Advisor of the Year Award winners unveiled!

(September 15, 2004) Advisor.ca, Advisor’s Edge and Objectif Conseiller are proud to announce the winners of the Advisor of the Year Awards for 2004. It was tough work trying to narrow down the field, but the judges have now spoken!

This year’s winners of the sixth annual competition are Derek Moran of Macdonald, Shymko Consulting in Kelowna, British Columbia, Bruce Cumming of Cumming & Cumming Wealth Management (FundEX) in Oakville, Ontario, and the team of Cam McIntosh, Rod Burylo and Dave Appleton from Canadians Retiring Abroad in Calgary.

“The Advisor of the Year award tells me that our work is excellent,” says Moran, the regional winner for B.C. and the territories. “It is a great honour to know that my work is considered top quality by other professionals in the industry.”

“The quality of financial planning is often difficult to measure in a relative sense,” added Moran. “Unlike the direct correlation between investments and indexes, fee-only financial planning has no measurable benchmark other than client satisfaction.”

This year’s winning entry for the Prairie region was a team effort, with Cam McIntosh, Rod Burylo and Dave Appleton of Calgary’s Canadians Retiring Abroad taking the honours.

“We are delighted to receive this acknowledgement from our peers,” said Cam McIntosh on behalf of his winning crew. “Winning as a team confirms for us the value of pooling our skills, knowledge and experience for the benefit of our clients.

“As always, we will continue as a team to build relationships with our affluent and adventurous clientele,” McIntosh said. “But, with this award, we will be recognized as the leading advisors for the very special niche of assisting Canadians in enjoying a rewarding retirement outside Canada.”

Ontario Advisor of the Year Award winner Bruce Cumming says working on his winning case study brought him a great amount of personal satisfaction, as he was able to realize the clients’ goals and objectives. “Now that my work on this case has been recognized as award-winning, I feel even more personally rewarded and excited — what a great feeling of accomplishment.”

Cumming says he looks forward to sharing the news with clients and sees it as a good referral opportunity.

This year’s Advisor of the Year Award honourable mentions include Mark Lajambe of The Lajambe Group in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Jonathan Flawn of Page and Associates in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Erika Penner of Performa Financial Group in Richmond, B.C., Rob Radloff of Invest-A-Flex Financial Strategies (IPC) in Vancouver and Les McDermott from Assante Capital Management in Sarnia, Ontario.

The Advisor Group would like to extend our congratulation to the winners and runners-up and thank all the entrants for their hard work. For those who did not win this year, the door is wide open to enter again for 2005.

“Choose a case that is thorough and at the same time different in an interesting way,” advises Moran. “Make it stand out.”

“Look for clients with unique and challenging circumstances,” suggested McIntosh. “These will prompt you to improve your own skills as a professional and, ultimately, to improve the quality of your financial planning.”

If you feel you’ve done a particularly good or unique job for a client, it’s worth the effort to submit an entry, adds Cumming. “Don’t hesitate to share you work and ideas.”

The Advisor of the Year Awards program is open to all advisors across Canada who provide financial advice to their clients as part of their services. Past Advisor of the Year Award winners can enter the competition three years after their winning year.

This year’s panel of judges was largely populated by past winners and included Cynthia Kett, Catherine Hurlburt, Lance Howard, Pierre Saint-Laurent, Eric Mercier and Kathy Aziz.

For more information on the Advisor of the Year Awards program, please visit the AOTY site.

Filed by Steven Lamb, Advisor.ca, steven.lamb@advisor.rogers.com

(09/15/04)

Steven Lamb