Talks involving leading professional bodies, such as the PFS and the CISI, about a new unified Paraplanning Standard, may take place soon, Financial Planning Today has been told.

Richard Allum, a key figure behind attempts to develop a standard, said the professional bodies have been taking an interest in the initiative.

Mr Allum, founder of the Paraplanner Powwow, hopes something will in place by September when about 100 Paraplanners are expected to gather for the fourth national Powwow.

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Moves to create a new standard have emerged from the Powwow and connected events in the last 18 months.

A series of events called Howwows, involving many Paraplanners around the country, were held in recent months to help move the process forward.

Mr Allum said: “We have made progress since the Howwows and it's fair to say that there's a lot of interest in a Paraplanning standard.

“The main professional bodies are taking interest in it, which is good. There is demand for it in the Paraplanning community, which is also good.”

Many Paraplanners have lamented the fact that, as things stand, anyone could in theory label themselves as a Paraplanner.

Despite the creation of IFP and PFS qualifications, attempts to better define the role of a Paraplanner have been hard to achieve.

Mr Allum said: “About a dozen people in the Powwow movement have volunteered their time to help take things to the next stage. This will involve continuing to talk with the PFS and CISI on how to make a universal standard that compliments existing exams work.

“We are hoping to set up a discussion with all three parties during the summer to discuss it and to see how it should be taken forward. We hope to have something in place to discuss at the National Powwow in September.”

The national Powwow will take place for the fourth time in Northamptonshire on 15 September. More than 100 Paraplanners are set to attend.

The Powwow has also attracted much interest from outside the UK, with people from as far away as Australia contacting Mr Allum about the possibility of holding their own independent event.

Mr Allum said: “We only started it up to do a one off event. That is all we expected it to be, but now we are in our fourth year and have run over 20 events now so it has definitely exceeded expectations.”