An outsourced Paraplanning firm has reported a surge of enquiries about suitability reporting and platform due diligence after these areas came under the FCA spotlight.

Darlington-based Para-Sols said there had been rising demand for its services. This follows about 500 small and 200 large advisory firms being told last month their suitability reports must be sent to be assessed by the FCA.

The regulator has written to businesses asking them to submit their reports as part of a sample, which are being reviewed.

The documents will have to be submitted this month, the FCA has said.

Cathi Harrison, Para-Sols director, said: “Following a lot of recent press attention on the quality of suitability reporting and the necessity of having robust platform due diligence in place, we have seen a surge in enquiries for these types of services.”

Ms Harrison told Financial Planning Today: “I think that all the recent media attention and the FCA turning the spotlight onto platform due diligence has definitely contributed to an increase in enquiries.

“Along with this we have seen a lot of changes within the platform market, with platforms being bought and sold. It makes firms more aware of the need to take their due diligence obligations seriously, it’s a time consuming process and needs to be compliant.”

She said: “Advisers don’t always have the time to do this, which is why they come to us. The same goes for suitability reporting, is so time consuming to build a suite of in-house templates and keep them up to date.

“Firms rarely have a resource dedicated to this particular process, but still like to have internal templates to ensure consistency that their own staff can work from, which is why they look to outsource the creation and maintenance of their templates.”

Para-Sols has announced a tie up with Adviser-Store to make report templates and a platform due diligence service available to buy.

It will be the first time products like these have been available to purchase online to any firm, not just clients of Para-Sols, the company said.

Ms Harrison said she expects demand for these services to continue in the medium term. Her firm wanted a way to make these accessible to all advisers and the partnership with Adviser Store helped achieve that, she said.

She said: “The due diligence process is ongoing, and it’s so important to ensure a firm regularly reviews its chosen platforms. There are so many changes in the market it can easily become out of date, and regular reviews also reflect any internal changes firms may be facing.”

Jon Pittham, managing director of ClientsFirst, which launched Adviser-Store in 2015, said: “We're excited about widening the store's remit to offer off-the-shelf business solutions to the market. Para-Sols products are timely and topical - two key areas that the store focuses on in terms of product development.”