Awards can be a good measure of the effectiveness of any organisation. You can usually measure the success of sports teams by the silverware in their trophy cabinet. Likewise, successful films, stage plays, and television programmes will often be recognised by both their peers and audiences with prominent awards.
It’s with this in mind that we’re delighted to confirm that we’ve been shortlisted for a top award – Tax-Efficient Adviser Firm of the Year – in the 2021 Professional Adviser Awards.
The situation is the same in all parts of industry, and financial services is no exception. Awards in our sector can be a good measure of the professionalism of planning firms, and a clear sign of their commitment to the financial success and wellbeing of their clients.
The Professional Adviser awards
Professional Adviser is one of the most respected publications in the financial services industry. Their annual awards, which have been running for more than 15 years, are eagerly sought after in the industry and some of the most prestigious and highly regarded.
In previous years, the awards have been announced and given out at a high-profile event at one of London’s leading venues. Because of Covid-19 pandemic, however, this year’s awards will be understandably rather more low key than usual.
The awards will take place on Thursday 11 March at a virtual online event.
The title of this year’s Professional Adviser awards is “shining a light on adviser excellence in a changing world”. This very much reflects the challenges faced by everyone across the industry in the past twelve months.
An experienced panel of judges drew up the shortlists for each award. The 16 judges come from different parts of the industry including advisers, industry analysts and technical specialists.
All this year’s panel have extensive experience of the industry and we recognise many of them as leading advocates for financial services in general and independent financial advisers like ourselves. They are all, therefore, ideally placed to judge their peers.
A demonstration of our expertise
Commenting on the nomination, Stephen Ford, Head of UK Financial Planning at bdhSterling, said: “We’re thrilled to be nominated for this award. It’s a sign of the hard work put in by everyone in the company over the last 12 months, in challenging conditions.
“Competition is tough and there are some worthy nominations in our category, but we have our fingers crossed and are hoping for the best”.
Stephen also confirmed the belief of all of us at bdhSterling that “awards are a good way of demonstrating our expertise and standing in the financial services industry. The Professional Adviser awards are some of the most prestigious in the industry. That they are judged by an experienced panel of our peers makes them particularly prestigious.”
The importance of tax efficiency
The category in which we have been nominated – “Tax-Efficient Adviser Firm of the Year” – has particular resonance for us.
Tax efficiency is one of the key considerations in our approach to retirement and income planning. It’s very much at the core of what we do when we’re working with all our clients and is at the forefront of our minds in every meeting and at every review.
During the “accumulation” phase, while you are working and building up the value of assets in your retirement and savings funds, we’ll look to ensure that you’re doing this as efficiently as possible, making full use of products that offer tax incentives such as ISAs and personal pensions.
Then, when you come to start taking money from your funds, we’ll look to help you do so as effectively as possible, ensuring that the minimum amount possible is handed to HMRC.
This whole process poses extra challenges for us because of our unique position as being authorised in both the UK and Australia, so we’re always having to be cognisant of two different tax regimes and how they interact.
Fingers crossed!
As Stephen said, we’ve all got our fingers crossed and are hoping for the best.
Get in touch to find out how we can maximise your tax efficiency.
