Ontario starting to regulate Financial Planner and Financial Advisor titles | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

I can't remember if I mentioned this before. (I know I intended to.) The last time I had to deal with one of those people at a big bank whose job it is to sell you mutual funds when all you wanted was a GIC or promo , I noticed that their business card now said "sales representative", no longer "advisor". I was struck by this new honesty. I think it's better for the employees too, as they know what they are getting into - and how they will be evaluated. It won't stop them trying to give you advice, but it's a start.

Loonie said
The last time I had to deal with one of those people at a big bank whose job it is to sell you mutual funds when all you wanted was a GIC or promo , I noticed that their business card now said "sales representative", no longer "advisor".  

The commissions on mutual funds are richer than on a plain vanilla GIC. The richer commission is especially important if you have two kids in private school.

Ontario should offer some public input into some regulartory suggestions. I was 19 yrs old, ambitious as anything and was convinced borrowing $50 000 at 5% in 1994 and investing it into mutual funds averaging 12% returns was my key to wealth building. Using OPM - Other peoples money... They had a great speech, Regal Capital Planners was their name. I can tell you at that time there was ZERO protections or regulations in place whatsoever. Household names such as CI Investments, Fidelity, Etc. were all in on it too. The only one that did not reap ONE benefit over 10 yrs was the 19 yr old that brought the money to the table. Everyone else was richly rewarded for poor performance. ALL the risk was on the person providing the money. They are absolute LIARS when they tell you they are professional money managers, you are busy with your career you cant do this full time too and they will provide you the best unbiased opinions they tell you. They are indifferent if the best option is company A vs B, they tell you. NOTHING could be further from the truth.

That CBC article is about inadequate supervision of one advisor, not about systemic issues with Regal, though that's not to say they weren't a bunch of cheaters, I've no idea.

I do applaud the clarity of "sales representative", though I found its predecessor, "salesman", even better.

If any adult thinks handing their money over to someone else who will go and make them a pile of dough is a realistic proposal, well, let's just say they're probably young. MattS, the unpleasant experience you had clearly has impacted your approach going forward, so good - it's how we all slowly figure stuff out. I'm generally against more regulation to protect us from our own inattention, greed, etc, as its result is people become even more sleepy which then just leads to more regulation which then leads to even more sleepiness........it's a never-ending growth industry. And as if the new regulations won't just have their own new, different "grey areas". IMO.

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Back when the Earth was still young (I was in my early 20's), I seriously considered becoming a Financial Advisor. I even took the first two required courses.

But I eventually figured out what it was Really about ... Very Short on 'Advising', and Very Much about 'Sales'. It was akin to asking a used car salesman to Advise on what car to buy. It was enough to make a grown man Puke.

Needless to say, I Bailed on the whole idea and found a more Legitimate (& honest) way to make a living, and never looked back ... Thank Gawd ❗

Dean

I had an uncomfortable encounter at RCSS. I was standing behind a senior gentleman who was in the process of buying a stack of 15-20 gift cards. The transaction tweaked my interest, since I had heard of the many fraudulent scams currently floating around that involved gift cards.

I got more concerned when he tried to pay for the purchase with a RBC direct debit card. He inserted the card and then asked the cashier, "It says Cheque or Savings. How do I get the Direct Debit function?" It seemed pretty obvious that he was not familiar with Interac.

I wondered if it might be the 'bank scam', whereby fraudsters pose as a bank employee, get victims to buy gift cards, and send them the numbers.

The cashier and I know each other, so I called her over to the side and asked her if everything was alright with the old man. I told her that I saw the stack of gift cards and that a number of scams involved such cards. She said that it was for personal gifts. I told her that I was worried for the old man and would hate to see anyone getting ripped off. He wasn't my father, but I would hope that someone would look out for my parents if they saw something that looked amiss.

Anyway, I left it at that and hope that nothing bad befell the old guy. I didn't think it was my place to do anything else. If I said anything to the old man, he would likely be miffed and think that I was just being nosy. After all, I'm not a cop. I would hope that people are looking out for others.

Any suggestions on how you would deal with the situation?

Agent Titles:

http://www.Moneysense.ca says:

Most Canadians—including many financial journalists—believe that advisor and adviser are just spelling variations of the same word. But there are different meanings wrapped up in how those spellings are commonly used. And too often the word itself doesn’t mean much at all no matter which way you spell it.

Various government securities acts spell out the responsibilities of “advisers” to their clients. Meanwhile, the investment industry commonly calls their salespersons “financial advisors” even if they are not registered to act as advisors. At the Small Investor Protection Association (SIPA), we have seen a danger to investors in placing their trust and savings with sales people instead of advisors who have a fiduciary responsibility to act in their client’s interests.

I always ask straight out, "Are you in a position of fiduciary duty to me?" I have elsewhere related how asking this when accompanying a friend to his bank saved him from significant losses, got his mortgage paid off and REALLY pissed off the salesthing.

MONEY-LOSING FUNDS:

You won't find many funds showing long-term losses. Any fund that isn't looking good on paper will be wound up, have its name changed or the fund converted to a new one. Suspect ANY fund with a short returns history. (If you want to risk any mutuals at all...)

CRYPTO:

There's been some buzz about the Bakkt survey finding 50% of US males have at some point bought cryptocurrencies.

BUT that was a survey of their own clients - and they are strongly skewed to crypto users because of their user base!
RetieEd