2007 State Winners  

Arthur Baars
Victoria State Winner

Arthur Baars would like to become the 2007 Paraplanner of the Year so he can spread the idea that alongside every great financial planner, there stands an equally great paraplanner! With seven years experience in the financial services industry, Arthur was actively involved in mentoring two junior paraplanners in his previous role. Arthur also accepted a Financial Services Institute of Australasia (FinSIA) practitioner position as a marker, providing students with valuable feedback in assignments and marking exams in his spare time. Arthur has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of New South Wales and completed his Graduate Diploma from the Securities Institute of Australia (SIA).

Simone Burton
New South Wales State Winner

Simone completed a post graduate degree in financial planning three years ago through the Securities Institute of Australia. Taking the next step in her career, Simone accepted a paraplanning position with financial planning company Piccadilly Financial Group. Now in the role of head paraplanner, Simone has watched her firm grow from 5 employees to 20 employees. She also actively mentors other paraplanners. Simone’s role includes the development of calculators to assist advisers and paraplanners with strategies as well as the development of forms for the administration staff to accurately and efficiently collect information. She is also responsible for compliance as well as presentations to the administration staff to educate them on various areas of financial planning. Simone enjoys being able to share her technical knowledge with the other staff members and loves the challenge of developing insightful client strategies.

Jessica Cruickshanks
Queensland State Winner

Jessica entered the financial services industry eight years ago in a support role at Bridgeport Advisers & Asset Managers. Progressing into a paraplanning role, Jessica joined FuturePlus Financial Services as a member of a centralised paraplanning unit to improve her technical knowledge. In this role, her primary focus was the preparation of Statements of Advice and Statements of Additional Advice, on behalf of a team of advisers and for an extremely diverse client base. Almost eight years down the track, having also completed her Diploma of Financial Advising and Bachelor of Business (Economics/Finance), Jessica is now an Associate Financial Adviser, with Mercer Wealth Solutions. Jessica’s role involves paraplanning under the support of a Certified Financial Planner, with increasingly more exposure to advising.

Martin Letch
South Australia State Winner

Martin is particularly interested in helping under-funded pre-retirees and accumulators understand the importance of superannuation. Commencing his financial services career as a support administrator at Mercer, Martin worked on several accumulation and defined benefit superannuation funds. It was through this in-depth involvement with superannuation funds that he gained his appreciation and passion for the importance of superannuation and its integral function of providing Australians with funds for retirement. Martin has a desire to assist people in structuring their current cash flows to better fund their retirement and this led him to move into his current role as paraplanner for Mercer Wealth Solutions’ Adelaide Adviser Team. Being a paraplanner in one of the smaller Mercer Wealth Solutions teams has allowed Martin to be involved in strategy work and the research and client liaison involved with the production of Statements of Advice and client reviews. Martin finds the IT element of his role along with the financial mathematics and strategy work in his role thoroughly rewarding.

Tim Wortlehock
Western Australia State Winner

Prior to commencing in the financial planning profession, Tim was a Chef and Pastry Chef for ten years. In late 2004 Tim decided to leave the hospitality industry and pursue a career in financial planning with the ultimate goal of being the succession plan for his father’s financial planning practice. Tim has an Advanced Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning) and has completed the first four units of the Certified Financial Planner program. The client experience is at the heart of what Tim strives to provide and he feels that having a background in hospitality has given him unique insight into the needs of clients and has helped his practice to customise its service accordingly. For Tim, paraplanning has been a natural stepping stone on his journey to become a professional financial planner.