1. Finalists and winners
Nominations are scored against the published rubric and ranked within each category. The three highest-scoring nominations in each category are named as finalists, provided each meets the minimum score threshold. If fewer than three nominations in a category meet the threshold, fewer finalists are named. Financial Cents will not name a finalist that has not met the threshold.
One winner is selected in each of the four categories. Every winner is selected from that category’s finalists.
2. One category per finalist
You may be nominated in more than one category. You may be named a finalist in only one.
If you are among the top three in more than one category, the judging panel will assign you to a single category — normally the one where you scored highest, and where scores are close, the one your nomination fits best. Your other nominations are then withdrawn from consideration and the next-highest-scoring nomination in those categories moves up.
Being nominated in several categories does not improve your chances. One strong nomination in the right category is worth more than three spread across categories, and the panel would rather read one specific nomination than several general ones.
3. Announcement and consent
All finalists are contacted privately before any public announcement. In that contact you are told your outcome — including whether you have won — and asked to confirm you are happy to be named publicly. Outcome and consent are given to you together, so nobody is asked to agree to publication without knowing what is being published about them.
Nobody is named publicly without confirming first. If a finalist declines to be named, nothing about their nomination is published, no explanation is required, and the next-highest-scoring nomination in that category is offered the place instead, provided it clears the threshold.
A winner who declines to be named publicly keeps the award. The recognition is theirs whether or not it is announced, and the reveal can be declined separately from the prize.
Nominee contact details are used only to confirm the nomination and are never published. If the person you nominate consents, their name, firm, and city will appear on our public nominee list after the event. Winners are always named. Contact details are never published.
4. Judging
Scores inform the panel’s decision; they do not automate it. Where nominations are closely scored, the panel decides by discussion. The panel’s decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into regarding individual scores.
Judges recuse themselves from any nomination where they have a current or recent business relationship with the nominee, a close personal relationship, or a competing interest. Recused judges are excluded from that nomination’s average.
Financial Cents employees, judging panel members, and their immediate families are not eligible.
Now you know the rules. Nominations close October 10.
Submit a nomination