Jury out on year’s top planner
The four finalists in this years Money Management’s Financial Planner of the Year award feature some of the profession’s most respected members.
The list includes incoming FPA chairman, a previous winner and a high-profile member of the Victorian financial planning industry.
John Hewison takes over as chairman of the FPA at the conference this week and was narrowly pipped at the post for Financial Planner of the Year last year. Hewison also runs a very successful financial planning practice in Melbourne.
George Flack from Bendigo won the award in 1996 and has proved it is possible to run a financial planning practice as well as being a very active member of his local community. George will spend another summer on alert for bush fires as he is a member of the local Country Fire Authority brigade.
Dominic Alafaci has a regular 30-minute slot on the leading Melbourne radio station 3AW. The slot, on the Ernie Sigley show, takes listeners' calls and provides general advice, as well as selling the message that good personal financial management needs advice. He is also managing director of a Melbourne planning firm that is part of well-respected broking firm.
The final finalist is John Wotherspoon from Adelaide. John has played a leading role in the development of the Accumulus group since it began in 1993 and has built up a solid reputation for his own financial planning practice in Adelaide.
Judging the entries each year is a hard task as the award always attract the cream of the profession. In previous years, the difference between winning the award and coming second has often been just a few points.
This year's judging team consisted of Warren McKeown from RMIT; doyen of the financial planning industry Gwen Fletcher; former FPA president Wes Mcmaster and last year's winner Peter Dunn.
The judges say the entries this year were again of a very high standard and picking a winner was not an easy task.
However, the four have picked a winner and this will be announced in next week's Money Management, which will be on sale from December 14.
The winner will be presented with their prize, a trip to the US FPA Conference next year, and will be presented with the award at Money Management's Fund Manager of the Year Gala Dinner which will be held in Sydney early next year.
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