New literacy guru given her mandate

Rooney is eager to begin her job and to use the broad mandate of her position to have an impact on the daily lives of Canadians.

“It’s so important for consumers to understand what financial literacy means: building knowledge, skills and confidence,” she says. “It’s about Canadians being able to make responsible financial decisions.”

The Financial Literacy Leader role was first recommended by the Task Force on Financial Literacy in 2011. The position was created formally in 2013 through the Financial Literacy Leader Act.

Rooney will work with FCAC and is responsible for the co- ordination of a national financial literacy strategy. The post has a five-year term.

A better-informed public will be good news for financial advisors, according to Stephen Rotstein, vice president, policy and regulatory affairs, and general counsel with the Financial Planning Standards Council (FPSC) in Toronto. Many FPSC members spend a large proportion of their time educating their clients, Rotstein says, about financial products and savings vehicles such as RRSPs.

An educated public, however, will mean your clients will come into the relationship prepared to have more in-depth conversations regarding financial plans and other issues.

“[Rooney has] a great knowledge of the field; she knows a lot of the stakeholders,” Rotstein says. “She’s already in a run, as opposed to other people who would have to get up to speed.”

Rooney is well known within the financial services sector and is highly regarded.

“We’ve been anticipating this day for a long time, and I am very glad to see it happen,” says Joanne De Laurentiis, president and CEO of the Investment Funds Institute of Canada in Toronto. “[Rooney] certainly has struck me as someone who is going to be very dedicated to this. [She is] a real believer in the importance of financial literacy.”

The appointment of the Financial Literacy Leader is key to advancing current and future financial literacy programs, according to Tom Hamza, president of the Toronto-based Investor Education Fund, especially in pulling together the expertise of professionals in various financial services industries.

“It’s going to be a great step forward for the [financial services sector], and financial literacy in general,” Hamza says. “There’s an opportunity to collaborate in a really thoughtful and intelligent way that allows the independence and unbiased view of non-industry [organizations] to combine with [the sector]’s ability to have great reach among consumers.”

De Laurentiis views Rooney’s appointment as an opportunity to bring much needed co- ordination of financial-education efforts to the investment industry. There has been a need, De Laurentiis adds, to co- ordinate securities regulators’ various financial-literacy initiatives to “really firm up some of our commitments, and fill some of the gaps and look at how we can all step up our game in creating better financial literacy.”

Rooney will not lose any time in getting started with her mandate.

Three rounds of public consultations are scheduled to begin this month. The first round will focus on how best to present financial literacy to senior-age investors; the second round will look at educating vulnerable groups, such as newcomers and First Nations consumers; and the third round will seek input from stakeholders about educating youth and adults.

These consultations will be open to all stakeholders, including those working in the financial services sector or with associations and government, as well as the targeted individuals themselves, such as seniors.

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