing.

The firms we work with aren’t choosing between an in-house team and outsourced support.

Many have both.

They recruit because they want to invest in their business long term.

They bring in external support because they need flexibility, specialist experience or extra capacity while they continue to grow.

One doesn’t replace the other.

Often, they complement each other.

For me, that’s probably the biggest shift I’ve seen over the last few years.

Outsourcing isn’t just about filling a gap anymore.

It’s about giving firms access to capability exactly when they need it.

If your firm suddenly became 30% busier tomorrow, what would your first instinct be?

Would you recruit?

Would you improve your processes?

Or would you bring in some external support while you worked out the best long-term solution?

I’d be genuinely interested to hear how other firms approach it.

For firms weighing up their options, it can help to look at the wider picture rather than treating recruitment as the only answer. That might mean bringing in outsourced paraplanning support for extra capacity, reviewing where process improvements could remove pressure, or using external support for areas such as annual planning reviews while the in-house team focuses on the work that needs their attention most. The right solution will be different for every firm, but having more than one option usually makes it easier to respond without rushing into the wrong decision.