The best representatives of the private banking, wealth management and other similar industries will be announced during the SPEAR’S Russia Wealth Management Awards. The names of the winners will be officially made public on 4 December at the Mossovet Theatre in Moscow.

The first Awards stage during which industry professionals cast their votes was completed on 14 November. The results will be verified by PwC – the SPEAR’s Russia Awards’ independent consultant – and then processed to generate short lists in each category.

The final selection will be made by a judging panel headed up by the Editor-in-Chief of SPEAR’S Russia Andrei Vdovin. It is already known that in selecting the best of the best he will be joined by the Head of the WATCH Russia project Alexander Gafin, a senior partner at the GHP Group Mark Garber and the Executive Director of the Non-State Pension Fund Blagosostoyanie Yuri Novozhilov. All of the panel members and short lists will be announced by the Awards organisers on 24 November.

The names of the winners will be made public only ten days after during the award ceremony, which will be traditionally hosted by Ivan Urgant. The event’s new slogan is Life is Rich. The slogan makes a reference to a simple thought that the life of key protagonists of this celebration is a complex blend of very different vocations and at times it is difficult to imagine that they could be grouped in one bundle: from creating new structured notes at noon to embarking on a journey around the world on the same night, and from a game of golf with a client to obtaining a ‘membership card’ granting access to the Vatican’s archives.

The 2014 Awards will be sixth in a row. Throughout all these years the award has fully lived up to its reputation and competence and the constantly growing competition in all nominations only stands to prove this premise. The award has become one of the key incentives driving industry players to achieve qualitative growth.

“I’m glad that the Awards exists”, says the 2013 Industry Legend Mark Garber. “It is needed both as an award and as an event to close the season. Our industry is hidden from the eye and this perhaps is one of the few forms of recognition available to private banking and wealth management professionals. The principle underlying the SPEAR’S Russia Awards is exceedingly important – the award is given based on the opinion of one’s peers and that goes a long way.”

Each SPEAR’S Russia Wealth Management Awards ceremony is at the same time a business and a social event. Not only does the award ceremony celebrate the best of the best, it also serves as an important meeting point because it offers a great opportunity to socialise informally.

“SPEAR'S Russia Awards is created for financiers, but who really need it are the clients”, says Yuri Novozhilov. “It is an indicator of a bank’s or a company’s business maturity, their resilience and stability.”

SPEAR’S Russia Wealth Management Awards is organised by tradition and analogy with the Wealth Management Awards ceremony annually held in London by SPEAR’S UK.

The Awards has been organised by SPEAR’S Russia magazine and PBWM.ru together with partners Tonino Lamborghini Mobile and Gaggenau.

Creative and commercial management of the project is provided by MEDIACRAT.