After years of advi-sors complaining about compliance officers’ “nitpicking,” it now appears advisors have embraced the compliance culture.

Consider this comment from an advisor in British Columbia with Vancouver-based Vancouver City Savings Credit Union about the firm’s compliance team: “They always talk to me. We talk as friends. They don’t just tell me when I’ve done something wrong.”

And how about this from an advisor in Quebec with Toronto-based Assante Corp.? He has a “very good” relationship with the compliance department, he says: “They try to help my business and not hurt it.”

And, perhaps most important, an advisor in Alberta with Toronto-based CIBC Wood Gundy says: “They give you an opportunity to fix mistakes; they don’t let mistakes slip by.”

As compliance issues draw more attention from the public, clients, regulators and politicians, advisors have come to realize that it’s in their own best interest to co-operate.

This greater acceptance of compliance applies even to advisors who are relative newcomers to the world of regulation. Advisors with mutual fund dealers only came aboard the compliance ship in 1998, says Kim Maggiacomo, chairwoman of the Association of Canadian Compliance Pro-fessionals in Toronto, when the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada was established. In comparison, investment dealers have been regulated by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada and its predecessor, the Investment Dealers Association of Canada, since 1916.

Despite initial resistance, mutual fund dealers have made a complete turnaround with regard to compliance and have become “absolutely astute,” says Maggiacomo, who used to work in the MFDA’s enforcement department and is now an independent compliance consultant. “They are getting their ducks in a row.”

But although MFDA and IIROC member firms have embraced compliance, Maggiacomo says, certain individual advisors still need more education so that they know not just what to do but why they’re doing it. “It’s getting better,” she says. “But, by and large, I would say advisors say there are too many compliance requirements and that it hampers their businesses.”

Several firms emerged with high scores in the Report Cards’ compliance category, including Toronto-based Richardson Partners Financial Ltd. Of the advisors surveyed at the investment dealer, 70% rated their relationship with compliance as a 10 and 24% rated it a 9.0. A Richardson Partners advisor in Alberta says the department is effective without being overbearing: “I’ve never had such a business-oriented department. They’re very supportive and don’t block sales.”

Michael Sharpe, Richardson Partners’ chief compliance officer, says a successful compliance officer needs to work hard to be respected by advisors: “You have to be able to stand your ground on the issues that need to be dealt with.”

“Good advisors have always embraced compliance,” adds Sharpe, who has worked in the industry for 28 years and whose department of four enjoys the strong backing of management. “Those who don’t are in decline.”

And although negative comments were in the minority in this year’s Report Cards, there were still some advisors who complain that their compliance departments are overbearing, overly picky and have unreasonable expectations. But many of those comments appear to be based on the personalities of the individual compliance officers or their perceived lack of knowledge rather than on the overall compliance regime. Says an advi-sor in Ontario with Toronto-based mutual fund dealer GP Wealth Management Corp.: “There is some tension and rudeness between me and compliance. It’s a very cut and dried, abrasive relationship.”

An advisor in Ontario with Toronto-based DundeeWealth Inc. also complains about his firm’s compliance department: “They drive us crazy. They are incompetent and, time-wise, they are slow and inconsistent.”

And an advisor in B.C. with Vancouver-based Odlum Brown Ltd. says: “They are not pleasant people to deal with.”

If there’s a theme to all this, it’s that the success of the advisor/compliance relationship comes down to the approach the compliance department takes with advisors, says Bruce Kagan, CEO of Toronto-based Blackmont Capital Inc., whose compliance department was rated highly by advisors.

“Our compliance [personnel] are ex-cellent communicators and develop very good relationships with our advisors,” Kagan says. “That way, they can ask a question without it being seen as overbearing.” IE