Receiving the title of South Africa’s Financial Planner of the Year for 2024/25 has been an incredible honour. It’s a bit surreal, and while the trophy sits on my desk at home, the true value of this journey lies far beyond the awards ceremony. This past year has been one of immense personal and professional growth.
The opportunity to even compete for this award was a deeply personal goal of mine. I planned for it and worked towards it, yet I never truly expected to win, given the calibre of incredible financial planning professionals in our country. To be added to the list of FPI Financial Planner of the Year award recipients – a list of people I have looked up to and aspired to be like – is a profound privilege.
The journey since August 2024 has been both incredible and daunting. The weight of responsibility of being the official ambassador for financial planning in South Africa is something I did not take lightly. And the competition process itself? It forced me to critically look at what I bring to the table for my clients. It helped me to strengthen the conviction of the WHY behind what I do, which then more easily informed the WHAT and the HOW of the day-to-day of being a financial planner and business owner.
The competition also confirmed that I am on the right track and encouraged me to keep deepening the foundations of my work. I’ve learned that you never truly “arrive”, but you must keep moving forward – continuously growing, learning and getting better. One step at a time. Because we owe it to our ourselves, our clients and our families to be the best version of ourselves for them.
The award has also been a catalyst for new opportunities, accelerating my ability to have an ownership stake in an independent financial planning firm. At Firecrest Wealth in Cape Town, my business partner, Gareth Collier, and I have the amazing opportunity to help clients make decisions that serve them not just in the present, but for their future. It is a profound privilege and responsibility that we get to partner with our clients for the long term as they navigate life’s many transitions and help them steward their balance sheets in order to live a meaningful and purposeful life.
As professionals, we are all better together.
Being the 2024/25 FPI Financial Planner of the Year has also opened so many doors to me, particularly in the speaking world. It has been such a pleasure to share some of my learnings with fellow financial planners in Gauteng, Cape Town and Durban, as well as global audiences through virtual sessions. I am a product of the financial planners who have mentored me and shared their knowledge and experience with me, and to be able to share some of myself with others is truly amazing. As professionals, we are all better together.
Beyond speaking to my fellow financial planning professional peers, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to and be part of the ongoing financial education efforts in South Africa with clients of all ages and stages of life through various media, including TV, social media, radio and print. This has been deeply rewarding, because it related directly to our purpose as financial planners: to help people comes to terms with the crucial tension between the personal and the technical side of financial planning.
To every CFP® professional reading this, I want to encourage you to take up the challenge of entering the 2026 Financial Planner of the Year competition. Whether you win or not, you will be stretched, you will be challenged and you will grow in ways you cannot anticipate. And if you do win, it will open up the most incredible doors for your future within the profession. The time to begin your journey to excellence is now.
