David Norton Building Excellence Award

David Norton Award 2008

IFP would like to congratulate Page Russell Ltd of Bury St Edmunds for winning the David Norton Building Excellence Award 2008. Presentation of the award was made at the IFP Conference, Celtic Manor Resort, Newport, which took place 29 Sept - 1 Oct 2008.

The 2009 Norton Award will be open to entrants from spring 2009.

 *** Applications for 2008 have now closed***

The closing date for entries for the David Norton Building Excellence Award has now passed. The judges are assessing the applications from many firms who have submitted responses, and will decide upon short listed candidates for interview on 2^nd September. The ultimate winner will be announced and receive their trophy and prizes at IFP the Annual Conference and Exhibition “Excellence as Standard” being held at Celtic Manor 29 Sept -1 Oct. Full details of the lucky winner will be posted on this website in October.

The IFP is pleased to introduce this prestigious new award which is open to all Financial Planning firms across the UK. The winning firm will be entitled to 10 days of mentoring with FP Advance, one of the UK's leading business transition consultancies. This is an extremely valuable prize that will help to develop the business of the winning firm in an effective way for the future.

David Norton FIFP, CFP

This new "Business Excellence" Award is an annual event to remember the life of David Norton (FIFP, CFP) , who was a former President of the IFP, and the significant contribution that he made to the profession of Financial Planning in the UK. David is often seen as one of the 'founding fathers' of planning in the UK and the profession owes a debt of gratitude to David and others for the work that they have put in over the last 20 years in seeking to build this new profession. The award will allow us not only to continue to remember David and all the work that he did over the years to help Financial Planning and Financial Planners, but it will also channel valuable support into firms which show the vision, enthusiasm, promise and overall business acumen that are essential requirements for a successful practice.

David worked with many IFP members in a mentoring capacity. He was passionate about helping others to build successful Financial Planning businesses and seeing advisers transitioned to planners. The IFP has therefore attempted to establish what David's likely criteria would have been in judging such an award. This has been achieved through detailed consultation with numerous individuals who worked with David for many years or knew him professionally. Our thanks go to them for their input. The winner of this award will be the Financial Planning firm which the judges believe offers the most outstanding potential for the future. The firm must be able to clearly demonstrate that it is committed to "true" Financial Planning, that it has adopted (or is moving towards) a fee-based remuneration system, and has an exciting and well thought-out business plan. The winner will not be the 'perfect practice' but rather a developing one, which has unique features , shows commitment to comprehensive Financial Planning, and yet is still in need of help and mentoring in certain key areas of business development, for example such as recruitment, client segmentation, defining their service, marketing etc.

How to apply

Your initial application will be made online via the application form below. The responses will then be reviewed by a panel of judges (see below) to establish a shortlist of candidates who will progress to the final round. Each firm shortlisted will be required to submit further detail on their firm to the judges ahead of a formal interview which will take place in early September 2008. During that interview, key personnel will be questioned on their organisation, business practices, development needs and why they believe that their firm should win the award.

Apply online now! ***Applications have now closed***

Award Criteria

The firm must be committed to developing into a Financial Planning practice. In other words you must be able to demonstrate that your firm is offering comprehensive fee-based Financial Planning rather than the old transactional model of product sales.

• The firm must aspire to be a profitable and successful business and demonstrate a strong business plan and a clear vision for the future. David always said "A poor Financial Planner is a poor Financial Planner"
• The firm must fully support the personal and professional development of it's staff
• The firm must be embracing new technologies and be seen to be pro-active in providing clients with regular reviews covering whether their long range goals are being achieved, and access to updates of their financial position.
• The firm will be expected to demonstrate excellent client service

The winning firm is likely to be strong in certain areas but needing development in others. Overall we are looking for firms with the strong commitment to succeed in Financial Planning rather than those that have already established their business firmly in that direction.

Information required

By the closing date of 30th May applicant firms must have completed the application form. There is a considerable amount of detail required from firms, which is necessary in order that the judges can fully appraise each candidate firm and identify those who show the most outstanding potential for the future.

All information submitted by firms to the IFP will, of course, be treated confidentially and any publication of contents outside of the judging panel will only take place with applicants written permission.

The judging panel

The IFP has appointed an expert panel of judges. They will examine the detail supplied, and determine a "short list" of candidates for interview who will be informed of their selection by Friday 18^th July. The judging panel will consist of:

1. IFP Vice President - Barry Horner CFP
2. IFP Director of Operations - Steve Gazzard
3. Brett Davidson, Chief Executive of FP Advance

The firms short-listed as candidates will be invited to a 2 hour interview by the panel on September 2^nd in London. There, they will be questioned in more detail about their firm and their submissions, after which the judges will determine the overall winner.

The prize

The overall winner of this prestigious award will be announced at the IFP Annual Conference and Exhibition, this year taking place at the Celtic Manor Resort on 29^th Sept to Oct 2^nd. Mrs Julia Norton has very kindly agreed to sponsor the purchase of the trophy, which will be presented to the winning firm, and will be held for a year. In addition to the trophy and of course the kudos of winning, the successful firm will also receive the very valuable prize worth c.£10,000. Professional mentoring sessions will be available to the winner of the award, provided by FP Advance one of the UK's leading business transition consultancies. The winner will be entitled to a maximum of 10 days mentoring which will really help to position the firm strongly to succeed in its mission to become a highly effective and profitable Financial Planning practice.

The winner will also benefit from considerable levels of media coverage during the year they hold this prestigious title, helping to build their brand and really establish the firm as a model of "excellence" on the Financial Planning map in the UK.

FP Advance

The IFP is very grateful to Brett Davidson and to FP Advance, whose involvement with this project has been vital. The extremely valuable prize for the winning firm of up to10 days of business mentoring sessions to be provided by FP Advance, will be available to the firm for a period of 12 months. The mentoring sessions would start immediately after the announcement of the winner at the IFP Annual Conference and Exhibition at Celtic Manor, South Wales on October 1^st. (Specific dates to be agreed with FP Advance)

Brett Davidson, Chief Executive of FP Advance comments :

"FP Advance are absolutely delighted to be associated with the David Norton "Building Excellence" award. As the profession of Financial Planning develops both the IFP and FP Advance are eager to help those ready for success. The consulting support that is offered as part of the award will be hugely valuable to the winning firm and personally I cannot wait to find the first winner and get to work."

Nick Cann, Chief Executive Officer of the IFP comments :

"As growth in Financial Planning continues to gather momentum, we are really excited to launch this award in memory of David Norton, which provides such a great opportunity for the winning firm to establish itself among the leaders of this exciting profession in the future."

We hope that you will take this opportunity to enter your firm for this award. We appreciate it will take much time and effort to apply, but are sure that the considerable rewards will make it well worth your while.

Good Luck to all applicants! We look forward to hearing from you.

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