CATEGORIES 

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ADVISER CATEGORIES 

This category recognises UK financial advice firms that can demonstrate a good track record of both business and client service performance. Entrants should have been in existence for at least 12 months, must be a UK regulated financial advice firm and have a minimum of 6 registered individuals. Entrants may offer either independent or restricted advice models.
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Advice firm of the year

Entrants should be able to:

  1. Demonstrate proven expertise across a broad range of financial advice solutions.
  2. Demonstrate how they have coped with both market and regulatory challenges.
  3. Demonstrate how they have improved the advice services offered to clients.
  4. Provide details of how they have ensured or improved levels of training and competence of their financial planning teams.

    This category recognises the adviser academy or school of a UK financial advice firm that is excelling in bringing new blood into the profession. With the average age of advisers being over 50 it is essential to get new blood into the industry to help alleviate the profession’s capacity issues and help ensure that current and future clients will have someone to look after them. Entrants’ academies or schools must have been in existence for at least 12 months and must be a UK regulated financial advice firm.

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    Best financial adviser academy

    Entrants should be able to:

    1. Provide evidence of the breadth and scope of their learning programmes.
    2. Demonstrate scale by providing the number of graduates passing through their academies/schools and gaining level 4 qualifications each year.
    3. Demonstrate the retention rate, or otherwise success rate of finding employment of their level 4 graduates.
    4. Provide case studies of the best candidates. 5. Demonstrate their commitment to diversity and inclusion.

    This category recognises UK financial advice firms that can demonstrate a good track record of investment advice and/or investment management services to clients. This could include advisory or discretionary client mandates, model portfolio services and centralised investment propositions run by the advice firm with a minimum of 3 years of performance. Entrants should have been in existence for at least 12 months, must be a regulated financial advice firm and have a minimum of 2 registered individuals.
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    Best investment advice firm

    Entrants should be able to:

    1. Demonstrate proven expertise across a broad range of investment management solutions.
    2. Demonstrate how they have improved the advice and services offered to clients of differing risk profiles and investment outcomes including, where possible, evidence of client satisfaction.
    3. Provide details of how they access and monitor investment research and run investment selection for their investment solutions.
    4. Provide details of how they monitor markets, make asset allocation decisions and inform their clients of changes in the market.

      This category recognises UK financial advice firms that can demonstrate a good track record in operating as a network for their appointed representatives. Entrants should have been in existence for at least 12 months and must be a regulated financial advice firm.
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      Best network

      Entrants should be able to:

      1. Demonstrate proven expertise across an extensive range of financial advice solutions on behalf of their appointed representatives.
      2. Demonstrate the services offered to members and how they have helped them cope with regulatory, policy, market and business challenges.
      3. Demonstrate how they have improved services offered to member firms, where possible, including evidence of satisfaction.
      4. Provide details of how they have helped improve levels of training and competence of members.

      This category recognises UK financial advice firms and specialist providers that can demonstrate a good track record in the provision of paraplanning at a firm level. The paraplanning service can be provided as part of an in-house team or as an outsourced service. Entrants should have been in existence for at least 12 months. Firms, or the provider of the service, should be able to demonstrate the technical and research skills needed to deliver a top-quality service to the client.

      Please note, this category is not open for individuals to enter.

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      Best paraplanning service

      Entrants should be able to:

      1. Demonstrate proven expertise in the provision of their paraplanning services.
      2. Demonstrate how they have coped with market and regulatory challenges.
      3. Demonstrate how they have improved the advice and services offered to clients in relation to the paraplanning of their clients, where possible, including evidence of satisfaction.
      4. Provide details of how they have ensured or improved levels of training and competence of their financial planning teams in this area.

