One of these is to honour outstanding university students with financial acumen and knowledge of financial planning, but more importantly it aims to show those already leading the industry the young talent that Hong Kong has to offer.

For this year's awards, students across Hong Kong were asked to submit a financial plan for fictional couple Leslie and Candy Chung, based on criteria set out in several pages that outlined their financial and family status.

The students prepared an executive summary of recommendations for the imaginary couple's financial management, insurance, investment, tax, retirement and estate planning.

They were also asked to deal with the specific question of whether their advice to Leslie was suitable amid the financial downturn.

With thousands of students submitting their financial plans to the judges, the competition eventually came down to a contest between five outstanding teams of students at Hong Kong universities.

They were asked to present their financial plans for Leslie and Candy to a live audience of industry and academics, and then answer questions from that panel.

All of the top five groups were winners on the day, as the IFPHK awarded three top prizes and two consolation awards, but there had to be an overall winner of the main award.

Emerging victorious from this difficult task was a team from the University of Hong Kong, comprising Yuan Xiaoquan, Zhang Wanying - both studying business administration - and architecture student Liu Zhe.

They were each rewarded for their efforts with an HK$8,000 scholarship and the opportunity to do an internship at a top financial institution in Hong Kong.

The judges cited the top trio for providing a confident presentation in which the clients were given 'total and comprehensive advice'.

The second and third major prize-winning teams came from Chinese University, as did the winners of the first consolation prize. The winners of the second consolation prize came from the University of Hong Kong.

In second place were business administration students Au Hoi-ting, Lam Siu-yin, Lam Pui-yan and IFA student Chiang King-wai.

The third-placed team was made up of PAC major Sun Weiming, SEEM candidate Gao Xiangyu, Li Lu-yun (ECO) and Sun Xiangjie (QFN).

First prize winners (University of Hong Kong)

Liu Zhe Zhang Wanying Yuan Xiaoquan

Second prize winners (Chinese University)

Au Hoi-ting Chiang King-wai Lam Pui-yan Lam Siu-yin

Third prize winners (Chinese University)

Li Lu-yun Sun Weiming Gao Xiangyu Sun Xiangjie