The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and Zurich have named the winners of Australia’s most prestigious advice accolades, the 2014 AFA Adviser of the Year Award and the new AFA Practice of the Year Award.
The 2014 AFA Adviser of the Year Award has been presented to Eleanor Dartnall from Dartnall Advisers Pty Ltd. The AFA Practice of the Year Award has been presented to Complete Financial Balance.
Speaking at the Gala Dinner at the AFA National Adviser Conference in Cairns tonight, AFA CEO, Brad Fox said the AFA is delighted to announce Eleanor Dartnall and Complete Financial Balance as the recipients of the respective Awards. “Eleanor has an incredible passion to make a positive difference in the lives of her clients and, in recent times, to the young adult children of her clients. She is extremely committed to ongoing personal professional development, engaging in extensive research at Masters level,” he said. “Every client is developed in terms of their own level of financial literacy and Eleanor’s advice strategies are built through collaboration with the client which guarantees the client’s emotional commitment to the advice outcome. With Eleanor as an ambassador for advice as the AFA Adviser of the Year, we believe she will make a very positive impact on the public perception of financial advice.”
In congratulating Complete Financial Balance, Mr Fox said, “As the first recipient of this prestigious award, the team at Complete Financial Balance have proven that by continually improving and consistently looking to make their practice better for their clients, true excellence can be achieved. Their client-focussed processes demonstrate their value to the client at every step of the advice journey. As the first recipients of the Award, Complete Financial Balance has set a very high benchmark.”
Philip Kewin, GM Retail Life & Investments from award partner Zurich said, “These advisers are the vanguards of their profession and as such will provide crucial leadership during challenging times and will play a pivotal role in creating a more informed, more financially literate community. Zurich is delighted this award program continues to deliver finalists and winners of such high calibre.
Mr Fox commented on the rigour of the judging process for each award. “With the support of Zurich since 2003 for the Adviser of the Year Award, and now also with the Practice of the Year, we have built the most stringent assessment process applied to any advice award in Australia. Some of the steps include an in-depth client feedback survey, site visit, examination of advice documents, interviews with staff, and a final presentation in front of a highly credentialed judging panel of seven members. That’s why these are the most prestigious adviser awards in the country,” he said. “We make the process like this so that we know we have role models for other advisers and to demonstrate the quality of AFA advisers to the broader community.”