      This category recognises UK financial advice firms that can demonstrate a good track record in the provision of protection advice to clients. Entrants should have been in existence for at least 12 months, must be a UK regulated financial advice firm and have a minimum of 2 registered individuals.
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      Best protection advice firm

      Entrants should be able to:

      1. Demonstrate proven expertise in the protection market.
      2. Demonstrate how they have coped with market and regulatory challenges.
      3. Demonstrate how they have improved the advice and services offered to clients in relation to protection, where possible, including evidence of satisfaction.
      4. Provide details of how they have ensured or improved levels of training and competence of their financial planning teams in this area.

      This category recognises UK financial advice firms that can demonstrate excellence in the accumulation, decumulation and at-retirement phases of their advice proposition to clients. Entrants should have been in existence for at least 12 months, must be a UK regulated financial advice firm and have a minimum of 2 registered individuals.
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      Best retirement advice firm

      Entrants should be able to: 

      1. Demonstrate proven expertise across the accumulation, decumulation an at-retirement phases of their retirement proposition.
      2. Demonstrate how they have coped with market and regulatory challenges.
      3. Demonstrate how they have improved the retirement advice proposition offered to clients, where possible, including evidence of satisfaction.
      4. Provide details of how they have ensured or improved levels of training and competence of their financial planning teams in this area.

      This category recognises UK financial advice firms that can demonstrate excellence in the provision of tax planning services to clients including technical expertise, good client outcomes, and on-going training and development. Entrants should have been in existence for at least 12 months, must be a UK regulated financial advice firm and have a minimum of 2 registered individuals.


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      Best tax planning service

      Entrants should be able to:

      1. Provide evidence of highly qualified and experienced tax professionals within the financial advice business, such as Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA), Certified Financial Planner (CFP), or equivalent.
      2. Provide evidence of personalised tax planning strategies tailored to individual client needs and financial goals and Innovation in developing and implementing tax-efficient solutions for clients.
      3. Provide evidence of utilisation of technology and digital tools to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of tax planning services.
      4. Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional development for their financial planning teams for this area.

      This category recognises regulated UK financial firms, non-profit firms and not-for-profit firms that have gone above and beyond in their efforts to help others over the past 12 months. There is no restriction on the size or type of firm; the judges will just be looking for a genuine commitment to charity endeavour.

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      Charity champion of the year

      Entrants should be able to: 

      1. Demonstrate the full range of the efforts they made to support charities.
      2. Demonstrate the impact their work has had on the target audience.
      3. Demonstrate their endeavours go above and beyond what might be considered business as usual.
      4. Show how they embed a charitable ethos across their firm’s culture.

      This category recognises new talent and is dedicated to those at the early stages of their financial planning career and recognises both young people and second careerists who are new to the advice profession. As such there is no age restriction for this category and entries can be made on behalf of the individual, or by the applicant themselves. Entrants should have at least a 12-month track record. 

      Please note for this category, there will be a limit of 2 entries per regulated advice firm.

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      Financial adviser 2B

      Entrants should be able to:

      1. Demonstrate the candidate’s commitment to both personal and professional development over the previous 12 months providing examples of how the candidate has gone beyond what’s expected of them at this stage of their career.
      2. Provide evidence of the impact the candidate has had on the firm or advice profession since beginning their role.
      3. Provide evidence of the impact the candidate and their role has had on client outcomes.
      4. Outline the skills and competencies the candidate has demonstrated or learned and describe how these have led to better advice

      Sponsored by 

      This category recognises financial advice firms demonstrating an innovative approach to financial planning by leveraging technology, modern business practices, and a client-centric approach. Traditional face-to-face practices, digital and robo-advice propositions can all be considered. There is no size restriction for firms, but entrants should have been in existence for at least 12 months and must be a UK regulated financial advice firm.
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      Next generation advice firm of the year

      Entrants should be able to: 

      1. Illustrate why their advice business stands out as a Next generation advice firm. This could include how they charge and fee transparency, how they recruit and train young staff, and commitments to diversity and community involvement etc.
      2. Demonstrate how they take a holistic approach to financial planning considering a client’s overall financial situation, goals and lifestyle as well as expanding their advice offer to new clients.
      3. Demonstrate their technology integration to enhance decision-making processes and personalised advice.
      4. Demonstrate how their use of technology has provided a strong online presence and digital platforms for client interactions, mobile apps and user-friendly interfaces for clients.

