Welcome to Principled Paraplanning.
I’m Benjamin Fabi and I work with small financial planning firms who need technical outsourced paraplanning services to enhance their client proposition. If you’d benefit from someone to help you with the complicated things that you learnt once but have since forgotten (or not kept up-to-date with), or if you believe that two heads are better than one, then I can probably help you. Keep reading for more information on my core services.
The world of outsourced paraplanning is growing all the time. If you read on and don’t think I’m a good fit for you, chances are good that I know the best people to put you in touch with. So maybe get in touch anyway and save yourself some time.
What I do best.
Technical support.
There is now, more than ever, so much to keep on top of. I work best when I’m at the deep end of the technical aspects of a financial plan. It takes knowledge, experience and understanding to get this right.
Making things simple.
The planners I work alongside appreciate and value how I take complex situations and create simple, clear recommendations that they can present to their clients with confidence. I've spent time building standard processes for advice areas such as inheritance tax planning, income drawdown review, and cashflow assumption reasoning.
Refreshingly engaging content.
I produce compliant, jargon-free documents that advisers actually want to give to their clients. In a modern financial planning practice a suitability report should be so much more than an operational necessity.
Scalable review processes.
Compliance is onerous. MiFID II has created lots of opportunities to fall foul of the rules. And now there's Consumer Duty to contend with. But it doesn’t have to be a headache for you. I’ve developed processes that help financial planning businesses hit the standards for periodic suitability assessments, income drawdown and income planning.
What I don’t do.
I don’t just do what you want.
There are lots of paraplanning services that operate a report writing service on a reactive ‘just do this please’ basis. I’m not one of them. We'll work together to give your clients the best possible advice.
Defined benefit pension transfer.
I don’t do defined benefit pension transfer work. I did. But now I don’t. The FCA doesn’t want you doing it either. I’m as frustrated by that as you are, but if I want to continue to do it I’d need to do the same CPD as an authorised pension transfer specialist and there’s more interesting stuff to be learning.
Group schemes.
I don’t do employee benefit advice. I know the auto-enrolment rules and how group life and other employee benefits work. I can talk about these in the reports to your clients. But I don't know the market well enough to help you with advice to the employers establishing the schemes.
Compliance service.
I’m not a compliance service. Although more than one of my long-standing clients have referred to me as their ‘compliance guru’, I’m not holding professional indemnity insurance to act as a compliance support service.
About me.
I’m a career paraplanner, with some occasional stints as an authorised adviser. I established Principled Paraplanning in 2018 because it seemed like outsourced paraplanning was the best way to put my skills to work in this sector.
I’m a Fellow of the Personal Finance Society and a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment. I achieved my Diploma in Financial Planning in 2007 and I’ve been qualified as a Chartered Financial Planner since 2017.
In 2018 I was presented with an award for Outstanding Contribution to the Paraplanning Community at the national Paraplanner Assembly. In 2021 I was awarded Personality of the Year by Professional Paraplanner. I was delighted to win this for a second time in 2024.
Outside of work I volunteer with the local Trussell Trust foodbank, and I’m a trustee of The Moorlands Primary Federation, a local multi-academy trust of seven primary schools.
I’m based in Cheadle, Staffs, at the foot of the Peak District where I enjoy spending time with my family.
What other benefits does Principled Paraplanning provide?
As a client you’re gaining access to all the advice process documentation I’ve built over many years, including,
– inheritance tax factfinding and solution design,
– income drawdown review,
– Mifid II compliant periodic suitability assessment.
These are tried and tested ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions that can be provided as they are or customised for your business needs.
I have licenses for a variety of software products.
Where required, I pay a premium for these licenses so I can give my clients licensed output from systems including:
– Defaqto Engage
– FE Analytics
– langcat Analyser
– MICAP
– Voyant
Fees.
My fees are simple.
All retained clients pay a monthly service fee – currently £63.
You’ll also pay a minimum monthly retainer, currently £300. This is credited against work completed in the period. The retainer is decided when we agree terms and then reviewed as required.
Work is charged either as a fixed fee, which can be estimated in advance, or at an hourly rate, currently £89. The hourly rate increases in July each year.
What my clients have to say.
Book in a call with me