I had to have a laugh the other day when someone pointed out to me that a crowd - albeit a small one - proposes to launch a business excellence award for financial planners.

They apparently have been bagging the Financial Planner of the Year Awards (which we organise through Good Returns) saying that they did this in the early 1990s but they couldn't get it to work.

The Financial Planner of the Year Awards are the pre-eminent awards in New Zealand. They are a success and have great support, if they weren't they would not have been going for six years and getting bigger and better each time.

Also they are endorsed by the Financial Planners and Insurance Advisers Association and the top award is for the CFP of the year. As readers will know the CFP is the top international designation for advisers.

When the awards were established we spent a lot of time looking at how other planning awards are run around the world, plus we looked at awards such as ones for bankers and accountants. A key point is that when someone seeks advice they are looking for a person who is qualified and with whom they can build a relationship.. Naturally a top planner will run a good business.

An investor picks an adviser on a personal basis - not on their business.

There is an old saying "imitation is the best form of flattery" and there has been a lot of that from this crowd in the past year or so.

An email I received on Friday seems to sum it up: " You copy cat. Fancy taking one of Graham's ideas that failed and making it work!!!"