Philip Kewin

The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and Zurich Financial Services Australia (Zurich) have announced the semi-finalists in the 2014 AFA Adviser of the Year and Practice of the Year Awards (the Awards).

The Adviser of the Year honour was first awarded in 2003, as a joint initiative between the AFA and Zurich, and is acknowledged to be Australia’s premier advice award. 2014 represents a new chapter in the award, with the best individual adviser and best advice practice to be honoured separately.

AFA CEO, Brad Fox, said the decision to offer two awards reflected the evolution of advice, including new business models characterised by greater separation between entrepreneurial business owners and highly specialised client facing advisers.

“The standard of candidates for this year’s awards has once again been exceptional, and underscores the incredible job advisers are doing in changing lives for the better’” said Mr Fox.

Renowned for the rigour of the judging process, this year’s candidates are also being assessed on their efforts to improve the financial literacy of their clients, prospects and the community overall.

Mr Philip Kewin, Zurich’s GM Retail Life & Investments also acknowledged the quality of candidates this year, and believes it augurs well for the reputation of advisers overall.

“Aside from a strong commitment to client care and self-development, what stands out for me about this year’s candidates is the amazing innovation taking place in how advice is delivered, said Mr Kewin.

“Ultimately these candidates are leading the way in lifting the reputation of the advice profession and making quality advice accessible to more Australians,” he said.

The Semi Finalists for the Adviser of the Year Award are:

• Bill Bracey, Sydney Financial Planning
• Catherine Robson, Affinity Private
• David Clark, Clark Pacific Financial Services Pty Ltd
• Eleanor Dartnall, Dartnall Advisers Pty Ltd
• Finn Kelly, Wealth Enhancers & WE Private
• PJ Byrne, Mr Insurance

The Semi Finalists for the Practice of the Year Award are:

• Complete Financial Balance
• Complete Risk Analysis
• Lighthouse Capital Pty Ltd
• Rising Tide Financial Services
• Robina Financial Solutions Pty Ltd
• Tribeca Financial

The Semi-Finalists now proceed to the next stage of assessment, with three Finalists in each Award to be announced in mid-September.

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The Awards rank life insurance companies in the areas of product and service quality, with the Platinum award recognising the overall winner.

This year, three new team-based service awards have been introduced. Presented in association with Risk Info and the Beddoes Institute, the new awards recognise life company teams that deliver the best service and make the most difference to adviser businesses.

The new service awards include:
• Underwriting and New Business Team of the Year
• Claims Team of the Year
• Business Support Services Team of the Year

AFA CEO Brad Fox said, “The new team service awards, along with the existing awards, are intended to raise standards of service delivery within the industry, providing more valuable outcomes for advice businesses and their clients.”

The 2012 PFL/AFA Life Company of the Year Awards, which will be announced in Sydney at a luncheon on 6 March, are delivered on the basis of feedback from advisers, collated by Plan for Life with respect to the product and Platinum awards, and Risk Info/Beddoes Institute in relation to the new service team awards.

The service awards complement existing awards which, along with an overall Life Company of the Year Award (the Platinum Award), include:

• Term/TPD Product of the Year
• Trauma Product of the Year
• Income Protection Product of the Year
•  Annuity provider of the Year
•  Investment Bond of the Year
•  Product Innovation of the Year.

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Private bankers from National Australia Bank won the categories of Outstanding Relationship Manager, Outstanding New Relationship Manager and Industry Thought Leader. In addition NAB Private Wealth itself was named runner-up in the category of Outstanding Institution ($10-$30m).

Leigh O’Neill was named Outstanding Relationship Manager, Vera Ou-Young was named Outstanding New Relationship Manager and NAB Private Wealth’s Executive General Manager Angela Mentis was presented with the Outstanding Industry Thought Leader award for a second time.

NAB Private Wealth topped the awards table winning more categories than any other private bank.

Speaking after the ceremony Angela Mentis said, “This honour from the Australian Private Banking Council reflects the dedication of all our relationship managers and our commitmentto placing the client at the centre of everything we do.
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“Winning both the Outstanding Relationship Manager and Outstanding New Relationship manager categories rewards the work we have done to enhance the capabilities and service levels available from private banks across Australia.
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”NAB Private Wealth’s emphasis over the last three years has been to introduce a more holistic, European style of private banking to Australia, an effort reflected in Ms Mentis winning the Outstanding Industry Thought Leader award, which she also won in 2009.
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“We have focused on developing talented individuals from a range of professions, providing them with a breadth and depth of banking and wealth management skills. We have done this by establishing a dedicated Development & Capability function to up-skill our managers, as well as introducing industry leading professionals to mentor our people.
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“NAB Private Wealth now has significant expertise in the European style of holistic private wealth management having recruited talented individuals from international private banks,including Michael Parsons (Deutsche Bank), Anna McCreery (Credit Suisse), Leigh O’Neill (Coutts) and Ingrid van Dijken Robinson (Union Bancaire Privée),” added Mentis.
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NAB Private Wealth winner of the Outstanding Wealth/Investment Advisor Award 2010, Catherine Robson, was a finalist in this year’s awards.

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To mark the opening of nominations for the 2011 AFA Adviser of the Year award, Zurich Life & Investments Australia (Zurich) has launched its Zurich Life TV channel on YouTube. The channel is designed to make it easier for advisers to access video content across more devices.

To celebrate the launch, Zurich has released a series of short videos featuring the finalists from the 2010 AFA Adviser of the Year award.

Across the ‘Tips from the Top” series, last year’s finalists share insights into the key drivers of their success, with individual videos covering marketing, networking, technology and client care.

“Whilst the fundamental drivers of adviser success have remained the same for decades, the nature of those drivers is clearly evolving” said Mr Colin Morgan, Chief Executive of award sponsor Zurich Life & Investments.

