Paul Gibson

Career Profile

Paul is a Director and Chartered Financial Planner and has been at Active since 2009.

Before joining Active, Paul had a long career at Yorkshire bank (19 years) where he learned his trade and worked his way up to Senior Financial Planner specialising in high net worth private and corporate clients.  Committed to supporting clients with a variety of needs, Paul has worked consistently throughout his career to gain advanced qualifications in financial services. These higher level qualifications allow him to provide advice in more complex need areas.

In Paul’s role as Director he lead’s the firm’s professional development programme, working closely with and mentoring those who are taking part in apprenticeship programmes and studying for industry exams with the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII).

“Superior knowledge remains one of Active’s core strengths and this is something in which we will continue to develop over time with all team members, no matter what role they play” says Paul

Paul achieved the highly acclaimed ‘Chartered’ status in 2012, and since then has become a Fellow of the Personal Finance Society (PFS), the highest qualification awarded in our industry.

In 2013 Paul led the firm’s successful achievement of ‘Chartered’ status.  The highly-coveted chartered status means we work to standards matched by only a tiny proportion of financial planning firms.  Chartered firms must meet serious obligations, ensuring the advice, service and ongoing support we provide is the highest quality.

In 2020 Paul instrumented the firm’s adoption of the Personal Finance Society’s (PFS) Pension Transfer Gold standard. This is a voluntary code of professional standards based on principles of good practice in safeguarded and defined benefit pension transfer advice. It aims to raise consumer confidence in the industry and is designed to encourage firms to be open and transparent when supporting customers who are transferring their pensions.

Paul is governor at a local school and also sits on the Thornaby Town Deal Board, bringing his experience as a company director and financial planner to both voluntary roles.

A keen cyclist, Paul has taken part in a number of charity rides over the past few years, raising money for many good causes, including The Teesside Charity (formerly Middlesbrough & Teesside Philanthropic Foundation) of whom Active are patrons and The High Tide Foundation, where Paul was a trustee from 2017-2021.

Paul’s most recent challenge was in September 2021 when he completed the gruelling Deloitte Ride Across Britain. The ride covered 980 miles over 9 days from Landsend to John O’Groats and included 1,000 cyclists from all over the world riding 100-plus miles a day over nine days. Slighly battered and a little shaken after a nasty bump with a car, Paul finished the ride raising almost £7k for The Teesside Charity.

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