By James Langton

(October 4) – The Canadian
Association of Insurance and
Financial Advisors is going to
armonize advisors’ standards to
improve consumer protection, says
its incoming chair, Jim Rogers.
CAIFA must make the move because
the creation of a national
regulator appears unlikely, he
says. Rogers made these yesterday
remarks at CAIFA’s annual
conference in Vancouver.


CAIFA has developed a regulatory
model which proposes a number of
new national standards including:

  • requiring all financial
    advisors to disclose their
    qualifications, business
    relationships, sources and methods
    of compensation, potential
    conflicts of interest, and any
    referral arrangements;

  • establishing a national
    database of advisors and their
    licenses, which would be publicly
    accessible over the Internet;

  • mandatory minimum 30 hours of
    continuing education every two
    years.

    • CAIFA says it will establish
    these standards itself since
    existing regulators have proved
    ineffectual.


    This sort of self-regulatory
    leadership has become something
    familiar in recent days. Last
    week it was revealed that several
    industry players are shopping a
    proposal to initiate self-
    regulation of mutual fund managers.
    That’s another area where
    provincial regulators have been
    scarcely in evidence.


    For more please see:


    www.caifa.com