Ethics and the free-dom to make objective product choices topped priority lists once again in importance for advisors in this year’s Planners’ Report Card. In second place, however, a new attribute has made its way up the ranks: the firm’s ability to deliver on promises.

The majority of advisors say their firms demonstrate top-drawer ethics. Taking first place in the category is Mississauga, Ont.-based PFSL Investments Canada Ltd. , with a performance score of 9.9, closely followed by Saskatoon-based Sentinel Financial Management Corp. , a Planners’ Report Card newcomer, with its performance score of 9.8. “It is great to have your values in line with those of your company,” says an Ontario-based PFSL advisor. “We tell the truth 100% of the time.”

Advisors at Winnipeg-based Investors Group Inc. , Waterloo, Ont.-based Manulife Securities International Ltd. and Toronto-based Dundee Wealth Management Inc. also hold their firms’ integrity in high esteem. “Ethics are one of IG’s core values, and it does an excellent job of it,” says an Investors Group advisor in Ontario. The firm received a grade of 9.6.

Dundee and Manulife both received scores of 9.5 for ethics, a full-point improvement for the latter over its 2006 score. “Portus [Alternative Asset Management Inc.] was our biggest issue, and standing by the client the way Manulife did shows a lot of integrity,” says a Manulife advisor in Ontario, referring to the collapse of Portus in 2005. More than $500 million of Portus’s $800 million in assets came through referrals from Manulife.

Freedom to make objective product choices reigns at Montreal-based Peak Financial Group, which received a first-place score of 9.8 in that category. “We can do business with whomever we want and it’s completely transparent,” says one Quebec-based Peak advisor.

Sentinel and Dundee also received high marks for freedom, with grades of 9.7 and 9.6, respectively.

Even advisors whose firms placed lower in the category had positive things to say about the product choices available to them. “IPC has a selective list of products, and that is fine with me,” says an Ontario advisor with Investment Planning Counsel of Mississauga, Ont., which received a score of 9.1 for freedom of product choice.

There are more approved products at Calgary-based Portfolio Strategies Corp. , but that is also just fine. “I have 6,000 mutual funds available to me, and that’s ideal,” says a Portfolio Strategies planner in Alberta. The firm’s advisors gave it a grade of 9.4 for freedom of product choice.

In addition to having ethics and allowing freedom of product choice, a firm that delivers on its promises has become increasingly attractive to advisors. PFSL and Sentinel took the highest honours in this category, with scores of 9.5 and 9.4, respectively.

“PFSL has never disappointed me,” enthuses one PFSL planner in Ontario. “Everything I’ve asked for, I’ve gotten,” echoes an Ontario colleague. Both planners gave their firm perfect scores in the category.

Simply remaining in business is a promise kept for Merlin Chouinard, Sentinel’s president and chief compliance officer. “Fifteen years ago,” he recalls, “I had a gent who came to me and said, ‘You’re not going to be around for much longer. You’re too small.’ Well, guess who’s still around?”

Having trouble holding up their ends of the bargain are Markham, Ont.-based Worldsource Financial Management Inc., Lévis, Que.-based Desjardins Financial Security Independent Network and Burlington, Ont.-based Berkshire-TWC Financial Group Inc. Both Worldsource and DFS Independent Network received scores of 7.9 in this category, and their advisors expressed exasperation. “Delivering on promises is a huge basket of problems because of all the turnover here,” says a Worldsource advisor in the West. “Someone will say he or she is starting to roll something out, but that person will be gone before the project even gets off the ground.”

A DFS Independent Network advisor in the Maritimes shares a similar frustration. When asked to comment on his firm’s track record for delivering on promises, he says: “Let’s just say there’s been a lot of changes in the company, and we’ll leave it at that.”

At Berkshire, which received a score of 7.8 in the category, at least one Ontario rep has found a solution: “I have learned to get written agreements.”

Other advisors say their firms, while not perfect, are getting better at keeping promises. At Markham, Ont.-based Professional Investment Services (Canada) Inc. , president and CEO Ken Rousselle says his advisors are just starting to realize that the new guard keeps its word. “We’ve fulfilled every promise we’ve said to our reps,” says Rousselle. The firm, a subsidiary of Australia-based Professional Investment Holdings Group, entered the Canadian market last November with the acquisition of Generation Financial Corp. of Calgary.

@page_break@Several of Rousselle’s 105 reps agree that PIS has made a noted improvement in delivering on its promises, giving it a score of 8.1 in the category — close to the Report Card average of 8.2. “It does things even sooner than it promises,” says a British Columbia planner who gave PIS a perfect score.

Assante Corp. advisors say their firm is delivering on its promises more often, too. “Since CI took over, it’s starting to deliver,” says an Assante advisor from B.C. The firm received a score of 7.6 in the category, a solid 1.4-point improvement over 2006.

Not every firm has made such strides. Regina-based Partners in Planning Financial Services Ltd. remains near the bottom of the heap when it comes to keeping its word, with a score of 7.5 in the category — a shade lower than last year’s grade of 7.6. “It has taught me not to expect anything,” says a disgruntled Partners in Planning advisor from B.C.

Toronto-based GP Wealth Management Corp. finished last in the category, with a score of 7.2, a 1.4-point drop from 2006. “It has promised a lot of things that didn’t come through,” says a GP Wealth Management planner in Ontario.

On the Report Card, a firm’s consumer Web site, IPOs and new issues, and consumer advertising are perennial low priorities. IE