Paraplanner zone: John Pampling, KMD

Q - How did you get into paraplanning? A - I became a tied agent at Lloyds bank straight from school at 18. But the target expectations were so high I actually took a career break at 39 due to ill health. When I came back in 1997 I didn’t want to work at the sharp end of giving advice, so I retrained as a paraplanner and moved to the independent side of things. The Lloyd’s qualifications I had as a tied agent were laughable compared with the ones for paraplanning; somewhere around FPC1 mark I think! Q - Are you studying for any qualifications? A - Well, as a chartered financial planner...