Craig Dunn, Steve Helmich and Amelia Constantinidis from AMP with the winners from La Trobe University – Morgan Faye Remilton, Ruby Henderson and Aaron Day.

A team from La Trobe University in Victoria has won the AMP University Challenge in a year that saw a record number of female entrants and finalists.

The AMP University Challenge is a national financial planning competition open to all Australian university students who want to find out first-hand what being a financial planner is all about.

AMP Horizons Director Amelia Constantinidis congratulated the winning team on their win and said that student response to the Challenge exceeded expectations, particularly in terms of the number of females who registered and then made submissions to the competition.

“A profession should broadly reflect the demographics of a society so we were encouraged that 44 per cent of submissions were made by females, up from 34 per cent last year and 58 per cent of this year’s finalists were women, compared to 50 per cent last year.

“Attracting and retaining top female talent is key to the continued success of the financial planning profession so the gender mix of this year’s Challenge entrants is a positive sign,” Ms Constantinidis said.

The competition, now in its third year, aims to enhance financial planning professional standards by increasing awareness of the profession amongst universities and students.

Individuals and groups of students are invited to submit a scoped advice discussion paper in response to a hypothetical client case study and the top five teams come together in Sydney to take part in the Finals Day.

There were 64 submissions to this year’s Challenge, up from 57 last year, and 113 students took part in the competition

The winning team, which comprised Morgan Faye Remilton, Ruby Henderson and Aaron Day were awarded the top prize by AMP Chief Executive Officer Craig Dunn and Director Advice and Client Solutions Steve Helmich at a reception at AMP on Friday night.

“Taking part in the AMP University Challenge has given us the opportunity to look up from our text books and get a true appreciation of the difference we’re going to be able to make to people’s lives,” said Morgan Faye Remilton, a member of the winning team.

First prize was $5,000 cash (for the winning team to share), along with registration to attend the 2013 FPA National Congress in Sydney and a student membership to the association as well as attendance to the 2014 AMP Planner Conference in Melbourne. La Trobe University also received a $10,000 grant for AMP to put towards financial planning initiatives.

Teams of students from La Trobe University also took out second and third prizes respectively which included $2,500 and $1,000 cash and student membership of the FPA.

Students from all the Australian mainland states took part, with Victorians accounting for 71 per cent of overall submissions and 100 per cent of finalists. La Trobe University accounted for 51 per cent of applications as the Challenge is integrated into the curriculum and assessment for the final year subject forming the financial planning major. Griffith University and TAFE NSW: Higher Education have also embedded the Challenge into their curriculums.

The post AMP University Challenge: Record number of female participants appeared first on AdviserVoice.