Pension and Investment Provider Awards judging methodology

Format: A panel of expert industry judges are picked by the editorial team based on their expertise, with a spread of different industry companies and groups reflected.

There is a minimum of ten judges including at least two from the editorial staff. Each category has at least two judges leading the others through the entries against the criteria.

Conflicts: Any judge that either comes from a company/organisation that has entered, or has competitors that have entered a particular category, must exclude themselves from the judging of that category.

Methodology: For the 2014 awards we have introduced shortlists, meaning each lead judge whittles down the entries to a top three, and then a preferred winner.

Once each lead judge has explained their top three, and other judges have fed in comments, the panel as a whole debates and comes to a decision on who should be on the consensus shortlist, and who should win the award.

All judging is done on the basis of criteria, but judges are allowed to take into account their own experience of entrants’ products and services.