Financial Planning Executive

Purpose of the role

Clearwater has spent 2026 professionalising its structures, including a confirmed career path for the practice support community so that qualified people can find the route to advising inside the firm. This role sits within that structure. Sharing the same operational foundations as a Business Support Executive, it goes further: as a Diploma-qualified professional the post-holder takes on the technical financial planning work and steps in front of clients, translating the adviser’s strategy into clear, compliant, well-researched recommendations.

The post-holder supports a named Private Client Adviser and that adviser’s client bank. The adviser owns the advice; the Financial Planning Executive owns the quality, accuracy and timeliness of the technical work behind it, and contributes in the room. The role rewards technical excellence with greater responsibility, client contact and pay, and is the natural stepping stone to Senior Financial Planning Executive and, for those who want it, to Adviser.

Technical financial planning

•        Prepare clear, compliant, well-researched suitability reports from fact-find to adviser sign-off, in line with Clearwater’s report structure and Consumer Duty requirements.
•        Conduct product, fund and technical research to support the adviser’s recommendations, including pension and investment analysis, protection needs and the basics of estate planning.
•        Build and maintain client cashflow models with modern planning tools, and produce plain-English narratives that explain what the model shows.
•        Prepare annual review packs and keep client records, plans and documentation current and accurate.
•        Identify planning opportunities and gaps in a client’s arrangements and raise them with the adviser.

Client work

•        Attend and contribute to client meetings alongside the adviser, including first meetings, recommendation meetings and annual reviews.
•        Explain the reasoning behind a recommendation to clients clearly and accurately when asked, staying within the role: the adviser owns the advice, and nothing new is recommended on the spot.
•        Handle client follow-up between meetings — information requests, progress updates, documentation — so that clients feel looked after and the adviser’s time is spent advising.
•        Build a working relationship with the adviser’s clients over time, as the first technical point of contact.

Standards, process and operations

•        Uphold meticulous accuracy, data quality and compliance throughout; build checks into your own work and flag issues early.
•        Progress cases through St. James’s Place systems and Clearwater’s processes to agreed service standards, working with the Business Support team and Risk and Compliance.
•        Manage several cases at once to deadlines, sequencing work around the adviser’s diary.
•        Contribute to the practice support community: share technical knowledge, help Business Support Executives on the qualification track, and improve the templates and routines that make the next case better than the last.

Skills, experience and behaviours

The Level 4 Diploma is a condition of the title. Beyond that, not every item below is expected on day one; the seat, the adviser and the development support are designed to build them.

Essential

•        Level 4 Diploma in financial planning — CII Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning (DipPFS), LIBF DipFA, CISI equivalent or the SJP-recognised equivalent — complete at the time of appointment.
•        Sound technical knowledge of financial planning and products, applied to real cases.
•        Able to produce clear, compliant suitability reports with the research to support them.
•        Meticulous with detail, data and compliance.
•        Comfortable and credible in client meetings; explains a recommendation in plain English.
•        Organised, able to run several cases at once to deadlines, with sound judgement on what to flag and when.

Desirable

•        Prior paraplanning or technical adviser-support experience in financial services.
•        Experience with modern planning and cashflow tools (Voyant, CashCalc or similar).
•        Working toward Chartered or advanced qualifications, or the ambition to.
•        Familiarity with St. James’s Place systems, products and the practice frame.
•        Degree-level education or an equivalent professional track record.

Behaviours

•        Ownership: takes responsibility for the outcome of a case, not just the task; seeks to define solutions to the issues found.
•        Accuracy: treats getting it right first time as the standard, and checks before it leaves the desk.
•        Discretion: maintains the private and confidential status of client information at all times.
•        Curiosity: asks about the client behind the case and the objective behind the recommendation.
•        Resilience: stays calm and constructive under deadline pressure and in difficult client conversations.
•        Collaboration: works openly with the adviser, the support team and Risk and Compliance, and shares what it learns.

Development, transition and progression

•        Settling in: the first ninety days build familiarity with the adviser’s client bank, Clearwater’s report structure and the SJP systems, with the adviser and the Line Manager reviewing early work closely.
•        Client exposure: in client meetings from the first month, with the adviser leading; the post-holder’s contribution in the room grows as the adviser’s confidence in them does.
•        Qualifications: study support towards Chartered status and the advanced CII units relevant to the role.
•        Progression: Senior Financial Planning Executive is the next step on the path, and Adviser the step after that for those who want it, through the CWM Academy and the employed advice team. Progression is earned against agreed criteria rather than automatic, and the criteria are discussed in the first review.
•        Structure: the role forms part of the practice support structure confirmed in July 2026 and expected to develop as the 2030 strategy is delivered.

What success looks like

•        Suitability reports leave the desk first time right: passing compliance checks without rework and going to clients on the adviser’s timetable.
•        Every active Private Client household has a current cashflow model and a plain-English narrative the client has seen.
•        The adviser spends more time advising and less time on technical preparation, and says so.
•        Clients know who the Financial Planning Executive is and contact them directly with technical questions.
•        Annual reviews are prepared and delivered on time across the adviser’s client bank.
•        Progress toward Chartered, and a clear view by the first annual review of whether the next step is Senior Financial Planning Executive or the route to Adviser.