The private client sector of the UK financial services market is very mature – so much so that there is an annual awards ceremony to mark those individuals and companies servicing the rich.

No less than 33 awards were on offer at an inaugural awards ceremony held at Sotheby’s in New Bond Street in the heart of London recently.

A raft of honours were up for grabs, including private banker of the year, contribution to wealth management, private banker of the future – even down to best art advisory of the year and best concierge service.

The event was an initiative of the relatively new financial management and lifestyle glossy quarterly, Spear’s Wealth Management, which to the casual observer appears be a parody with its slick haired Great Gatsby-styled editor, William Cash and editorial staff with names like Sophie Money-Coutts.

Astoundingly, the latest quarterly magazine and SWM’s first anniversary issue, features reviews for super yachts and watches expensive enough to allow the purchaser to decide between one or a lavish new car.

The magazine reviews private banks and family offices as well as providing dedicated followers of fashion detailed articles on how to buy the right morning suit… classic.

In fact you can learn as much from the ads in this magazine as you can from the articles – who knew for example that you could buy a luxury safe tailored to meet your own special needs, or that Rolls Royce – currently making a car large enough to need its own postcode – advertised under the slogan “power comes to those who appreciate a softer tone.”

For a magazine that looks very much like the New Yorker did in 1980 and appears to have been written by a staff attempting to copy PG Wodehouse, it actually does a good job in covering financial services… well, if you’re loaded that is.

The magazine offers a definitive list of the top 50 UK financial planners – they are never described as financial planners, mind you… they are private bankers.

Apparently the top man in the game is a young looking 50 year-old called Jamie Berry who runs the eponymous Berry Management.

The problem with the awards is that they were largely selected by an independent panel of so-called experts – leaving an element of vagueness over those chosen as winners.

This was up until recently also the case for the Financial Times business title Pension Management, which up until this year ran its Technology, Administration and Service Awards in a similar fashion.

However the group has appointed Australian financial services research consultancy, brandmanagement to run the awards for it in 2007.

This year the awards will be decided by the consumers of the products and services themselves for each of the award categories available, rather than a panel of judges deciding on groups of self-nominated contenders.