NSW winner: Tanya Crotty

As an important part of the financial services industry, Tanya Crotty believes paraplanning is a dynamic and challenging professional role.

While often misunderstood, the role of the paraplanner involves a range of activities including Statement of Advice (SoA) preparation, strategy development and refinement, technical and compliance monitoring, and liaising with client service and administration staff.

All of these tasks and more form part of an average day for Crotty, who also looks after portfolio construction and financial modelling.

Another particularly rewarding aspect is the training and mentoring of junior paraplanners.

Having worked in the industry since 1999, Crotty is well placed to pass on some of the knowledge she has acquired over the past seven years.

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She joined the industry after completing a combined arts/commerce degree at the University of Wollongong.

From here, she took up the position of superannuation administrator with Towers Perrin, where she worked for 12 months before moving to ANZ Property Finance, where she worked as client services officer.

She then moved back into the superannuation sector, working as a client services officer with State Super Financial Services.

Crotty’s first foray into paraplanning came in 2002 when she took up a role with the AMP Dealer Group Services national paraplanning unit.

She continued working for AMP, first with the paraplanning unit and later with AMP planner Ces Lichaa, for the next two-and-a-half years.

Crotty’s current position is with PDY Partners, where she is also working as a paraplanner.

When asked for her general thoughts on paraplanning, Crotty said it is a fast-growing industry with “demand increasing over time, especially with the requirements for written advice”.

She also spoke of her passion for paraplanning as a profession in which people can define their own role.

While she sees paraplanning as a profession in its own right, Crotty also pointed out that a grounding in paraplanning can form a strong base for future career opportunities within the industry, because of the exposure it gives to strategy, product and technical skills.

“There are opportunities to tailor your own role, depending on your desired career path; planning, technical, research or ‘career paraplanner’.

“Paraplanners can be used to complement the skills of planners and allow them to focus more on servicing clients,” she said.

Crotty said there is a wide range of skills within paraplanning, from those that focus on personal assistance/client servicing through to skills in technical, strategy and compliance practice support.

“A good paraplanner can drive the advice process,” she said.

For Crotty, the most challenging aspects of her role is the variety, the ability to research and learn different strategies, along with the ability to make a difference to the client and help them achieve their goals.

While she believes strongly in the industry, Crotty also feels there are areas that can be improved upon.

One of these is the recognition of paraplanning — she thinks more needs to be done to ensure people know exactly what is meant by the term ‘paraplanner’.

She said the dearth of training and seminar opportunities is also an area that needs to be addressed, and was working with the Sydney chapter of the Financial PlanningAssociation to organise training workshops for paraplanners.

“It needs more of a career focus, perhaps aimed at universities and other bodies offering financial planning courses,” Crotty said.

According to Crotty, some of the core attributes that need to be fostered within new paraplanners are communication skills, both written and verbal, analytical thinking in strategy development, time management, along with a high degree of patience and perseverance.

Crotty believes her success in this year’s awards comes down to the pride she takes in her work, a strong work ethic, diligence in keeping up with legislative and compliance issues, her attention to client goals and her efforts to make SoAs more client-friendly.