Blue Chip Journal - June 2019 edition

FPI
A year of learning
Janet Hugo reflects on her term as Financial Planner of the Year 2018
I
entered the Financial Planner of the Year
competition for the first time in 2017,
and to my surprise, I didn’t win! This was
a humble reminder of how competitive
the market is and how many excellent
advisors there are in South Africa. The
competition examines all areas of financial
planning, practice management and
compliance. It is pretty daunting opening
up your practice and client files for review
by both peers and academics to judge.
I swallowed my pride and applied again
in 2018 with renewed determination. I
drafted the application from my daughter’s
bedside in the ICU, after she’d been critically
attacked on the campus of the University of
Stellenbosch. We both
had the resolve to win.
During the
process of the 2018
competition, I learned
the importance of
establishing an insightful
rapport with the panel of judges. I
embraced their questioning and assisted
them in "digging deeper" into the content
of my financial planning proposal. I shared
my knowledge with them and guided
them to think differently instead of being
threatened by their fire of questions.
One of the most significant learnings
has been how valuable the title of
Financial Planner of the Year is. The
win sets you apart from other advisors
and assists you in gaining immediate
credibility from others in the industry, the
financial media, as well as from clients. It’s
a prize and honour that will live with me
throughout my career. The competition
is by no means a popularity contest, nor
a measure of the amount of financial
planning business you do. I salute each
of the previous 18 winners as industry
leaders, aiming to achieve the best for
their clients consistently.
I’ve also learned how to deal with
the media as I’ve been presented with
many opportunities to publish articles,
speak on the radio and present in
Being Financial Planner of the Year
is a prize and honour that will live
with me throughout my career
public. I’ve learnt to trust our public
relations consultant to secure media
space and assist in drafting the
many financial planning messages I
wanted to relay. I’ve become a more
accomplished public presenter as I’ve
had more opportunity to practise, and
I’m more confident knowing that I’ve
been selected and endorsed by the
Financial Planning Institute to be its
representative.
Most successful financial advisors are
pedantic perfectionists as there’s no room
for error when dealing with clients’ hardearned
wealth – and this makes it difficult
to delegate to others. Dealing with the
media has been quite time-consuming,
and I’ve had to learn to let go to a greater
extent and rely on the detailed systems and
excellent administrative team that we have
at Sterling Private Wealth Group.
I’ve also learned to say no to media
opportunities when I need to manage
pressing client requirements and
important family commitments.
Janet Hugo
20 www.bluechipjournal.co.za