·
 Home
 
·
 About Us
 
·
 How Companies Achieve Gold Standard
 
·
 The Judging Panel
 
·
 Gold Standard Winners 2003
 
·
 Gold Standard Winners 2004
 
·
 Latest News & Press Releases
 
·
 Useful Links
 
·
 Feedback





















 

 

 

 
 

10 COMPANIES RECEIVE THE GOLD STANDARD IN 2004 AWARDS

 
10 COMPANIES RECEIVE THE GOLD STANDARD IN 2004 AWARDS
In the 2004 awards held at the Bloomberg Auditorium ten companies received a Gold Standard Award, including the original six from 2003 when the Standard was first launched. For the first time two IFA firms received a Gold Standard.

Uniquely, Gold Standard Awards assess financial companies on the areas most important to consumers - capability of the company to conduct business, service, whether they offer fair value as well as how trustworthy the company is. The Awards also take account of financial strength. Most importantly, the Gold Standard Awards are trying to identify companies that go the extra mile to ensure that the service they offer customers is above minimum standards set by government and regulators.

The new additions to the holders of the Gold Standard are:-

GE Life for Pensions
Scottish Life for Pensions
Friends Provident for Pensions
NHFA Ltd for Independent Financial Advice
Torquil Clark for Independent Financial Advice

While those companies that maintained their Standards in 2004 were:-

• Fidelity Investments for Fund Management,
• Friends Provident for Protection,
• JP Morgan Fleming for Fund Management,
• M&G for Fund Management,
• Scottish Provident for Protection
• Standard Life Healthcare for Protection

In addition, eight companies achieved highly commended or commended. These were:-

F&C Asset Management - Highly Commended (Fund Management)
Gartmore Investment Management - Commended (Fund Management)
Investec Asset Management - Commended (Fund Management)
New Star Asset Management - Commended (Fund Management)
Grant Thornton UK - Commended (Independent Financial Advice)
Pearson Jones Plc - Commended (Independent Financial Advice)
Abbey Wrap Managers - Commended (Pensions)
James Hay - Commended (Pensions)


Deborah Benn, Chairman of the Gold Standards judging panel commented,

"We are delighted that we have been able to increase the number of companies to have achieved the Gold Standard this year. This has resulted in IFAs achieving the standard for the first time."

Benn concludes,

"Clearly the desire to improve standards is gathering pace and based upon the quality of the entries we received, even if companies did not reach the Gold Standard they have made considerable progress in the past twelve months. This is good news for consumers and long may it continue.

We look forward to adding even more names to the list of first class financial services organisations in 2005."

THE 2004 GOLD STANDARD AWARDS SHORTLIST ENTRANTS WERE:

JPMorgan Fleming Asset Management for Fund Management
Fidelity Investments for Fund Management
M&G for Fund Management
ISIS Asset Management for Fund Management
Gartmore Investment Management for Fund Management
New Star Asset Management for Fund Management
Investec Asset Management for Fund Management

Friends Provident for Protection
Standard Life Healthcare for Protection
Scottish Provident/Abbey for Intermediaries for Protection

GE Life for Pensions
Friends Provident for Pensions
Scottish Life for Pensions
James Hay Administration for Pensions
Abbey National Wrap Managers for Pensions

Torquil Clark for Independent Financial Advice
NHFA for Independent Financial Advice
Grant Thornton UK for Independent Financial Advice
Pearson Jones for Independent Financial Advice