The flexibility a career in paraplanning offers is one of the best things about the profession, according to St. James’s Place paraplanner of the year.
Sajmira Cairns, who has recently been appointed as head of paraplanning at PFP Wealth, told FTAdviser that her role allowed her to continue working, and do what she loves, while also looking after her son.
“I like that I can do my job whenever and wherever I want,” Cairns said.
"It’s well paid and by working as a self-employed paraplanner it gives me the flexibility - to an extent - to take on as many or as little cases as I can to help manage the work around looking after my son,” she added.
Last month, Cairns was named paraplanner of the year by St. James’s Place.
Commenting on her win, Cairns described the milestone as a “significant achievement” that has shown her what can be achieved through hard work and determination.
Originally from Albania, Cairns has built a successful career in the UK’s financial services sector over the past 13 years.
Despite English being her second language, Cairns graduated with a first class honours degree in business studies from Chester University after moving to the UK in 2006.
After her son was born in 2016, Cairns began working as a part-time, self-employed paraplanner.
She now works for PFP Wealth, an appointed representative of St. James’s Place, and heads up the firm's paraplanning operations.
“As part of my new role as the head of paraplanning at PFP Wealth, my responsibility is to build an in-house paraplanning team,” Cairns said.
“I will be training and helping some of our existing support team members who want to progress and start their journey into paraplanning. I love that I am able to help and support other people in their paraplanning journey.”
Reflecting on her recent win, Cairns said she believes being a successful paraplanner means being able to go beyond a strong knowledge and an ability to write a good report.
“It goes much further than that. It’s about having a strong relationship with the advisers and the support staff. It’s about creating a great communication flow where we all feel comfortable to contact one another at any time and any queries are resolved in a timely manner,” Cairns said.
In her view, it is also very important to have the confidence to query the advice and offer a solution based on knowledge and experience.
“I am lucky that in my experience the partners [advisers at SJP] that I work with trust my thoughts and judgements and we work together to get the best solution for the client.
“This is done by taking into account the client’s goals and objectives, following the St. James’s Place advice framework, and external rules and regulations and speaking with the relevant helpline departments,” Cairns said.