      This category recognises SME UK advice firms who can demonstrate a good track record in providing overall advice to clients as well as a good business record. Entrants should have been in existence for at least 12 months and must be a regulated financial advice firm. They must have no more than five registered individuals.
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      Small advice firm of the year

      Entrants should be able to:

      1. Demonstrate proven expertise across the key areas of financial advice – investment, retirement, and protection.
      2. Demonstrate how they have coped with market and regulatory challenges.
      3. Demonstrate excellence in the advice offered to clients.  

      PROVIDER CATEGORIES 

      This category recognises an outstanding technology provider for UK financial advice firms over the last 12 months. The technology can relate to any area of the financial planning process, as long as the provider can illustrate an exemplary level of service for advisers that helps them give their clients great outcomes.
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      Adviser technology provider of the year

      Entrants should be able to:

      1. Outline what their technology is, and how it helps advisers.
      2. Demonstrate how their solution has improved or developed over the year.
      3. Show how they have maintained great service levels for advisers. 4. Show they have gone above and beyond other solutions in the market.

      This category recognises a provider which has gone above and beyond with its commitment to ESG investing accessible to UK financial advice firms and their clients over the last 12 months. It will not only consider product creation but also research and a wider educational message to advice firms and end clients. Companies will be required to show how they implement the principles of each aspect of ESG – environmental, social and governance – in their own firm. Judges will be looking for a strong ethos from firms, which goes above buzzwords and a desire to be more sustainable.

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      Best ESG provider

      Entrants should be able to:

      1. Describe how they create and establish ESG products and services and how they stand out from competitors.
      2. Describe their approach to encourage advice firms to engage with clients on ESG.
      3. Show how ESG principles are embedded in their own business.
      4. Demonstrate a commitment to socially conscious investors.

      This category recognises the breadth and depth of service provided to UK financial advice firms over the last 12 months, which has helped them to build in-house investment management solutions for clients.
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      Best investment research service for advisers

      Entrants should be able to:

      1. Outline the breadth and depth of research services available to advisers.
      2. Detail evidence of the timeliness and relevance of that research.
      3. Detail how their service helps advisers and their clients.
      4. The firm should explain the single outstanding problem their service has helped advisers solve in the past 12 months.

      This category recognises investment solutions providers that excel in meeting the unique needs of the UK intermediated market through innovation, performance, and client support. Investment solutions are here defined as multi-asset, defined return or guaranteed return solutions widely available to UK financial advisers and should have a minimum performance track record of 3 years.


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      Best investment solutions provider

      Entrants should be able to: 

      1. Demonstrate commitment to innovation in developing a diverse range of investment solutions tailored for the UK intermediated market.
      2. Demonstrate a consistent track record of delivering strong and competitive investment performance over various market conditions.
      3. Detail the provision of robust support and training programmes for financial advisers within the intermediated market.
      4. Show user-friendly platforms and interfaces that facilitate easy access to investment solutions.
      5. Describe the implementation of robust risk management strategies to protect investor capital and evidence of clear communication of risk profiles associated with different investment solutions.
      6. Show transparent disclosure of fees and charges associated with investment solutions.
      7. Show integration of sustainable and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations into investment solutions.

      This category recognises an outstanding outsourced investment management partner for UK financial advice firms over the last 12 months. The wealth manager, or DFM, should be able to demonstrate outstanding service to financial advisers including their breadth of offering, availability, research capabilities, charging and performance. Services can include MPS and bespoke portfolios with a minimum performance track record of 3 years.

