CSA uniform standard due in 2001

The proposal allows for
“grandfathering” of
representatives who already hold
certain designations on the
effective date of the new
designation. These people will be
granted the designation without
having to write the exam.

Grandfathering will apply to
individuals with designations from
the Financial Planners Standards
Council, the Institute of Canadian
Bankers, the Canadian Securities
Institute, the Canadian Institute
of Financial Planning, the Canadian
Association of Financial Planners
and the Canadian Association of
Investment and Financial Advisors.
Those qualified to call themselves
financial planners under Quebec
regulations will also be
grandfathered.

The paper specifies a number of
titles that will require the new
designation. They include any
title using the word
“planner,” as well as
the titles “financial
advisor,” “wealth
consultant” and “asset
manager,” for example. The
term “investment advisor”
is not included among titles
requiring the new designation.

According to Dublin, the test
and the new designation will be in
effect sometime in early 2001.
Three years after the
implementation date, previously
existing financial planning
designations will become obsolete.

The CSA is calling to the
24-page document a Request for
Comments. It has already received
positive comments from the CAIFA,
which calls the proposal “a step
forward in establishing a uniform
standard of proficiency.”

The CAFP is less optimistic.
“This is a sad day for
consumers,” CAFP chair Ron
Graham says in a statement
released today. Graham believes
the proposal will lower, not raise,
industry standards by allowing
under-qualified people to be
grandfathered.

But according to Dublin,
“you can’t hit the world
with a tough new requirement …
without allowing people who are
not a real risk to the public to
continue to pursue their
livelihood. We see those as
acceptable substitutes on a
transitional basis, for writing our
exam.”

-IE Staff