Cathi is the founder and director of Para-Sols, an outsourced paraplanning firm and sister company, Apricity Compliance. She has been in financial services since leaving university and holds both chartered and certified financial planner status as well as being a fellow of the Personal Finance Society.
It's been an interesting 18 months in the world of defined benefit (DB) pension transfers.
Everyone (and I include the FCA on this) has been finding their feet and getting to grips with the best approach to this very complicated topic.
With numerous consultation papers and policy statements being released over the last year, even the most robust DB review processes have needed to be updated. What's more, the changes are likely to keep coming.
In the first two parts of this series on becoming directly authorised, we have looked into applying for FCA authorisation and building the right business model for your new firm.
The final piece in the puzzle (at this stage) is creating your client proposition.
In the first part of our series, we considered how to apply for FCA authorisation to become a directly authorised firm (you can catch up on that article here).
This next section is focused on the 'build' element of your business model and will again look at what to do, what to expect, and what to avoid.
The first consideration is around your business structure, and whether you want to set yourself up as a sole trader, limited company or LLP.
You may have been part of a network and are considering going directly authorised for the first time.
You may have been part of a larger firm and have now decided you want some control over your destiny. Or you may be moving into advising for the first time and setting up your own business.
If so, it's worth considering what you need to do, what to expect and what are the things to avoid. In this three-part series, we will consider these questions against the three elements we think are necessary when going it alone:
Outsourcing is a particularly hot topic at the moment. Advances in remote working technology, together with work tracking applications and secure data sharing have all made outsourcing feel like a much more realistic option for many firms. But how best to approach it?