Each year the charity Mindful Money runs awards to recognise fund managers, advisers and investors in the Ethical Investment arena. We have entered the awards since 2023 and have won the Ethical Financial Adviser of the Year Award in 2023 and 2024.
In addition, Carey has participated in the process as a Judge of the awards (the only adviser to do this). She has judged in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 (obviously not in the Ethical Financial Adviser category).
The process involves reviewing all of the applications, scoring different categories and creating feedback to the entrants. Over the years, Carey has judged the following categories (in alphabetical order): Best Ethical Investor, Best Ethical KiwiSaver Fund Provider and Best Overseas Ethical Fund.
This part of the process enables her to learn more about the investment options available and to pick up things that we might not know, expanding our research work.
Following this, the judges convene in an online judging panel call, where each participant discusses their scoring, positives and negatives and works out who the finalists, winners and highly commended entrants will be. The value of this for the judges is sharing ideas, learning from the other judges and having good robust discussions.
Carey values this part of the process as she meets and gets to know colleagues in the industry (which translates into strong working relationships), but also hears different perspectives, which assist in our education process.
Of course, which panel she judges each year, and who the entrants are are confidential, but it is a process that enhances our knowledge and our relationships in the industry, and she will continue offering her services as long as they are wanted.
