Eldon Financial Planning are proud to have been awarded the title “New Model Adviser of the Year 2008: North”. Rather than us tell you about the award we’ll leave that in less biased hands – here are the words of journalist Gavin Lumsden:

Over the years the reputation of IFAs has been tainted by a series of mis-selling scandals and a suspicion that advisers’ recommendations are often motivated by the commissions they will generate, rather than from any regard for their customers.

Fortunately, a growing army of advisers and financial planners have been working hard to put this right. These ambitious and restless individuals have abandoned the ‘old model’ of flogging ISAs, pensions and life cover, and instead have embraced the principles of holistic financial planning to put their clients’ interests first.

By taking every chance to improve their qualifications, rather than settling for the basic certificate that all advisers are required to have, and by re-organising their businesses so that they get paid fees by their clients rather than receiving money from insurers and fund managers, these individuals move to what has been dubbed the ‘new model’.

The New Model Adviser awards are designed to honour one firm in each of eight regions around the country which have made the biggest strides in terms of the quality of advice and service they offer.

This year’s awards come at a time of intense scrutiny of advisers by their regulator, the Financial Services Authority. At the end of last year the FSA closed the first phase of its retail distribution review, an ambitious attempt to raise the standards of everyone either offering financial advice or selling financial products to the public.

The FSA has proposed three categories of final agents, the top tier of which it has called ‘professional financial planner’. All the firms considered for the New Model Adviser awards perfectly fit this description, consistently recording high scores in customer satisfaction surveys.”

Gavin Lumsden:  January 26 2008

See all the award winners at http://www.citywire.co.uk/publications/WEB_resources/NMA_2008_Award_Winners.pdf (if you click on this link you will leave our website).

You can also see a video of an interview with Joss Harwood: