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Suitability reports and files
What an in-house paraplanner really costs per suitability report in 2026-27: employer NI, pension and the break-even against an outsourced fee
A salary is not the cost of a paraplanner. Worked 2026-27 employer NI and pension figures, and the cost per suitability report at 100 to 250 reports a year.
When an adviser asks whether to hire a paraplanner or send reports to an outsourced one, the comparison usually sets a salary against a per-report fee. That is not a fair comparison, because the employer pays more than the salary. This guide works out the all-in cost from the 2026-27 rules on GOV.UK and divides it by the number of reports, so the two options can be set side by side.
The salary used is £38,000. It is an illustration chosen for the arithmetic, not a market rate we have verified; swap in your own figure.
What the employer pays on top of the salary
Employer National Insurance. GOV.UK gives the employer Class 1 rate for 2026-27 as 15%, charged above the secondary threshold of £5,000 a year (£96 a week). On £38,000 that is £33,000 at 15%, which is £4,950.
Workplace pension. Under automatic enrolment the employer minimum is 3%, worked on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year. On £38,000 the band earnings are £31,760, and 3% of that is £952.80. The employee's own 5% comes out of their pay and is not an extra cost to you.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Salary | £38,000.00 |
| Employer NI (15% of £33,000) | £4,950.00 |
| Employer pension (3% of £31,760) | £952.80 |
| Cost before equipment and software | £43,902.80 |
Not in the figure: the laptop, report-writing and cashflow software licences, professional body fees, training, recruitment costs, the manager's time to supervise, and cover when the person is off. All of them are real and all of them raise the number.
One item may lower it. GOV.UK sets the Employment Allowance for 2026-27 at £10,500, which reduces the employer NI bill for eligible employers. A small firm whose total employer NI is under that amount could see the £4,950 disappear. Eligibility has conditions, so check them on GOV.UK or with your payroll provider before counting on it. Without it, the cost is £43,902.80; with it, and if it covers the whole £4,950, it is £38,952.80.
Cost per report
The cost of a salaried paraplanner is fixed, so the cost per report falls as the volume rises.
| Reports a year | Cost per report |
|---|---|
| 100 | £439.03 |
| 150 | £292.69 |
| 200 | £219.51 |
| 250 | £175.61 |
The point is the shape. A paraplanner who writes 100 reports a year costs about two and a half times as much for each one as a paraplanner who writes 250. If a firm only needs 100 reports, the hire is expensive for the work done unless the person also does the other tasks listed below.
The break-even against an outsourced fee
Divide the all-in cost by the outsourced price. At a fee of £200 a report, which is an example and not a quote, £43,902.80 divided by £200 is 219.5 reports. Below about 220 reports a year, outsourcing is cheaper on cost alone; above it, the employee is. For a fee of £250 the break-even is 175.6 reports.
Cost is not the only input. An in-house person knows your clients and your house style and sits in the same office as the adviser. An outsourced one is cheaper at low volume and easier to flex up and down. The FCA's file checks look at the report and the file whichever route produced them; our guide to the suitability report file check lists what is looked at, and the adviser still signs.
What the hire also has to do
A paraplanner's year is rarely all reports. If the person also prepares review packs, chases letters of authority and updates cashflow models, the report count understates the work, and the cost per report overstates what the firm pays for a report. Our capacity calculator counts the hours an adviser gets back when someone else drafts. The published prices of cashflow tools and the report-writing tool prices give the software costs to add to the figure above, and the back-office software price guide covers the rest of the stack.
A short method
- Enter the salary you would offer.
- Add 15% of the amount above £5,000.
- Add 3% of the amount between £6,240 and £50,270.
- Add equipment, software, training and recruitment for the year.
- Decide whether the Employment Allowance applies to your firm.
- Divide by the reports you expect, and by the other work if there is any.
- Compare with the outsourced per-report fee, and with the break-even in step 6.
Overlyft 
can set up an AI assistant that prepares the fact-find summary and a first draft of a suitability report for a paraplanner or adviser to check and sign. That changes the hours per report, which is the figure this calculation depends on.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice.
Where this comes from: GOV.UK, Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 (employer Class 1 NI 15%, secondary threshold £5,000 a year, Employment Allowance £10,500), read 5 October 2026; GOV.UK, Workplace pensions: what you, your employer and the government pay (3% employer minimum, qualifying earnings £6,240 to £50,270), read 5 October 2026.
AEO Lookup editorial team
We write practical guides for people who run small UK firms, and we check every fact against its source on the date shown. Read how we review, or tell us if something has changed.
