Advocis, The Financial Advisors Association of Canada, is urging the Ontario government to ensure that Ontario consumers will have access to a wide variety of choice as to where they get their financial advice.

Representatives from Advocis, told members of the Ontario legislature’s Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs Tuesday that the business environment needs to do more on behalf of advisors and planners who are part of small business operations. Ontarians, said the Advocis representatives, are better served when they have access to a wide variety of choice as to where they get their financial advice.

“We need the government to take steps to encourage the small business financial advisor,” said Advocis president and CEO Greg Pollock. “When regulation is imposed, it’s often one-size-fits-all, which rarely ends up to be so. Consumers get hurt because the increasing burden of compliance pushes some small business advisors out of the industry. It’s not about less regulation but more appropriate and effective regulation.”

Advocis has recommended that the province take a more thoughtful approach to the regulation of the financial services industry, including ensuring that those most impacted by a proposed regulation are consulted at an early stage in the policy development process. Any proposed regulation should identify the problem to be addressed and have a complete cost-benefit analysis that examines compliance burden and the benefit to consumers.

Among Advocis’s recommendations to the committee was that Ontario consumers be protected from buying some forms of insurance (such as creditor mortgage or disability insurance and travel insurance) from unlicensed, unregulated and often unsupervised sales representatives.

Advocis has recommended that:

> sales reps be required to hold a provincial license, pass educational courses and be adequately supervised;

> licensed sales reps should participate in continuing education and carry errors and omissions (E&O) insurance like all other insurance agents in the province; and

> companies and individuals selling these products should comply with enhanced consumer disclosure requirements so that consumers can be adequately protected.

IE