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AMP launches new financial planning competition

Kaili Ding

Sun Jul 24 2011

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SUPERANNUATION, tax, insurance, loan repayments, mortgage, term deposits, credit cards. It’s hard to handle every aspect of your finances yourself. That’s why people hand these things over to financial planners to sort out.

Yet, finding the right financial planner to entrust your money with might be a problem in itself.

A good financial planner often needs years of experience, education and up to date knowledge of the fast-evolving world of finance and investment. In the future, finding a good financial planner may be even more challenging, as it’s estimated that of the 200,000 students in business related programs, less than 300 graduate straight into financial planning careers every year.

In order to boost awareness of the profession as a career path for graduates, AMP has launched the Financial Planning University Challenge to all university students in Australia.

AMP Horizons Academy Director Tim Steele said the competition provides students with the opportunity to find out first-hand what it’s like to be a financial planner.

“The AMP University Challenge brings together financial planning professional bodies, leaders in the field and a potential new generation of planners. It provides a unique opportunity for students to appreciate the positive impact it can have on people’s lives,” Mr Steele said

The first challenge of the competition is to prepare a short discussion paper based on a hypothetical client case study. Student interested in entering this competition can do so either individually, or in a team of up to three people before the 25th of July. All entrance are entitled to a three month complementary subscription to the Financial Review website.

First prize winners will be presented with a $5,000 AMP bank account for the winning team along along with a $10,000 grant for the winning team’s university to put towards financial planning programs. Whereas, the second and third prizes are $2,500 and $1,000 AMP Bank Accounts along with free FPA student membership for a year.

Financial Planning Association (FPA) Chief Professional Officer Dr. Deen Sanders welcomed the challenge.

“We’re really excited about this competition. Only 18 of our country’s 38 universities offer approved financial planning-related programs but we’ve seen growing interest in the profession as a topic in other study streams, such as Economics, Finance and Accounting,” Mr Sanders said.

The University Challenge is based on a similar competition in the United States, the National Collegiate Financial Planning Championship, sponsored by the country’s key industry bodies and opens to universities that have CFP Board-registered undergraduate programs in financial planning. Colleges around the US compete each year with some participants reporting to have changed their major to financial planning as a result of the competition.

More information regarding the University Challenge could be also be found on the AMP University Challenge website. In addition, the website also provides a clear timeline of the competition and resources to help participants.

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