FINAL WORD
Bring on Title Protection BY AL JONES
E
ventually, the long days of sowing and the hard work of tending begin to culminate in the reaping of a harvest. Your efforts pay off, and you start to see results and are able to enjoy them. That does not mean the work is done, but it does mean that it has been effective. We are proud to be entering such a time at Advocis. As you know, Advocis has been championing a“professions model” for financial advisors for more than 10 years. We believe that key issues facing our industry can best be solved through raising the professional bar for financial advisors, and have made the case to governments and the public. Doctors, lawyers, and other professionals are all required to adhere to professional regulations that help ensure public trust and professional accountability. But the same standards do not apply to the provision of financial advice. Today, anyone can hold themselves out as a financial advisor, whether they have designations or not, are members of a professional organization or not, are bound by a code of conduct or not, and are subject to disciplinary oversight or not. It has been a cornerstone of our advocacy efforts for a long time to change that, bringing it in line with the public will and the public interest. Higher professional standards give Canadians a well-founded assurance in the competence, integrity, and accountability of financial advisors, benefitting everyone, with the exclusion of the unscrupulous who will no longer be able to abuse the system. With your support, our advocacy efforts are producing significant results. The Ontario government’s budget last month signalled full support for title protection for financial advisors and financial planners. The following statement from the budget clearly shows that the government has been listening to us:
PHOTO: LUIS MORA
In Ontario today, there is no title protection for financial planners and financial advisors. Families risk receiving financial planning and advisory services from individuals who may not be appropriately qualified to help them save for the future. Lack of title protection undermines professionalism and confidence in those offering financial planning and advisory services. To remedy the situation, the government pledged to move forward with title protection legislation. “The government’s
plan responds to longstanding calls from consumers and the financial services industry to take action,” the budget says. “It presents significant opportunity to strengthen professionalism, and improve efficiency and competitiveness of the industry with the potential to create and retain more jobs.” This major announcement of planned title protection legislation in Ontario is a landmark on the path toward the professionalization of financial advice. It is a provincial development that will reverberate nationwide. Other projects are also coming to fruition. For many months, our team has been labouring diligently to bring our association’s public image into the 21st century. The result is a total overhaul of our look and feel, which includes a new logo, new advocacy and outreach materials, and, as the central hub of these and other developments, a sleek, new, modern website. The revamped Advocis website isn’t limited to dressing old content in new clothes. It was specifically designed to make it easier to bring you a regular stream of relevant, informative content. You’ll find the quarterly eFORUM newsletter there, the first edition of which features articles on everything from networking to insurance beneficiaries to the federal budget to the Advocis Financial Advisors Index. The site also hosts the new FORUM blog, where we will post often about industry news and other topics that matter to you. I encourage you to visit the new site and to explore it. It will only get better as the team tweaks it and adds to it. The launch of the new Advocis website truly kicks off a “brand new day” in our history. It is important to celebrate these welcome developments — outcomes of the hard work of all our membership and staff. But it is not the time to rest on our laurels. As Will Rogers once said, “Keep in mind that, even if you’re on the right track, you can still be left behind if you just sit there.” I encourage all of you to get involved with your Provincial Advocacy Committees to help advocate on behalf of the professionalization of financial advice across Canada. Hard work pays off. Let’s continue to work together to ensure that Canadians have access to professional financial advice, using the new digital tools that now stand at your service. AL JONES, CFP, CLU, ICD.D, ACCUD, is chair of Advocis. He can be reached at al.jones@freedom55financial.com.
MAY 2019 FORUM 35
