Wouter Fourie, the chief executive of Ascor Independent Wealth Managers in Pretoria, was named the 2015 Financial Planner of the Year at a ceremony hosted by the Financial Planning Institute (FPI) in Johannesburg last night.
The award, sponsored by Personal Finance, honours the most proficient professional financial planner in South Africa.
Fourie, who has the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) accreditation, has over 17 years’ experience as a financial planner.
Bruce Fleming and Mark MacSymon, both of whom are CFP professionals, were the runners-up.
Fleming is the executive head of private clients at Consolidated Financial Planning in Cape Town. MacSymon is the wealth manager at Private Client Holdings, also in Cape Town.
“The Financial Planner of the Year award acknowledges the outstanding level of professionalism and ethics adhered to by a CFP professional. It also showcases the highest standard of financial planning advice provided to their clients,” Godfrey Nti, the chief executive officer of the FPI, said last night.
“Wouter is a committed member of FPI and serves on several of our committees. He continues to be involved in our financial literacy education programmes, which create awareness of the value of professional financial planning. We are proud of Wouter’s role in elevating the financial planning profession and congratulate him on his achievement.
“The FPI remains committed to improving the standard of financial planning for the benefit of all South Africans. We are proud of the quality of the professionals who entered the competition, making the judging process challenging,” Nti said.
Other awards and winners announced on the night were:
* The FPI Harry Brews Award, sponsored by Stanlib, which recognises the planner who has made a significant life-long contribution to the financial planning profession and the FPI. The 2015 award was given to independent training consultant Marius Botha.
* The FPI Media Award, sponsored by Old Mutual Investment Group, which acknowledges the contribution to promoting the FPI and the CFP designation in the media. For the second time, the 2015 award was won by Gerald Mwandiambira, the acting chief executive of the South African Savings Institute.
* This year, the FPI introduced an award honouring the CFP professional who actively communicates the significance of the CFP designation and who regularly volunteers in the FPI’s consumer outreach initiatives. The inaugural FPI It Starts With Me Award was presented to Kobus Kleyn. Kleyn is the the chairperson of the FPI’s risk competency committee and the director at Kainos Financial Services.
* The FPI recognised the student who achieved the highest rating in the FPI’s professional competency exams. Eddie Theron won the CFP Professional Competency Exam Award, sponsored by BrightRock. Theron has international financial planning experience and is the head of proposition management at Old Mutual Wealth.