Hosted by an entertaining Tim Jones, chief executive of Nest, the afternoon event brought together the key players from the pensions and protection industry at the exclusive Sartoria restaurant in London’s Savile Row.
The winners of the 13 provider categories were voted for by readers of Financial Adviser, while adviser award winners were nominated by their peers before being shortlisted.
The strongest candidates were then judged individually at the Financial Times offices by Bob Bullivant, director of Annuity Direct, and Billy Burrows, head of business development at Annuity Line.
Minesh Patel of EA Financial Solutions won both the overall life and pensions and the Sipp-pension adviser awards after being described by the judges as “a dedicated professional”.
After receiving his awards, Mr Patel said: “It was a nice surprise to win. The judging session was really intense and they asked some very difficult questions.
“As an adviser you often get a lot of knock backs so it means a lot to be recognised.”
Other advisers to emerge victorious were Chris Daems of Principal Financial Solutions, winner of the group pension adviser category, Philip Haden of McCarthy Taylor, winner of the protection adviser award, and Paul Cliffe of Mattioli Woods, who was recognised as the best newly qualified adviser.
There was also a category for the best life and pensions firm, which went to Redbourne Wealth Management. The judges said the firm “had truly embraced RDR… made good use of outsourcing and had a sophisticated IT platform”.
In the provider categories, meanwhile, Aviva walked away with six awards, while Bupa, Standard Life, Just Retirement, AJ Bell and Scottish Life also won at least one award across the various categories.
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