Financial Advisers

FERN is available for any and all UK Financial Advisers registered with the FCA, whether they are independent or part of a network. If you need help with paraplanning, research, administration support, compliance support, even branding and marketing, FERN provides the network you need to source and manage your back-office team.

As an Adviser, do you:

• Struggle to source the support you need to service your clients?
• Want to avoid the cost and commitment of employing your own team?
• Need a centralised place to manage your contractor relationships?
• Want better visibility and transparency over your pipeline of business and ongoing costs?
• Want to connect with specialists to enhance your client service offering?
• Need help making your business standout with new branding, promotional material, or LinkedIn content management?

If you answered yes to any of the above, then FERN is for you.

Finance Support Professionals

Similarly, FERN is available to all financial support professionals, whether you are new to the industry, or have many years of experience. If you are a Paraplanner, Financial Administrator, Personal Assistant, Practice Manager, Compliance Consultant, Marketing Consultant, or even a Will Writer, we would love you to become part of our community.  Our platform is open to all in the industry, whether you are a freelance sole trader, or a larger company offering services on a wider scale with an existing internal team.

As a Support Professional, do you:

• Struggle to market your services and maximise your earnings potential?
• Want a centralised place to manage your client relationships and pipeline of business?
• Dream of becoming self-employed but don’t know where to start, or where to source work?
• Struggle to get paid on time, keep on top of invoicing, or find it challenging to agree payment terms?
• Want to easily connect with other specialists who can offer technical support, guidance, and holiday/sickness cover?

If you answered yes to any of the above, then FERN is for you.

Support professionals

Create your own digital profile advertising your services to Advisers looking for back-office support. Advisers can then either approach you directly, or you can pro-actively search and apply to live projects and bid for work on either a fixed fee or hourly basis to suit your preferences. If you’ve ever aspired for the flexibility of self-employment, but have been unsure where to find, or how to service your own portfolio of work, FERN is the key to unlocking your potential.

Financial Advisers

Easily search through our user-friendly interface to filter and browse through a wide range of specialised profiles, each showcasing an individual’s skills, experience, peer reviews and availability. You can seamlessly connect with the support professionals you need, review their work history and qualifications, and engage their services directly through the platform. By providing a centralised platform, FERN eliminates the need for time-consuming and costly recruitment processes, saving both time and resources for Financial Advisers.

All users have access to their personalised dashboard. At a glance, users can easily view the status of your projects, a live summary of monthly earnings/billings and any tasks that require your attention.

Our Reports function provides more granular data at the push of a button, allowing you to easily track your historic pipeline, manage operations, and budget effectively.

We even provide a secure online messaging system so you can easily communicate and share files with your chosen suppliers, keeping all correspondence in one place.

FERN is completely free for all users to register, create a profile and set up/apply for new projects.

Invoicing for work undertaken is then handled simply and efficiently with our automated system. Once both parties agree the terms of a project, including the scope of work involved, budget and timeframe, the adviser makes an upfront payment via Debit/Credit card which is securely held via our payment partner, Stripe.

Upon completion of the project, and only once all parties are satisfied, FERN will apply a 10% Service Fee, with the remaining funds paid out directly to the Support Professional at their agreed rate.

We believe everyone should be paid fairly for their work and that is why our Service Fee is already factored into the quoted price. Support Professional’s subsequently receive all of their fee, and Advisers have an upfront and transparent overview of costs in order to budget effectively.

Should you have any questions, our FERN Support team is on hand to assist. Either visit our FAQs, talk to us via the dedicated chat function within the platform, or simply send an email to hello@ferngroup.co.uk and one of our friendly advisers will be happy to help.