Salvo Capital was placed under top financial services practices for the second year running in the SA Best Practice of the year presented and organised by Celestis practice Management. 

The SA Practice of the Year Award is run by Celestis, in association with Business Health, an Australian firm internationally recognized for its specialist consulting services in the financial services sector. A number of leading product providers and industry associations endorse the competition, including Old Mutual, Glacier by Sanlam, Liberty Life, Masthead, and the Financial Intermediary Association of South Africa (FIA). New sponsors this year include Prudential and Coronation.

Esmé Davies, Head of Celestis Practice Management explains that there has been a consistent increase in the quality of entries over the last three years: “It’s very exciting to see that the award is successfully achieving its goal of raising the financial advisory industry’s standards and professionalism. This tells us independent financial advisory practices are maturing from a practice management perspective and the local advisory profession compares favorably with top ranking international practices.”

 “Ultimately this translates into better service delivery to consumers,” says Davies. “The vast majority of participants also report that the awards have allowed all of their staff to experience and be part of the process, which in turn galvanized employees to achieve business goals. We look at the way the practice is run, including team involvement, and we belive that the business should not be about a sinlge individual, rather about the team.”

The SA Best Practice of the Year competition recognises and celebrates those practices and individuals that have surpassed their competitors and lead the way for others.

The competition is open to all independent financial advisory practices in South Africa with a minimum of one support staff member employed in the business. Practices will need to demonstrate a high level of business acumen and the use of best business principles.

Every practice that enters into the competition has to complete a Health Check, once completed the practice is provided with a detailed report that outlines suggestions on how to improve, It also benchmarks the practice against other practices in the industry as well as international practices.  Following the cut-off date of the competition, the 15 best practices – based on the assessments – are audited to verify information and establish additional facts about the business.  A full compliance audit, in line with FIAS is also conducted and ten practices are put forward as finalists and the winner is chosen by a panel of independent judges.

The 2009 winner is Chartered Wealth Solutions, an Ilovo based practice,  and 3 other practices were mentioned for the outstanding performance of which Salvo Capital received recognition.