Besides recognising financial planners, who excel in professional knowledge and demonstrate acumen in personal financial planning, the objective is to promote financial planning to consumers, according to the institute's chief executive Angeline Chin.

'Through the Financial Planner Awards, we would like consumers to understand what a financial planner can do for them and at the same time, help them to ask the right questions when they meet with one,' she said.

'It is a very important consumer education initiative.'

Ms Chin said this year the institute was looking at how it could involve consumers in the practitioner category of the competition. It was exploring opportunities for them to meet with the final-round winners, she said.

The competition will again be run over three rounds. In the first round, financial planners submit a real-world written financial plan based on one of their own clients by May 23.

The plan, which must not exceed 50 pages, including cover pages and appendices, must be endorsed by their company.

Select candidates will then be picked in July to participate in a second round where they will make an oral presentation of the previously submitted case. Both the written plans and oral presentations may be conducted in either English or Chinese.

Three contestants - one each from the industry sectors representing banking, insurance and independent financial advisers - will then be chosen in August to participate in the final round. They will be given a hypothetical case to submit another written financial plan and be required to give an oral presentation.

The three finalists will be awarded round-trip tickets to Australia, and passes to attend a financial planning national conference being held there, and they will be invited to join a 'Winners' Circle' as representatives of the certified financial planning profession in print and broadcast mass media.

A winner, the Best Financial Planner of the Year 2008, will be announced in November at a presentation dinner. Certificates of merit will be awarded to all first-round winners, while 18 second-round winners will receive trophies.

Awards introduced last year will also be given for Hong Kong's Best Company for Financial Planning Excellence, for a company in each industry sector which gets the most awards.

Judging will be handled by 24 financial planning sector veterans from firms in Hong Kong for the initial rounds, while the final round will be presided over by 12 top-level executives from major institutions.

Assessment will be based on the six steps of the personal financial planning process, which are: Establishing client-planner relationships; gathering client data and determining goals and expectations; determining the client's financial status by analysing and evaluating client's information; developing and presenting the financial plan; implementation; and monitoring the plan's progress.

The written plan would be evaluated based on whether the financial planner was able to provide relevant personal information about their clients, whether sufficient disclosure was provided to people being advised, whether they understood their clients' investment goals, and whether the clients' situation was adequately analysed.

Also included in the judging process would be the degree to which the planner was able to assess a plan's risk, whether appropriate advice was given based on the clients' investment objectives, and the overall style and clarity in the presentation of the plan.

Judges would also be given personal discretion in how they rated the plans.

The institute said it expected to attract more than 200 applications from practicing investment advisers in Hong Kong, and about 100 for the student category.

An information session will be held for student and practitioner categories. Past-year winners will share their experiences with participants in the practitioner category, while corporate speakers will talk about career prospects in financial planning for student category participants.

Past winners include Rainbow Pan, who triumphed in 2006 while a senior vice-president at ipac financial planning. She has since been promoted to head of sales and operations.

The overall winner in 2005, the first year the competition was held, Enoch Lo Kam-cheung was an associate with Convoy Financial Services. He is now a senior vice-president with ING Financial Planning.

Last year's winner was Teresa Lee Kin-king, a customer relationship manager at HSBC.

Classified Post is proud to present our coverage for the upcoming SCMP/IFPHK Financial Planner Awards 2008. Over the next few months, articles will appear in our Banking and Finance supplements, and the regular Classified Post Financial Fast Track column with tips, advice and updates on the competition.

Important dates

Practitioner category

Launch March 7

Information session April 2

First-round application

submission deadline April 25

Written cases submission deadline May 23

First-round results July 23

Second-round results August 25

Final-round result and

Presentation dinner November 6

Student category

Launch February 21

Information session March 8

Application form submission March 17

First-round results May 15

Final-round results November 6