Launched in 2000, the Financial Planner of the Year Award is the most prestigious award in the profession. It recognises the top CFP® entrant who exhibits the strongest financial planning skills; has fully incorporated the FPi’s Code of Ethics and Practice Standards into his/her financial planning practice and showcases excellent communication skills.
GARETH COLLIER, CFP®
Founder, Firecrest Group
Gareth Collier is a CFP® professional and a founder at Firecrest Group, with more than a decade of experience working alongside individuals, families and business owners. His approach to financial planning has been shaped by a simple belief: financial health is important, but money is ultimately a means to support the people, opportunities and experiences that matter most.
Collier enjoys bringing clarity to complexity. He works closely with clients to understand not only where they want to go financially, but why it matters to them, helping them navigate decisions around wealth, investment, retirement, business and intergenerational planning with confidence.
His philosophy has evolved throughout his career from simply helping clients achieve financial goals to helping them understand the role that money plays in a fulfilling life. He believes good financial planning combines technical competence with empathy, thoughtful questioning and the discipline to turn good decisions into meaningful action.
Beyond his work with clients, Collier contributes to the development of the financial planning profession through writing, education and mentoring. He is particularly interested in how the profession can use technology and innovation to improve the quality of advice while preserving the human judgement, trust and accountability at its heart.
“The best financial advice doesn’t simply solve today’s challenges; it creates confidence for tomorrow,” he says.
BRENDAN DUNN, CFP®
Executive Head Johannesburg, Hewett Wealth
Brendan Dunn is a CFP® professional and chartered accountant (South Africa). Since joining the financial planning profession with Verso Wealth in 2016, he has served as a paraplanner, financial planner and worked in a portfolio management support role in asset management. Dunn joined Hewett Wealth in 2023 as a financial advisor and is now executive head Johannesburg.
Dunn was honoured to have been selected as one of three finalists for the 2025 FPI Financial Planner of the Year Award. He is passionate about uplifting and empowering young financial planners and financial education.
He is married to his best friend, Jacqui, and they have a beautiful young daughter, Kylee. Dunn is an avid runner and has completed eight Comrades Marathons.
RUSSELL HO, CFP®
CFP®, Succession Financial Planning
Russell Ho is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® with 12 years in the advice profession, building South Africa’s original human-first advice financial planning firm in Gqeberha. His advice philosophy rejects the industry norm of leading with product. Instead, his “Three Hats” process puts financial therapy and behaviour coaching first; understanding a client’s money story, fears and the patterns driving their decisions.
He then builds a personalised lifestyle roadmap for the life a client wants to live. Only once both of those are in place does he step into the third hat, as financial advisor, and introduces products and solutions.
Ho set out to become the financial planner his own parents wished they’d had when they were starting out in life. That mission is why he built a firm around financial therapy and human-first coaching rather than product sales and why he believes distance should never limit good advice. He advises clients across borders, proving that quality financial coaching isn’t bound by geography.
Ho is a board committee member of the Young Financial Planners Organisation (YFPO), leading public speaking and communication for the community and pushing the industry away from product-pushing towards holistic, client-first advice. In 2021, he represented South Africa at the NextGen Global Financial Planning Conference in the UK, competing against 120 speakers across four continents and won Best Performance Speaker. In 2025, he was invited back to speak at the Global Financial Planning Conference All Stars, addressing AI and why human advice still matters. He has since spoken on podcasts including PROpulsion, the NextGen Planners Podcast and The Innovating Advice Show.
Ho holds a BCom in financial planning as well as a postgraduate degree in financial planning from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and is a registered tax practitioner.
What sets Ho apart isn’t the qualifications alone, it’s the belief that financial planning fails the moment it skips the human being at the centre of it. He is building his firm and a wider human-first movement in South African financial advice, around that belief: real advice for real people, putting the human before the numbers, every time.
PREVIOUS WINNERS
- 2025 Nicola Langridge, CFP®
- 2024 Rudolph Geldenhuys, CFP®
- 2023 Lara Warburton, CFP®
- 2022 Palesa Dube, CFP®
- 2021 Ryan McCaughey, CFP®
- 2020 Hester Debora van der Merwe, CFP®
- 2019 Hardi Swart, CFP®
- 2018 Janet Hugo, CFP®
- 2017 Mark MacSymon, CFP®
- 2016 Bruce Fleming, CFP®
- 2015 Wouter Fourie, CFP®
- 2014 Peter Hewett, CFP®
- 2013 Barry O’Mahony, CFP®
- 2012 Jan-Carel Botha, CFP®
- 2011 Warren Ingram, CFP®
- 2010 Natasja Norval Hart, CFP®
- 2009 Alec Riddle, CFP®
- 2008 John Campbell, CFP®
- 2007 Ian Beere, CFP®
- 2006 Craig Kiggen, CFP®
- 2005 Lionel Karp, CFP®
- 2004 Dulipkumar Garach, CFP®
- 2003 Gerrit Viljoen, CFP®
- 2002 Bouwer Nell, CFP®
- 2001 Debbie Netto, CFP®
