Members of the Conference for Advanced Life Underwriting (CALU) voted on Monday to keep the association’s requirement that its members also be members of Advocis.
The vote took place at CALU’s annual conference, in Ottawa. According to sources in attendance, a majority of members voted in favour of dropping the requirement; however, that majority didn’t meet the required threshold of two-thirds (66.7%). As a result, CALU’s requirement that members also be members of Advocis still stands.
A CALU spokesperson confirmed in an emailed statement that “the requirement for CALU members and provisional members to be members of Advocis was upheld,” but provided no voting results.
Advocis said in an email that it has no comment at this time.
CALU, which focuses on advanced financial and tax planning as well as advocacy, was created as part of Advocis three decades ago. In response to a member motion, CALU created a task force in 2021 that reviewed the dual membership requirement and called for submissions. That task force ultimately upheld the requirement, saying that, among other things, speaking on behalf of both Advocis and CALU strengthens CALU’s advocacy.
CALU’s 2021 task force had recommended that the dual membership requirement be reviewed every three to five years, and this past December, another task force was established to review the requirement and recommend to the board whether to maintain it. To help make that recommendation, a member survey was conducted and results analyzed, the CALU spokesperson confirmed; however, the spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for comment about the survey results.
Jason Pereira, a partner with Woodgate Financial Inc. in Toronto, submitted the motion to review the dual membership requirement, and he dropped his CALU membership over the issue. In an email, Pereira said that “fixing” the requirement of Advocis membership would be have been “a good first step” in his consideration about rejoining CALU.
Another former CALU member, Trevor Parry of TRP Strategy Group, confirmed via email that he would have considered rejoining CALU if Monday’s outcome had been different.
CALU has 600-plus members, including associate members, who aren’t required to be Advocis members. The organization leverages Advocis membership numbers in its advocacy work, but those numbers have dropped considerably.
Advocis has more than 7,500 members according to its website, down from more than 13,000 members in 2018, according to Advocis’ annual report that year. In 2023, revenue from membership fees was relatively flat, and at the annual general meeting in July 2024, interim CEO Harris Jones said membership stood at about 4,300 “full-paying” members.
Advocis’ 2024 AGM focused on how the association had stabilized its finances after struggling with liquidity, which first became apparent in its 2022 financial statements. In addition to falling membership, Advocis has faced costs to update its education programs, invest in infrastructure and address pandemic-related fallout. As the association cut costs, including staff, legal claims have alleged wrongful dismissal and contract breaches.