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September 21, 2015 at 11:16 AM
As U.S.-based financial advisors await news on a new fiduciary standard, two groups in Canada are pushing for rules to accredit financial planners by using a single regulator in the province of Ontario.
Early Tuesday, the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) and the Investment Industry Association of Canada (IIAC) asked the Ontario government to enact legislation to govern how financial planners are accredited and regulated. The groups also want Ontario’s provincial government to work with other provinces and territories to harmonize such rules and ensure that planners or advisors sanctioned or expelled in one area are given similar treatment in other jurisdictions.
“IFIC members fully support providing investors with enhanced protection and the comfort of knowing that the financial planning service providers and advisors they work with are subject to similar levels of registration, oversight and enforcement,” said Jon Cockerline, IFIC’s research director, in a statement.
The IFIC includes about 150 fund managers, distributors and industry service organizations, while the IIAC represents a similar number of regulated investment-dealer firms in the Canadian securities industry.
The groups made their push in response (via a joint submission) to the Ontario government’s Consultation on Financial Advisory and Financial Planning Policy Alternatives report.
“Securities and insurance advisory services and planning that are ancillary to product recommendations are already well-regulated in Ontario, but there are gaps in non-product-related financial planning that need to be addressed for the benefit of investors,” explained IIAC Vice President Michelle Alexander in a press release.
(Ontario has a population of nearly 14 million and includes Toronto, the largest city in Canada, as well as the country’s capital, Ottawa.)
