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Blue Chip Issue 86

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  • Cfp
  • Fpi
  • Dfm
  • Financial planning
  • Wealth management
  • Stock markets
  • Fund managers
  • Advisers
  • Planning
  • Financial
  • Economic
  • Profession
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  • Investors
  • Momentum
  • Advisors
  • Investing
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  • Global
  • Wealth
Blue Chip Journal is a quarterly journal for the financial planning industry and is the official publication of the Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa NPC (FPI), effective from the January 2020 edition. Blue Chip publishes contributions from FPI and other leading industry figures, covering all aspects of the financial planning industry. Visit Blue Chip Digital: https://bluechipdigital.co.za/

BLUE CHIP FPI |

BLUE CHIP FPI | Financial Planner of the Year Meet the 2022 FPI Financial Planner of the Year Blue Chip speaks to Palesa Dube, CFP®, the 2022 winner of the Financial Planner of the Year Award. Palesa Dube, CFP®, Director and Wealth Manager, Wealth Creed

FPI | Financial Planner of the Year BLUE CHIP The Financial Planner of the Year Award, launched in 2000, is the most prestigious award in the industry. It recognises South Africa’s top CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® – a first-class financial planner who demonstrates exceptional service and impeccable ethics in client service and who brings innovation, flawless skill as well as all-round excellence to the profession. Palesa Dube, CFP®, director at Wealth Creed, is a seasoned professional and practising member of the FPI with 18 years of industry-related experience. She exudes a passion for wealth management and has expertise in investment and retirement planning, estate as well as legacy planning for high-net-worth individuals and corporate clients. When Dube looks back to the beginning of her career in the early 2000s, she realises how limited a horizon her younger eyes could see. Her ambition was to build something that had value. She believes that the profession allows her to do just that as it offers the opportunity to help individuals and families fulfil their financial and legacy aspirations. Palesa, well done! After a gruelling competition, you have been named the FPI Financial Planner of the Year for 2022. What does winning the award mean to you? Thank you very much. Stepping out of the corporate environment to start an independent advisory firm with little to no backing was a massive leap of faith. And to keep going despite the challenges the environment posed, especially in the last two to three years, truly was an ask. This award makes the journey so far entirely worth it. It is testament firstly that there is a place and need for our clientcentric approach to wealth management. Secondly, it gives us great confidence that we are building a formidable practice [Wealth Creed] that firmly holds its ground in the market and which our current and prospective clients can be proud to be associated with. What was your motivation for entering the Financial Planner of the Year Award? I saw the competition as an ideal platform to showcase the experience and expertise that exist in our profession, more especially of black and female financial planning professionals. The profession thankfully looks much more diverse now than what it was when I began my career, but there’s still a long way to go. It was an opportune time to shine a spotlight on the strides we’ve been able to achieve so far. My hope is that my journey and success so far will encourage others to pursue a career in financial planning. Besides winning the FPI award, what has been the highlight of your career? I am especially proud of the business we are building. One of the pivotal reasons for us starting an independent wealth management firm was so that we would be in a position to provide holistic financial planning services of a high standard to a broader base of the community, where our eye would remain solely on improving the lives of our clients. It has been truly gratifying to see that vision take shape and grow in the way that it is. Our profession affords us the opportunity to help clients achieve their highest and most important financial and life aspirations. What do you consider to be the most important trait of an accomplished financial advisor? You must be able to put the client first in all that you do. Our profession affords us the opportunity to help clients achieve their highest and most important financial and life aspirations. In my experience, clients want the assurance and comfort that their advisor is attuned to their goals and always has their best interests at heart. In return they will stay committed to the solutions you advise, and, in the process, all our interests can be met without conflict. It is also important that the advisor is a professional member of FPI. As we know, FPI is the standard setter for financial planning and professional financial advice in South Africa. What changes would you like to see in the profession? I believe that there is an important role that independent financial advisory firms can play in the market, but they need to be better supported by the various industry bodies through measures such as development programmes that cater for the progressive life stages of these enterprises. Often the need for growing financial service providers (FSPs) is working capital or funding to assist in scaling the business. The funding models available need to speak to this and be flexible. As a profession, I think we need to take pride in the strides we have made in the industry over the years. When I started my career 18 years ago, the conversation was around moving from a product-led to a client-centric industry with professionals that adhere to high ethical standards and use their technical skills to positively impact the lives of the clients we serve. The CFP® designation as well as the more recent REGISTERED FINANCIAL PRACTITIONER and FINANCIAL SERVICES ADVISOR designations are a clear indication of our commitment to further professionalising financial planning. The ball is now in our court as practising members, tied and independent, to increase the prominence of these designations by proudly associating with them and living up to the high standards required of us by our peers and importantly the broader community we serve. It is also not who you work for (tied or independent) but about adhering to the professional standard and always putting your clients’ interests, first. As this year’s FPI ambassador, how will you use this platform to motivate change? Part of FPI’s strategic objectives for the coming year include driving growth in the number of new graduate entrants into the financial planning profession and seeing them pursuing the three South www.bluechipdigital.co.za 21

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