(May 2 – 14:25 ET) – In a speech at the Sales Congress of the Canadian Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors in St. John’s, former OSC commissioner Glorianne Stromberg reiterated her call for a single, national self-regulating organization in her vision for the future of the investment industry.

Stromberg outlined her vision for the future of the industry, saying, “I believe that the ongoing strength of the industry will lie in its ability to move from a sales-based culture to a professional advice-based culture. It will lie in its ability to move beyond product sales — especially those that are made in the guise of advice. It will lie in its ability to eliminate the inherent product and institution-based biases that are built into the current financial marketplace.”

To that end, she sees clients pressuring planners, dealers and other financial professionals to develop truly full-service financial advisors. “The model that I see emerging is that of the life planner, or as some call it life coaches. who focus on the here and now and the road to lifetime self-sufficiency. This model will require more than just reliance on product-based financial planning skills. Its going to require, in addition, a broad component of personal management know-how skills focused on lifetime planning and management of resources.”

Stromberg suggests that no one planner will be able to do the job adequately and that individuals are going to have to increasingly organize in teams of specialists to serve all client needs. “I believe that the future lies in your ability to build firms and expertise capable of delivering comprehensive, multi-disciplinary, advisory-based services. This requires teamwork. It requires generalists and specialists but most of all, it requires know-how.”

To make this model work, Stromberg suggests that lifelong professional education is a necessary condition, as are credible codes of conduct, quality control, dispute resolution and credible regulation. “Self-regulation generally goes hand-in-hand with being a professional. However, it is not coming easily to your world. The current model as evidenced by that of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada is showing serious signs of strain. The new MFDA has serious gaps, many of which were lobbied for by financial planners and advisors. Once again, the weaknesses and failures of the regulatory and the self-regulatory system are in the forefront. This is not good for you, your clients or the public.”

Stromberg stresses the need “to create a single, new self-regulatory organization that would replace all others and that would be centered around advice-giving rather than product-licensing or institution-licensing. This organization would operate throughout Canada and would ensure that there is adequate, uniform and functional oversight, supervision and regulation. Its time to take a serious look at the recommendations I’ve made. I think you will find that they make a lot of sense to you in the current climate and that it would be in your economic interests to get behind them and help make them happen.”

She also notes that the IDA model of blending trade association functions and regulatory functions doesn’t work. “Trade association and lobbying functions have no place within a self-regulatory organization.”

The same principles should guide government regulation, she noted, “Have a look at my recommendations in this respect. It’s in your economic interests to get behind them and help make them happen. As a minimum, I suggest that you stop accepting the fragmented approach to regulation that securities, insurance, banking and pension regulators are taking. Insist that they get their acts together. I was appalled to listen to a securities regulator, who was speaking at a pension conference earlier this year, say that they were not going to harmonize the securities and pension requirements with respect to disclosure and that there would not be uniformity among the provinces with respect to various requirements. This is an intolerable burden on you, your clients and the public at large.”

She concluded, “I hope that I’ve stimulated your thinking and encouraged you to become proactive in bringing about some much needed changes in the financial services industry and its regulatory framework. Remember, its people who make things happen and people who prevent them from happening. Its time to set aside the fear of change and to make good things happen.”