Paraplanners have warned that working in outsourcing should not be viewed as a way to gain experience but rather they should already have the necessary technical experience.

Speaking at the Institute of Financial Planning’s Paraplanner  conference in Nottingham, Kim Bendall CFP^CM said outsourcing often required more work than in-house.

She said the work was often more technical and Paraplanners working from home would not have their colleagues to call upon for help.

Ms Bendall, who began working as an outsourced Paraplanner for Richard Allum CFP^CM company Paraplan Plus in January said she still felt out of her depth and was learning every day, despite having already worked as an in-house Paraplanner for 10 years.

She said: “It takes a long time to get used to working as outsourced. You’re working with lots of different firms who will each have their own different processes.

“It’s also more technically challenging, not in that outsourced Paraplanning is harder than in-house but in that advisers send the hardest work to you. The easier work they can do themselves.”

Regarding the technical aspect she said advisers would not be forgiving the same way they would be about their own staff.

“When you’re working in-house, it’s in the advisers’ interest to train you up and show you all their processes. With outsourcing, advisers are less forgiving. They expect you to be technically up to speed and do the work correctly. I’ve qualified as CFP^CM and keep up to date with my CPD.”

Ms Bendall was speaking as part of a panel discussion on Paraplanning with fellow colleague Mr Allum, Jane Holt of Mackenzie Financial Planning and Claire Goodwin from Taylor Oliver.

The Paraplanner conference was a one-day conference held by the IFP and attended by 120 delegates including Paraplanners and exhibitors such as Standard Life, Scottish Widows and Seven Investment Management.

Nick Cann, chief executive of the IFP, said: "It's been a good day, I found the talk from the FSA very good especially the fact Mr Hewitt used to be a Paraplanner himself which meant he knew what went on and could give Paraplanners relevant targeted information.

"I also enjoyed the talk from Steve Head from Coach, he was very enthusiatic and his advice to focus on the positives was very true, too many advisers are focusing on the bad stuff at the moment."