A new Paraplanning Standard will be launched next week.

A committee was set up by Standards International for creating a Paraplanning Standard in the latter part of last year.

Moves to create a new Paraplanning standard first emerged from the Paraplanner Powwows but the Standards International plans are totally unconnected to the event or organisers.

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The subject has been widely debated at Powwow events over the last two years. Standards International revealed its own moves to set up a new standard towards the end of 2016.

A reader’s poll on FP Today found 47% of the 133 who voted were against a Paraplanning standard, with 43% in favour and 9% undecided.

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Michelle Hoskin, founder and director of Standards International, has revealed that the work is almost complete.

She said: “Further to our commitment to make the Paraplanner Standard a reality in 2017, we’re delighted to confirm the Standard is ready to launch.

“The committee tasked with drafting the Paraplanner Standard has come together and created this exciting new platform, designed to celebrate the amazing contribution of Paraplanners in the financial services market place.”

She will host a web conference to reveal more details at 2pm on Friday 16 June.

The cost of taking the assessment to gain a new Paraplanning standard will start at £347, Ms Hoskin previously told FP Today.

Jenny Ryan from AAB Wealth Chartered Financial Planners is a member of committee set up by Standards International for creating a Paraplanning Standard. Here she writes about the committee’s ambitions and hopes for their project and what the latest news of progress is:

Ms Hoskin has said it was “unlikely that the standard will require an exam in the traditional sense”.

Jenny Ryan from AAB Wealth Chartered Financial Planners is a member of the Paraplanning Standard committee.

She previously wrote for FP Today, explaining why she believes in the idea.

She said: “All of us feel passionately that a Standard could both help to cement and elevate the status of Paraplanners, but also potentially offer the beginning of the end of the current Paraplanner shortage that our profession seems to be experiencing nationwide.”

She said: “We want those who apply for the Standard to have a minimum qualification level; consensus was that this would probably be the Diploma or equivalent. I know this will be a contentious one – we felt it was important that Paraplanners be able to converse on an equal basis with planners from a technical perspective.

“We don’t want gaining the Standard to be another exam; it should be about demonstrating knowledge, experience, and personal characteristics.

“We want the Standard to be accessible and achievable to all from a cost perspective, and renewable ideally on an annual basis.”

I’m assuming that many of you have been in financial services/planning/advice for many years. It’s easy to get desensitised to the jargon, language and mental constructs that pervade our industry.

Much debate is ongoing about the merits of being a Certified or Chartered Financial Planner, writes Keri Carter CFP^TM, managing director of Broadway Financial Planning.

The whole ‘Chartered Body Alliance’ thing seems to have come out of nowhere to me. Clearly it has been brewing for a while and I think that it is a good thing for financial services.