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Ontario Expert Committee – Financial Planning Report
Letter Summary:
The Committee found that investors have difficulty finding information about Advisers’ and Financial Planners’ registration status, licensing, and/or disciplinary histories. All or most of the relevant information, the Committee noted, was available, but not from a central repository that would make it easy to find out about these individuals and their firms. To remedy this concern, the Committee suggested giving investors access to a single, free, comprehensive registry for all relevant information about Advisers and individuals engaged in Financial Planning. This is important, in part because of the shift toward direct contribution retirement plans and, consequently, because of the need for individuals to understand how investment markets work.
Overview of the Council’s Comments:
We support this as useful for investors. The Canadian Securities Administrators already facilitate a national registration search on its website, where the public can search firms and individual registrants. The database could be expanded to include the additional. information referenced above. A one-stop resource of this type could minimize the potential for investor confusion and maximize the potential for investor use to determine the history of their planners and advisers.