Are you a scheme trustee? Do you manage a pension fund? If so, would you be willing to help judge the UK Pensions Awards 2014?
As a judge, you would become one of a panel of distinguished experts deciding the winners of the industry's most prestigious awards.
Judges will be asked to judge three or four categories each and will receive submissions at the end of January next year.
They will each score these submissions to come up with a shortlist for each of the categories below.
A judges meeting will be then held on Thursday, 27 February 2014 to decide the final winners.
The winners will be announced at the 17th annual UK Pensions Awards, which will take place at London's Grosvenor House Hotel on Thursday, 1 May 2014.
All judges will be invited to attend the awards as guests of Professional Pensions.
If you are a senior manager within a scheme or a pension trustee and wish to put your name forward as a judge, please contact Professional Pensions editor Jonathan Stapleton at [email protected] or 020 7316 9547 as soon as possible.
Awards Process
This year there are two stages in the awards process - the deadlines of which are as follows:
1. Registration/Nomination: Companies can either put themselves forward for an award or be nominated for an award by a scheme. To register for the awards, or nominate a provider, simply send an email to our awards co-ordinator Charlotte Moore ([email protected]) by Friday, 22 November 2013, indicating the categories you wish to enter or nominate for. Full entry information will be published later this month but the list of categories in this year's awards is below.
2. Entry submission: Firms that register or are nominated will then have to submit an entry form (details of which will be published later this month). The judges will use this form to draw up the finalists list and decide on the final winners. The deadline for receipt of the entries is Monday, 13 January 2014.
The entry forms and submissions will be considered by a panel of judges made up from professionals from across the occupational pensions industry.
These judges will be announced in Professional Pensions over the coming weeks.
The finalists list will be published on Friday, 28 February 2014 and the winners will be announced at a ceremony at London's Grosvenor House Hotel on Thursday, 1 May 2014.
Categories
We have made a small number of changes to the category list for the 2014 awards in response to feedback.
The changes include merging the ‘Actuarial Consultancy of the Year' and the ‘Employee Benefits Consultancy of the Year' categories into a single ‘Actuarial / Employee Benefits Consultancy of the Year'. There was a high level of duplication between the categories and it is felt the merged category will better recognise the excellence of consultants providing advice to corporates, schemes and trustees.
In addition to this, we have removed two of three auto-enrolment awards following the roll-out of AE (but are retaining the Auto-enrolment Innovation of the Year award). We have also decided to withdraw the Pension Scheme Accountant of the Year award due to the low number of entrants last year.
We have added two categories: DC Consultancy of the Year, to recognise excellence in providing DC advice to both employers and schemes; and Risk Reduction Adviser of the Year, to recognise the excellence among consultants, lawyers and other advisers in helping schemes to de-risk.
The full list of categories for the 2014 awards are:
Advisory Categories:
- Actuarial / Employee Benefits Consultancy of the Year
- DC Consultancy of the Year *** NEW FOR 2014 ***
- Investment Consultancy of the Year
- Pension Lawyers of the Year
- Risk Reduction Adviser of the Year *** NEW FOR 2014 ***
Innovation Categories:
- Auto-enrolment Innovation of the Year
- DC Innovation of the Year
- Investment Innovation of the Year
- Technology Innovation of the Year
- Communication Innovation of the Year
DC Categories:
- DC Investment Manager of the Year
- DC Provider of the Year (Bundled/ Full Service Providers)
- Corporate Platform / Wrap Provider of the Year
Investment Categories:
- Investment Manager of the Year
- Fiduciary / Delegated Investment Provider of the Year
- Equity Manager of the Year
- Fixed Income Manager of the Year
- Multi-Asset Manager of the Year
- Emerging Markets Manager of the Year
- Alternative Investment Manager of the Year
- Property Manager of the Year
- SRI / ESG Provider of the Year
- LDI Manager of the Year
- Risk Reduction Provider of the Year
Other Categories:
- Sponsor Covenant Provider of the Year
- Independent Trustee of the Year
- Third-Party Administrator of the Year
