Nine independent financial advisory businesses were celebrating last night after securing a Gold Standard award.

Informed Choice, Investment Quorum, Torquil Clark, Mearns & Company, Clarity Independent Financial Advisers, Wingate Financial Planning, Mazars Financial Planning, Braemar Wealth Management and Churchouse Financial Planning all received the coveted award at a ceremony at the House of Commons on Wednesday evening.

Introducing the awards, which are in their ninth year, was Lord Hunt of the Wirral, who served as the first ever chairman of the Association of Independent Financial Advisers.

Nick Bamford, executive director of Informed Choice, said: "We're very pleased. It is a very tough judging process. In all we submitted some 1,000 pages of documentation to support our claim that we merited a Gold Standard."

About the awards

The awards are aimed at financial services companies and take into account financial strength and assess attributes such as capability to conduct business, fair value, as well as service standards clients can expect. The awards are designed to identify companies that not only have strong structures and procedures in place, but are going above and beyond standard business practices to promote trust in the financial services sector.

All the winners

Gold Standard for Fund Management

J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Santander Asset Management UK, BlackRock, Neptune Investment Management, M&G Investments

Gold Standard for Protection

Zurich, Friends Life, LV=

Gold Standard for Insurance

Ageas UK

Gold Standard for Group Pensions

Scottish Life, Friends Life

Gold Standard for Individual Pensions

Scottish Life, LV=

Gold Standard for Discretionary Portfolio Management

Brooks Macdonald Asset Management

Gold Standard for Independent Financial Advice

Informed Choice, Investment Quorum, Torquil Clark Ltd, Mearns & Company, Clarity Independent Financial Advisers, Wingate Financial Planning, Mazars Financial Planning, Braemar Wealth Management (NW), Churchouse Financial Planning