The Personal Finance Society (PFS) has recognised six Financial Planners at its inaugural Local Volunteer Awards.
The awards were given to Financial Planning professionals that the PFS felt went above and beyond to support local members, strengthen the profession and make a difference within the financial services community.
The winners, presented with their awards recently, were:
- Colin Simmons, M&G, PFS Local Thames Valley
- Edward Morell, 2plan Wealth Management, PFS Local Hants & Dorset
- Harish Patel, IDS Financial Services, PFS Local Lancashire Merseyside Cumbria
- Lewys Richards, Vital Financial Planning, PFS Local South Wales
- Pierre Coussey, Blazer Financial Solution Partners, PFS Local Kent & London
- Simon Drake, BD Wealth, PFS Local Lancashire Merseyside Cumbria
Kate Gannon, President of the PFS said: “Each member has demonstrated tremendous passion while volunteering their free time to make a lasting impact across our PFS Local regional communities. Collectively they are making a real difference within the financial services profession.”
Membership at the PFS has declined by more than 10% in the last six years, falling from a height of around 40,000 in 2020 to just below 37,000 now.
The latest membership figures (for the end of 2025) were revealed in the PFS's Annual Report for 2025 published earlier this month. The report showed membership numbers fell almost 2,000 in the past year from 38,703 in 2024 to 36,807 at the end of 2025.
It is understood that the membership decline has in part been blamed on a large number of members retiring following the Consumer Duty introduction. The figures are also believed to reflect a plateauing in adviser numbers across the profession, as seen in FCA data recently which showed a 15% drop in adviser firm numbers since 2021, although the FCA said that the number of advisers overall had remained steady at 31,000.
The PFS is the Financial Planning-focused sister organisation to the London-based professional body Chartered Insurance Institute (CII). The PFS says it aims to drive professional standards in the financial advice and associated sectors and is the largest professional body for Financial Planners in the UK.