Why do you deserve to win this award?

It’s the question we have come to expect when shortlisted for prestigious awards.

This morning I hopped on a train to central London to be interviewed for the Money Marketing Financial Services Awards 2015.

Informed Choice has been shortlisted for Best Retirement Adviser along with five other firms.

According to the entry criteria, firms entering this award should have been in existence for at least 12 months and be able to demonstrate excellence in the decumulation-phase advice proposition they offer their clients in retirement.

We submitted our entry ahead of the deadline earlier this year and were pleased to receive the news a few weeks ago that we had made it through to the shortlist of six advisers.

The final step in the entry process was a judging panel at the offices of Money Marketing in London today; 20 minutes to field quick-fire questions from a room full of experts.

Daunting doesn’t quite describe it

After the opening question asking why Informed Choice deserves to win Best Retirement Adviser (I think I made a convincing case!), it was a whole series of questions about our approach to providing retirement advice, opinions on recent pension freedom changes and finding out how we would deal with different scenarios.

The 20 minutes flew by in what felt like a minute or two, and I left the offices feeling pleased with my answers and only a little shell-shocked by the experience.

Heading back to Waterloo to catch a train home, I got off the tube a stop early so I could walk across the river and consider how I might have answered some of the questions differently. I snapped the photo which accompanies this post whilst reflecting.

We now have to wait until the awards dinner which takes place in London on 18th June to find out if we have been successful.

Will Informed Choice be named Best Retirement Adviser at the Money Marketing Awards 2015? We’ll let you know as soon as we have any news!