How we found the financial planner of the year

The Financial Planner of the Year Award is now in its 16th year. All nominees are required to submit entries that demonstrate their career achievements, input to the financial planning profession, and contribution to the wider community.

This year’s sponsor of the Financial Planner of the Year Awards is Principal Global Investors. Alex François, head of sales and marketing, says: “Principal Global Investors is very pleased to be associated with the pursuit of excellence.”

This year, for the first time, nominees were required to complete a questionnaire, which examined their practical application of advice principles.

Issues that nominees had to address included:

n improvements made to the quality of advice provided;

n the approach of the planner to non-active clients;

n how much time is spent in face-to-face meetings;

n what form of external accountability is in place; and

n how the planner ensures they are selling a service, rather than a product.

Each judge used a set scoring system to evaluate each application, with a total figure calculated for each individual.

This year’s winner receives a trip to the US Financial Planning Association annual conference in 2006 to the value of $10,000.

Judging panel

Money Management would like to extend its warmest thanks to members of this year’s judging panel. In addition to managing editor Jayson Forrest and editor Larissa Tuohy, this year’s judges included the following members of the financial services community.

Gwen Fletcher

Gwen Fletcher continues to be the undisputed doyenne of the financial planning industry, and was the first Australian woman to become a member of the International Association for Financial Planning. A founding principal of Fletcher Green Financial Services, now part of the Flinders Trustees Group where she continues to work, she founded the Investment Training College — Australia’s first educational institution for financial planners.

Jim Stackpool

Managing director of Strategic Consulting and Training, Jim Stackpool has built a reputation for improving the profitability of financial planning practices throughout the country. He is also chair of the Practice Management Task Force for the Securities Institute Advance Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning).

Brian Thomas

Brian Thomas is a managing director and head of distribution for Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) in Australia. He has been in financial services since 1977 working in the pension and mutual fund industry covering asset consulting, product development, marketing and research. Thomas has been an active participant in a number of industry bodies and government committees and is a regular industry commentator on personal investment issues.

George Flack

George Flack won the Financial Planner of the Year Award in 1996 and 2004. The Bendigo-based adviser is also an author, having published three books. He is an active participant in both the financial planning industry and his local community and is the recipient of Bendigo’s Citizen of the Year award.

Justine Harris

As head of professional development at financial services training provider Tribeca, Justine Harris has overall responsibility for the production and distribution of both existing and new products. She also provides high level technical support on training content to all areas of the business, and to external students and clients. Formerly, Harris was a product and technical consultant at AMP TapIn, and technical manager of BT Wrap.