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      Best outsourced investment manager

      Entrants should be able to: 

      1. Demonstrate outstanding service to financial advisers and their clients including their availability on or off platform.
      2. Illustrate how their technical and research expertise has helped construct market-leading portfolios, including how these are matched to attitude to risk, as well as client aims and objectives.
      3. Provide evidence of why their charging structures are appropriate, including risk-adjusted performance data of portfolios.

      This category recognises the platform with the best service levels for UK financial advice firms over the last 12 months. The award is agnostic on the business and charging structure of the firm (i.e whether it is part of a vertically integrated firm or charges on a fixed or percentage basis), but looks to focus on the platform services offered, from trading functionality to tools that help advisers service clients better and the service levels offered to its customers.
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      Best platform

      Entrants should be able to:

      1. Demonstrate why their platform has surpassed their peers over the past 12 months.
      2. Show what efforts they have made to incorporate adviser feedback to improve their proposition.
      3. Illustrate how their platform charges represent value for money.
      4. Describe what innovations they have made to improve the breadth or depth of services offered.

      This category recognises a protection provider that has demonstrated a clear commitment to exceptional product development and service standards for UK financial advice firms over the last 12 months. The award is not dependent on the size of the firm, or the breadth of the provider’s offering, but the winner must show their dedication and specialism when it comes to meeting the protection needs of intermediaries and their clients.
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      Best protection provider

      Entrants should be able to:

      1. Show how they have improved on their proposition over the past 12 months.
      2. Demonstrate the robustness of their products, for example through claims rates or service standards data.
      3. Provide examples of how they work with advisers to address problems when they do occur.
      4. Illustrate how their proposition offers value for money and how they promote the value of protection advice more generally.

      This category recognises a provider that has excelled in its retirement proposition offering for UK financial advice firms over the last 12 months. The award is agnostic on the key products the firm offers (i.e whether they are pension-wrapped), the structure of the firm (i.e whether it also gives advice and/or platform services), and the firm’s size, but looks specifically as to the nature of the offering for clients in retirement, from service and price to functionality and value, to see who stands out from the rest.
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      Best retirement provider

      Entrants should be able to:

      1. Demonstrate why their products and service stood above that of their peers in the retirement space.
      2. Show the value of their offering for financial planning teams advising retirement clients and the unique elements the offering delivers.
      3. Illustrate how they have ensured value for money in their products.
      4. Demonstrate how they have kept ahead of developments in technology and regulation.

      This category recognises a Sipp provider that has provided excellent service levels for UK financial advice firms over the last 12 months. There is no size restriction on entries, though firms should have a track record of operating Sipps of at least 12 months.

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      Best Sipp provider

      Entrants should be able to: 

      1. Demonstrate robust due diligence on both standard and non-standard assets.
      2. Illustrate the value for money provided compared with costs and charges.
      3. Show how they have improved client servicing and relationships over the year, including any technological advances.

      This category recognises a support service provider that has demonstrated a clear commitment to exceptional service standards for UK financial advice firms over the last 12 months including; compliance, recruitment, mentorship, investment consulting, marketing and PR. Firms should have been in existence for at least 12 months.
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      Best support service provider

      Entrants should be able to: 

      1. Describe the services offered to members and how they have helped them cope with regulatory, policy, market and business challenges.
      2. Demonstrate how they have improved services offered to member firms, where possible, including evidence of satisfaction.
      3. Provide details of how they have helped improve levels of training and competence of members.

      This category recognises the best of the best, the firm should have given outstanding levels of service to advisers and their clients and made exceptional strides forward in enabling the highest quality of financial planning. If the entrant has multiple subsidiaries under a parent brand it should be the parent company that enters the award.
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      Provider of the year

      Entrants should be able to:

      1. Demonstrate why they did more than any other to help advisers give exceptional financial planning services.
      2. Describe how their offering has evolved and improved in the past 12 months.
      3. Provide evidence of their success with feedback from advisers and other service-level data.

      INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT 

      This category rewards an individual who has gone above and beyond in their contribution to the sector.

      This category is not available to enter.
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