Trainee Financial Adviser

As a Financial Planning Executive, you would be working as part of a productive, high performing team to provide support primarily to Sales Managers (SM) and Advisers in a Trainee Adviser capacity.

You should have experience of working in an IFA with exposure to client meetings (experience of cash flow is beneficial) and a good technical understanding, hold minimum Level 4 Diploma in Regulated Financial Advice (CII preferrable or willing to undertake the exams to convert) and have the long-term ambition and desire to become a Chartered Financial Adviser. Get ready to embark on a 6-12-month training and assessment period depending on qualifications, skills and speed of development.

We will help build and develop the skills you require to become competent as an Adviser in your own right, through initially undertaking a structured training plan during which you will be fully supported by a dedicated mentor, and also your peers. You will be allocated to a specific Commercial Management Team and Sales Manager.

Key Responsibilities

• Prepare background notes on clients in preparation for meetings.

• Prepare meeting presentation power point slides.

• Engage clients with TPO Wealth, liaising with TPO Wealth support.

• Updating client information, in particular, updating asset and income schedules.

• Other background work requested by Advisers (i.e. policy information, FE graphs, administrative requirements)

• Attending meetings and taking notes inline with TPO best practice.

• Preparing follow up communication/agreed actions for clients.

• Submitting handovers to our administrative team and following the client journey in line with best practice.

• Submitting briefing notes.

• Producing CAP and SA letters on behalf of authorised Advisers.

• Supporting with core administration tasks (e.g. VC, Curo, TPO Wealth).

• Taking client calls/queries and responding in a time efficient manner.

• Full responsibility for scopes post meeting.

• Operating cash flow and Collidr in meetings.

• Developing the ability to lead on all client meetings (Discovery, Presentation, Review).

• Providing cash advice to clients via Savings Champion.

• Supporting TPO direct with inbound queries, meeting preparation and post meeting activities.

• Booking lead calls and meetings for Advisers.

• To embrace overarching fitness and propriety principles and relevant TPO KPIs, namely; client service and satisfaction (including complaints/errors), professional development (desire to improve), advice quality and business risk.

Objectives

• To become an Associate Adviser.

• Assisting Advisers, Managers and the wider TPO team to deliver an excellent service to existing/new clients.

• To understand TPO’s proposition and follow best practice guidelines.

• To understand the implications of undertaking a regulated role as set out in relevant FCA rules and guidance and TPO's own policies, including (but not limited to); regulatory fitness and propriety, advice quality, KYC, suitability standards, and anti-money laundering.

• To extract and capture client objectives and attitude to risk sufficiently.

• Ability to demonstrate compliant delivery of a client meeting from start to finish (discovery, review, presentation).

• Technically competent (achieved outside of working hours and as a contributor to CPD).

• Ability to articulate TPO service, proposition and fees.

• Ability to position advice needs to clients.

• To undertake and pass regulatory authorisation assessment by meeting benchmark regulatory standards.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

Attained minimum of level 4 or equivalent qualification

Essential:

• Experience within Private Independent Wealth Management;
• Exposure to client meetings where you can demonstrate that you have actively engaged with the client in the meetings;
• Technical ability to understand the different types of advice offered in the TPO proposition
• As a planning led firm, exposure to cash flow would be beneficial (preferably Voyant)
• Ambitious and goal-orientated;
• An adaptable and flexible approach to work within a changing environment;
• Experience of working unsupervised with a high level of self-motivation;
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills;
• A high standard of personal organisational and time management skills;
• Ability to take control and drive your own development and study time;
• The capability to explain complex information simply and clearly;
• Discretion and an understanding of the need for client confidentiality;
• Experience of working to targeted service standards and procedures;
• Good IT skills covering MS Office, MS Outlook, MS Excel and back office systems.

Desirable:

• A full driving licence is useful, particularly if you are supporting independent financial advisers (IFAs) who may have to travel to visit clients at their own homes

Benefits

• Company discretionary bonus scheme;
• Full time hours (35 per week) Monday to Friday 9.00am and 5.00pm – 1 hour for lunch;
• 24 holidays (increasing to 26), plus 2 additional days paid Christmas shut down period;
• Company Pension scheme;
• Private Healthcare*;
• Group Income Protection;
• Life Assurance;
• Eye Care Scheme;
• Wellbeing programme;
• Bike to Work Scheme;
• Full support with professional qualifications;

*after qualifying period