Last weekend, the Guardian published an article and comment piece on some of the more dubious practices associated with awards in the financial services sector.
Awards can play an important part in the marketing of some financial services firms.
Here at Informed Choice, we have certainly benefited from our success in various awards, including being named IFA of the Year in 2010 and Best IFA Firm earlier this year.
What the Guardian pointed out is that not all awards are equal in terms of merit. Prospective clients should understand this and the receipt of a seemingly prestigious award should only form one small part of the overall due diligence process before choosing a firm or adviser.
The criticisms described by the Guardian included:
-Awards schemes with no formal entry requirements or independent judging;
-Consultancies that take fees from companies to ensure a “guaranteed win” and “take the hassle out” of entering awards;
-Large fees charged by awards organisers to enter awards;
-Awards events where winners are only invited to accept awards if they first pay hundreds of pounds.
Whilst we were previously aware of some of these sharp practices, they had not (to our knowledge) been highlighted in the consumer press before now.
Writing in the Guardian on Saturday, on the weekend following the publication of the original article, Informed Choice managing director Martin Bamford commented as follows:
This is certainly an issue for some financial services awards, although it is important not to tar all with the same brush.
My firm has benefited from the prestige associated with numerous award wins over the past five years, but we are selective about those we enter. Those with an independent judging panel, and no commercial requirements to attend, are the only ones we would consider entering.
What financial services awards can achieve, when well run, is an independent third-party assessment of your proposition and service standards.
Several of the awards we won last year put us through a very detailed level of scrutiny; something we are proud to subject ourselves to.
Awards remain an important test of a financial services firm, but before giving them any weighting in your decision making process it would be worth asking a few questions about how they were achieved.
Photo credit: Flickr/Dave_B_
