Investment dealers will have another nine months to unwind arrangements that put advisors in full control of the financial affairs of clients, either by serving as trustees, executors, or having powers of attorney (POAs).
The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) announced on Tuesday that it is extending the deadline for unwinding these arrangements from Dec. 13 to Sept. 13, 2016.
The requirement to scrap these sorts of arrangements follows rules that were adopted back in 2013 concerning reps’ personal financial dealings with clients and outside business activities. Those rules came into effect in December 2013, except for the provision prohibiting personal financial dealings involving control or authority, such as reps acting under a POA, as a trustee, or an executor.
Since then, in 2014, IIROC proposed amendments to the rules that would among other things, provide an exemption to allow reps to act as a trustee or executor for certain clients, subject to certain conditions. Arrangements that don’t fall under that exemption were to be unwound by June of this year, but that deadline was extended to December, and it has now been pushed back until September of next year. IIROC notes that it is still considering the amendments.