“Technology and marketing are just two areas where advisers are increasingly able to differentiate themselves and the evolving social media landscape really brings these two areas together.
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“That’s why we thought YouTube was the perfect medium to share the wisdom and insights of our industry’s most elite advisers,” said Mr Morgan.
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A Zurich survey of 700 advisers earlier this year found that 10 per cent of advisers owned iPads with a further 40 per cent planning to buy an iPad or other tablet device during 2011.
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“Online content is increasingly being accessed through apps rather than traditional browsers and the launch of our YouTube channel will make our content easier to view across more mobile devices” said Mr Morgan.
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Click to view The Tips from the Top series on YouTube
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Nominations for the 2011 Adviser of the Year Award open June 1st.

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• Dr Rebecca Shiels joins panel
• More rigour around best practice benchmarking
• Award enters its 9^th year

Leading researcher Dr Rebecca Shiels, Director of Research at Beaton Research and Consulting, has been appointed to the judging panel for the prestigious Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) Adviser of the Year Award.

Chairman of the Judging Panel and AFA President, Brad Fox said, “We are delighted to have Rebecca join our panel. The fact that we were able to attract such a respected industry figure to become a judge speaks volumes about the growing stature of the Adviser of the Year award across our industry.”

Dr Shiels is the Director of Research and Head of Financial Services at Beaton Research and Consulting. She holds a PhD in psychology and has 15 years research experience across a range of industries with financial services being her current focus. Her principal area of expertise lies in business-to-business and services sector research.

In the insurance market, Dr Shiels has worked closely with the major life insurance providers in Australia and New Zealand, measuring satisfaction among advisers, developing market segmentation and, more recently launching a quarterly omnibus survey of advisers in Australia, to keep abreast of topical issues in the market. As such, Dr Shiels has a ‘birds eye view’ of best practice drivers amongst advisers.

“The growing reputation of this award is built on the breadth and rigour of the award judging process,” said Colin Morgan, Chief Executive of award sponsor Zurich Life & Investments.

“We feel Rebecca’s unique perspective on the evolution of best practice across the industry will add an extra dimension to this process, which already includes telephone interviews, onsite practice evaluation, client feedback and a finalist presentation to the full judging panel,” he said.

“As one of the last remaining independent insurers, Zurich has a longstanding commitment to championing advisers and our sponsorship of the premier industry award since its inception in 2003 is a powerful reflection of that commitment.”

The judging panel also comprises AFA Chief Executive Officer  Richard Klipin, Graham Peatey (The Encore Group), Peter Sobels (Riskinfo), and Philip Kewin and Marc Fabris (both Zurich).

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The Award, which will be officially launched in May, is an important first step in tackling the gender gap that exists in retirement savings, wealth protection and life insurance.

AFA CEO, Richard Klipin said that the whole gender equity debate is alive and well in the financial advisory profession and the industry needs to focus collectively to address the imbalance.

“What we need is greater female participation in the financial advice sector generally, and in particular, higher rates of participation at a leadership level,” he said.  “The Award seeks to actively encourage more women into the industry so they are better represented within the ranks of financial advisers and better able help women secure their financial future.”

Brett Clark, CEO Retail Life of TOWER Australia said that in bringing this award to life, TOWER Australia is seeking to encourage, mentor and reward female advisers who are exemplars within their field.  “The Award is recognition of outstanding achievement and leadership within the financial advice industry,” he said.

Mr Clark said that research suggests women are significantly underinsured and generally have inadequate retirement savings, yet they often have higher protection needs and can expect to live longer lives than their male counterparts

He cited a 2006 report quoted on the Australian Human Rights Commission website that indicated almost half of women between the ages of 45 and 59 have less than $8,000 in retirement savings.  “Our own statistics show us that although women make up 45% of the Australian workforce, only 12% of TOWER Australia income protection claims come from women,” he said. “These statistics have significant social and fiscal implications for us all.”

The Award will be rolled out around Australia in May, linking to the 100th International Women’s Day calendar and the United Nations ‘Equality Means Business’ agenda.

Lara Jacques, Policy Officer of United Nations Women Australia said the Award is a wonderful initiative.  “It has the buy-in of some very senior people within the sector and the key component is to encourage women into the industry.  We are really excited that the Award is being launched and about the opportunities it creates for women within the finance sector,” she said.

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The multiple awards won demonstrate the quality and depth of CMC Markets’ stockbroking business after CMC Markets launched Australia’s lowest online brokerage rate of $9.90 or 0.10% in 2010.

“People often view us as the online brokers who are the low cost option.  What we want traders to be aware of, especially active traders, is not only do we have the lowest brokerage but we have the best charting (which is free to all clients), best website functionality, best customer service and most importantly the highest overall client satisfaction levels,” said Louis Cooper, Head of CMC Markets Australia and New Zealand.

“On top of this, we have an unrivalled education offering for new share traders who want to familiarise themselves with the share market, including a unique ‘Trading Insights’ blog that both clients and non-clients can access for trading strategies and information on both local and global markets,” said Mr Cooper.

“What we saw happen in the second half of 2010 was a surge in the competition in online brokers as the low cost brokers have started to challengethe more established providers.  Our research found that newer entrants like CMC Markets have strengthened their market position considerably,” said Pawel Rokicki, Senior Analyst at Investment Trends.

The Investment Trends analysis found that CMC Markets attracted 7% of new clients, significantly higher than their overall 3% market share.

CMC Markets’ clients can access a platform that offers low cost brokerage with free unlimited conditional orders, access to all ASX equity instruments, live pricing, market news and analysis, and free charting which will ensure clients are more equipped than ever to make smart, strategic trading decisions. This is why our clients are the happiest online broking clients in the country,” said Mr Cooper.

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