Paraplanner Salary 2026/27: What You Take Home
Paraplanners are the technical research and report-writing support behind financial advisers. No official series measures paraplanners alone: the ONS coding index puts them in SOC 2020 2422, finance and investment analysts and advisers, whose full-time median was £50,330 in ASHE 2025. Reed's average across 1,164 advertised paraplanner jobs was £43,312 when checked in September 2026, with a range of £39,076 to £49,137.
Typical pay & take-home
- ASHE 2025 full-time median for the whole of SOC 2422, Finance and investment analysts and advisers
- £50,330
- ASHE 2025, 25th to 75th percentile
- £36,872–£70,665
- Take-home on that salary
- £39,749 England, no pension applied — use the salary calculator for your scheme.
At £50,330, you earn about 29% above the UK full-time median (£39,039), placing you between the 50th percentile (£39,039) and the 75th percentile (£54,009) of UK full-time earnings.
What influences paraplanner pay
Paraplanners do the technical work behind a financial planning firm: research, cashflow modelling, product and fund analysis and drafting suitability reports, so the adviser can focus on client relationships.
Two figures describe their pay and they measure different things. ONS ASHE 2025 covers SOC 2020 2422, finance and investment analysts and advisers, as a whole, paraplanners included, with a full-time median of £50,330 and a middle half of £36,872 to £70,665. Reed's £43,312 is the average salary on paraplanner job adverts, not pay actually received, with a range of £39,076 to £49,137.
A paraplanner on the Reed average is a basic-rate taxpayer: after the £12,570 personal allowance, pay is taxed at 20% Income Tax plus 8% Class 1 NI, staying below the £50,270 higher-rate threshold. Eligible employees are auto-enrolled into a workplace pension with a minimum 3% employer and 8% total contribution on qualifying earnings.
Career progression
- Neither ONS nor Reed publishes paraplanner pay by seniority. These are points in the April 2025 full-time pay distribution for SOC 2020 2422, the wider group paraplanners are coded to.
- 10th percentile: £28,442.
- Lower quartile: £36,872.
- Median: £50,330.
- Upper quartile: £70,665.
- Progression to financial adviser/planner, usually via a Level 4 qualification such as the CII Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning, or to a technical/investment specialist role.
Frequently asked questions
- What is take-home for a paraplanner on £43,312?
- With no pension contribution, take-home in England in 2026/27 is about £34,704 a year, or £2,892 a month, after £6,148 Income Tax and £2,459 National Insurance. On the £50,330 ONS median for the wider group it is about £39,749, or £37,945 with a 5% salary sacrifice pension.
- Do paraplanners earn less than financial advisers?
- ONS codes both to the same unit group, 2422, so there is no official figure comparing them. Advisers carry client relationships and can earn bonus or a share of ongoing fees, while paraplanners are usually salaried technical specialists, and many paraplanners move into advice once qualified.
- What qualification matters most for a paraplanner?
- The CII Level 4 Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning is a Level 4 qualification of the kind needed to give regulated financial advice, and paraplanners who want to move into advice work towards it. No official series measures what it adds to paraplanner pay.