Figuring out what kind of financial advisor services you require can be a bit tricky these days—particularly when there are so many different types of advisor titles floating around the industry.
Not quite sure what I mean? Take the recent findings of a “Mystery Shopper” study on investment advice, released by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA).
In 88 assessments, they encountered 48 different business titles used by financial advisors.
While the industry is old and ever evolving, that’s pretty pathetic. It’s simply long past due for legislators and regulators to tighten up the use of all these titles. But, of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t design a simple framework for cutting through the noise.
Preet Banerjee – MoneySense – November 13th, 2015.