Paraplanners should be paid equally as well as advisers, Succession Group chief executive Simon Chamberlain says.

Speaking exclusively to Financial Planner Online, Mr Chamberlain also said Paraplanning should not be seen as just a training ground to become an adviser.

Discussing how it works in his company, he believes the roles have equal importance.

He said: “My perfect adviser is someone who plays golf with their clients or takes them sailing. I’d rather they were doing that then doing exams.”

The advisers need a relationship of trust with a client and to have won them over by making a personal connection in the initial meetings, he said.

He said: “But doesn’t make them the right person to write the report or come up with the solution to the problem.

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“They may be exactly the person who should deliver the report and they should exactly be the person who carries out the review every year but the content of the review should be specific, highly academic and correct and highly consistent. I see Paraplanners providing that function.”

He believes they should have parity in terms of earnings, saying: “They should be remunerated as highly as the advisers are. Paraplanning shouldn’t be seen as a training course to become an adviser.”

Paraplanners should be the “most educated and product aware” and bring consistency and high quality work to the report process, he said.

He said it was “equally important” to him to have someone to take the clients out to, for example, play golf, as it is to have someone write a thorough, correct report.

At Succession, a Paraplanner and adviser will sit down together and discuss the case and the client will have an equal relationship with both, he explained.

Earlier this month a report by recruitment firm BWD showed that salaries for Paraplanners were rising – with the estimated average for 2015 being £33,945 compared with £29,904 for 2014.

Researchers also discovered an increasing trend in the emergence of freelance Paraplanners.

But they said a clear lack of available Paraplanners in the jobs market has emerged, with demand outstripping supply, according to the 2014-15 census on salaries and benefits.