New award supports emerging professionals in honour of industry pioneer Gwen Fletcher AM


The Financial Planning Association (FPA) has today announced the institution of the Gwen Fletcher Memorial Award, a prize that will be awarded to the highest achieving student in the CFP® Certification Program each semester.

The award honours the memory of the late ‘First Lady of Financial Planning’ and supports a key legacy of her lifelong endeavours to champion the vital role of education and its central importance in nurturing a financial planning profession.

Mark Rantall, CEO of the FPA, says the award both honours and perpetuates Gwen’s service to the profession and, by extension, the financial wellbeing of all Australians.

“Gwen’s relentless effort to build a highly qualified financial planning profession along with an awareness of the role of financial planning has helped shape the industry into a growing profession. Given she was responsible for bringing the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® designation to Australia back in 1990, it is appropriate that we acknowledge our top students in her name.

“Gwen holds a special place in the hearts of many planners within the profession. She was always open to offering her advice and opinion when it was sought, and was always prepared to help people who were new to the profession. This award is a way that we can not only acknowledge her commitment from an organisational perspective, but the role she played in developing individual financial planners and ultimately putting them in a better position to service their clients.”

Ms Fletcher played a pivotal role in campaigning for, and organising, the merger between the International Association of Financial Planners (IAFP) and the Australian Society of Investment and Financial Advisers (ASIFA) to become the Financial Planning Association of Australia in 1992. She also coined the name ‘Financial Planning Association’, a title that was subsequently adopted by the organisation in the US among other countries.

The first Gwen Fletcher Memorial Award will be announced on 20 June 2014. The second will be awarded on 14 November. Each award is valued at $1,000 each, funded by the FPA. The CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® Certification student who achieves the highest mark in all three required assessments each semester will receive the award.