The institut Québé-cois de planification financière is asking Quebec’s minister of justice to intervene in its efforts to establish an independent organization for financial planners.

A provincial governmental agency — the Office des professions du Québec, which is responsible for overseeing more than 40 professional organizations in the province — has turned down IQPF’s proposal. In a report prepared for the minister of justice, the OPQ recommended against a separate body to oversee the roughly 5,200 financial planners in the province. It had received more than 260 submissions on the topic.

The minister, however, could overturn that decision. “The Justice Department is not involved in these kinds of decisions,” says Joanne Marceau, a spokeswoman for the Quebec Department of Justice. “[But] it is a prerogative of the justice minister, as the minister responsible for professions.”

Currently, anyone who calls him- or herself a financial planner in Quebec must have a diploma from the IQPF, the only organization in the province authorized to grant financial planning diplomas and to establish rules concerning the ongoing professional development of financial planners.

In addition, planners must also have the appropriate certificate issued by the Autorité des marchés financiers, or be a member of the Quebec order of chartered accountants, the professional order of certified general accountants, the professional order of chartered administrators or the Quebec chamber of notaries.

“CFP certification is your assurance that a planner has completed a rigorous course of study,” says Mary Ann Lara, a CFP and CGA with Investors Group Inc. in Toronto.

But certification is optional.

It is not clear exactly what constitutes a financial planner in this country. “Most provinces do not regulate the use of the term ‘financial planner’,” Lara says. (See story on page 14.)

Currently, an array of financial planners, advisors and others “are lumped together under one title,” says Frank Wiginton, a senior financial planner with TriDelta Financial Partners Inc. in Toronto, “when very few really do proper financial planning.”

That lack of regulation is a driving impetus behind efforts to establish an independent organization for financial planning professionals in Quebec — and, perhaps, elsewhere in Canada.

“Financial planning is emerging, and must emerge, as a recognized professional service if the public is going to be appropriately served,” says Cary List, president and CEO of the Financial Planners Standards Council. “This includes recognition by lawmakers of what constitutes acceptable levels of competence as well as performance.”

The FPSC issues and regulates the CFP designation as well as promotes financial planners in Canada.

“The public would benefit from stronger laws around who may or may not hold out [themselves] as a financial planner,” he adds. “This could be through recognition of a professional body that oversees the profession.”

In the current economic climate, understanding what financial planners do may be even more important — and maintaining a professional reputation even more critical. This may be even more important in Quebec. A survey conducted by Léger Marketing Inc. in Montreal found that 70% of respondents did not have confidence in financial planners and roughly an equal number supported the establishment of a professional organization to oversee the profession.

Such an association, Wiginton says, “would help [consumers of financial services] distinguish who really performs financial planning.”

Adds List: “First and foremost, the public needs to be assured that only sufficiently qualified individuals can hold themselves out as professional financial planners.”

Part of that lack of confidence among Quebec investors stems from the recent controversy surrounding Norbourg Asset Management Inc., which was ordered on Aug. 25, 2005, to cease all activities. A freeze order was also issued on its bank accounts, as well as those of companies related to Vincent Lacroix, Norbourg’s founder and president.

“The freezing of all activities and transactions was ordered because an investigation revealed that the firm and its president no longer had the integrity required under the Securities Act,” the AMF said at the time.

The criminal investigation into Norbourg’s operations concluded only this past summer, when the RCMP arrested six people with close ties to the firm, including Lacroix. In all, 922 charges have been laid and Lacroix has received a jail term.

So, the timing is right for a boost in consumer confidence. Whether that happens in Quebec with the formation of an independent organization remains to be seen. IE