Michael Lem is the 2010 recipient of the Donald J. Johnston Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession of Financial Planning In Canada, the Financial Planning Standards Council (FPSC) announced Tuesday. Lem is the fifth recipient since the award’s inception in 2006.

Lem’s accomplished and impressive career spans more than two decades in the financial services industry. He currently serves as vice president with the Thornhill, Ont. branch of BMO Nesbitt Burns.

The FPSC says that Lem has been a champion for providing integral planning to his clients, which ensures that resources are properly allocated to achieve a client’s most meaningful dreams through a unique process of financial self-awareness and maintenance of the financial plan to achieve the client’s long term goals.

“I am very honoured that my contributions to the financial planning profession have been deemed worthy of this award,” said Lem, when informed of the committee’s decision.

“Michael’s extensive contributions to the profession of financial planning make him a well deserving recipient of the DJJ Award,” says Debbie Ammeter, chair of the board of directors, FPSC. “He is an advocate and promoter of increasing financial literacy, and his approach to financial planning and commitment to meeting his client’s life goals align with the spirit of this award.”

Lem will be formally presented with the award at the FPSC-hosted Celebration of the Profession Gala, held on the evening of October 5 at the historic Carlu in downtown Toronto.

Lem has requested that that $10,000 charitable donation that accompanies the DJJ Award be made out to Li Koon Chun Finance Learning Centre, which develops programming to promote financial literacy across the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) campus and its surrounding area.

In his nomination letter in support Lem, Mervin Hillier, president and CEO of Certified Management Accountants of Ontario, describes Lem as, “a role model to those seeking a career in the financial services industry. He exemplifies Donald J. Johnston’s spirit, imagination and dedication not only in his words but also in his deeds.”

Lem served on the FPSC board of directors from 1999 to 2003, from 2002 to 2003, he served as chair. In 2008, he was named as one of UTM’s Top 40 Most Outstanding Alumni, and in 2009 became the inaugural Vice Chair on the Li Koon Chun Finance Learning Centre Business Advisory Board for UTM. Lem has amassed six different financial designations — CSA, CFP, A.C.C., C. Dir, CMA, FCMA — and earned CFP certification in 1998.

IE