A travel agency ad featuring a “flynancial” advisor is the most recent reminder of how title protection, in effect in Ontario since March 2022, falls short.
Toronto-based Sunwing Vacations Inc.’s ad is a playful twist on Ontario’s protected “financial advisor” title, positioning travel advisors — “flynancial” advisors — as industry experts who help consumers keep their “flynancial” plans on track by offering great deals.
The ad helps illustrate what’s lacking in Ontario’s title protection rules: a standard of advice that meets client expectations.
A reader contacted this publication wondering if “flynancial advisor” is offside of title protection, which is administered by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA).
Based on FSRA’s supervisory framework, the regulator can investigate complaints, such as a title with a spelling variation that could “reasonably be confused” with a protected title. FSRA didn’t directly respond when asked if “flynancial advisor” falls under that example, but the regulator confirmed it has received no consumer complaints. Certainly, the ad doesn’t mislead consumers into expecting financial services instead of travel packages.
And on a salient point, the ad succeeds where title protection doesn’t: it recognizes that consumers expect advisors to offer advice competently and to their advantage.
Ontario’s title protection fails to meet that expectation when it comes to the financial advisor title. It takes a product approach to competency (effectively, licensing) rather than establishing an agreed standard for advice, as investor advocates have urged.
So, here’s a complaint, albeit one with nowhere to file: While a firm in the tourism industry uses the advisor role to signify expertise to consumers, in this industry — despite title protection — that expertise may not be what consumers think it is.