News & Views

The City of London Wealth Management Awards (COLWMA) promote, acknowledge and reward the quality of service provided by Wealth Managers.

COLWMA is unique in that the winners in each category are determined by the investors themselves who cast votes online via the Goodacre website. In 2022, some 45,000 votes were cast from members of the investing public.

City of London Wealth Management Awards

Guildhall

Tuesday 7^th March 2023

Lord Mayor of London’s

Aldermanic Representative Robert Hughes-Penney

 

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, fellow wealth managers

Good evening and a very warm welcome to Guildhall and the City of London Wealth Management Awards 2023.

I am Alderman Robert Hughes-Penney and I am honoured to have been invited to say a few words and present the awards, representing the Lord Mayor of the City of London who sadly cannot be with us today due to a prior commitment.

Now I have just returned from a trip to Israel and whilst I was there looking at the historic sites I found myself asking God “God, how long is a million years to you?” And remarkably God answered, saying “1 second”. My mind then moved on to this evening and I asked God “God, how much is £10m to you?” and God said, “a penny”. I thought that was interesting, and seeing a potential opportunity I asked God, “God, can I have one of your pennies?” And He replied, “Just wait one second!”

The City of London Wealth Management Awards (COLWMA) promotes, acknowledges and rewards the quality of service provided by Wealth Managers.

The UK wealth management industry is the second largest wealth management centre by market size globally, only fractionally behind Switzerland, and has continued to grow, with a last reported assets of £1.3tn; put another way, equivalent to 58% of the UK’s GDP.

The UK offers globally connected capital markets, allowing wealth managers to diversify clients’ portfolios, and top expertise - that we see assembled in this Guildhall tonight, and including strong professional services support.

As a fellow wealth manager, it is a pleasure to be here with you, to personally recognise and congratulate you all on the work you do for the 2.4m people across the UK who use wealth managers for investment, retirement and tax planning.

Each one of the 2.4m people is a valuable individual, and one of the fundamental purposes of wealth management is to deliver good outcomes to those individual clients. This includes providing expertise and achieving economies of scale that allow access to a wide range of assets that would normally be out of reach for individual investors. Using shares, bonds and other assets wealth managers can deliver returns and tax efficient structures that deliver good outcomes over many years, while managing risk and ensuring suitability that allows individuals to invest to achieve their future goals and ambitions; whether that is a new car or kitchen, a much-needed holiday or a well-earned and secure retirement.

So I commend the City of London Wealth Manager Awards 2023 to you and all it does to promote, acknowledge and reward excellence in the quality of service in the wealth and investment management industry.

May I add my congratulations as the Lord Mayor’s Aldermanic Representative, and the congratulations of the whole City of London Corporation, to all award winners today.

I hope today’s reception, dinner and awards ceremony has helped you make useful connections, and I wish you all every success in the future.

I will now handover to Paul, Master of Ceremonies, and invite him to conduct the awards presentation.

Thank you.