Tests for taking on paraplanners

Nath

Morning All, Happy Friday!!

We are perhaps thinking about 'possibly' taking someone on as a new paraplanner. We are a small firm and have never really had a 'formal' process for this. We have been discussing various tests we can put in place and I am sure I saw a thread on this quite some time ago. Does anyone have any tips/ideas or even material they could share to steer me in the right direction.

Thanks

Nathan

Andy_Schleider

I'd be interested in this as well - I need to do some sums but I might be better off hiring someone than paying a freelancer and something like this would be useful as although both directors speak to applicants (she's a much better judge of character than I!!) an assessment to determine the level of knowledge would be extremely useful

Gustavo_Fring

We give them some technical questions, to assess basic understanding of key areas and also ask them to write about a specified topic to assess their ability to write coherently! That doesn't have to be financial planning related, however one topic I like it asking them is to describe what they think the role of a paraplanner entails.

Pedro

When we last recruited a few years ago, we put together the attached list of questions, which you may find useful.

I should say that not all of them are obvious and might raise other questions (e.g. the IHT one toward the end, given RNRB) but it was also to gain an understanding of where an applicant's knowledge was, where they might need more support and their ability to read between the lines of a question.

Nath

Useful thanks all

Nath

Afternoon all
Following on from my original post I wanted to bump this as we are now shortly going to advertise for a new position and wondered if anyone had any other tests or anything useful to use in the interview process. This will be the first time we are taking on another paraplanner so any help would be appreciated. Any good questions you like asking? Do you ask for a generic knowledge test to be carried out (and if so do you have examples).

We were thinking of a small knowledge/tech test as well as perhaps a more open ended fact find with perhaps some errors to pick up as well as opportunities for the paraplanner to provide some solutions to objectives etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Nathan

Gustavo_Fring

Hi Nathan, we have added the following to our test:

Write 250 words (approx.) on what you believe the role of the Paraplanner is and how they can add value to the business.

It is different to testing their technical knowledge and gives an idea of how they envisage the role.

Nath

Thanks that's a great idea!

Clare_Weight

Can you pluck tests from Professional Paraplanner magazine?