A WORCESTERSHIRE financial planning firm, already named one of the top 100 in the country, has won a national Financial Times award for the quality of its advice. Redbourne Wealth Management of Bromsgrove was voted best life and pensions firm by judges from the FT and fellow financial experts at the paper's annual Financial Adviser Life and Pensions Awards.

Redbourne's senior financial planner Chris Payton was also recently voted one of the best 143 advisers in the country on Vouched For, the financial world's equivalent of Trip Adviser.

Mr Payton said: "We're delighted to have won this accolade and thrilled that it's our values and service which so impressed the judges - as this is what our customers like too. The huge majority of our work - around 95 per cent - comes through personal recommendation from clients who say we combine knowledge and approachability. We are also praised for our clear explanations of complex issues and our ability to help them battle through a maze of financial options in a complex world. We also strike a balance between modern use of IT and old fashioned values and service."

FT judges praised the quality of the company's advice, saying the firm had a sophisticated IT platform and had really embraced RDR (retail distribution review) - the regime under which financial advisers charge transparently for their advice rather than earning commission.

Redbourne, which has previously won the Small IFA of the Year category in the same competition, can add its latest achievement to an ever increasing list of awards, having been named one of the top 100 movers and shakers in financial planning in the UK in 2013 by Citywire, which specialises in tracking the performance of the UK's thousands of independent financial planners.