I’ve been a bit slow on this one. It was fantastic to see that the Professional Advisers Association (PAA) successfully presented its first Adviser of the Year Awards at its conference last year. (And it was really nice to see it done at the home of Good Returns – Rotorua).
Those of you who have been around for a while will know that Good Returns used to run some similar awards, which were focused on the financial planning and investment sectors.
We know how hard it is to get the awards together, get entries, sponsors and judges, and then put on a function. It ain’t easy, but the PAA did it well.
We always had an aim of adding in an Insurance Adviser of the Year award, but after our partner withdrew its support for the awards we put them on hold.
Personally it was great to see the PAA pick up the baton here focusing on its two key areas, insurance and mortgages.
In the next issue of ASSET we profile the overall winner, Stephanie Wiki (yes, a relly of Reuben’s) as well as the winners of the firm of the year and the business insurance adviser of the year. To me the awards are about celebrating the good things advisers do – and there is plenty of that.
The other bouquet for today is to all the associations. The G4 group of advisers had its first meeting of the year this week in Wellington. Reports we hear are that things are going swimmingly well and everyone is getting on fine. (The one little cloud to this good story is at the end of our report here).
Added to the good news side it is pleasing to see the NZ Mortgage Brokers Association join up and make it the G5. It’s about time they came into the collective bosom of the industry rather than sit on its own.
I won’t be so bold as to suggest where this grouping will go or what it may morph into in the future. Rather, I believe that by working together the associations will get a better outcome from regulation for their members and the public, than if they all went it alone.
