The latest report from the FP Canada Standards Council reminds financial planners that their behaviour could be scrutinized, even when they’re off the clock.
The Standards Council is the division of FP Canada that sets certification requirements and establishes and enforces financial planning standards. The council reviews and initiates complaints, which ultimately could be escalated to a hearing panel.
“The hearing panel has been, and will be, continuing to consider more cases involving conduct outside of one’s financial planning practice,” the council’s 2024 report says.
The report cites the case of a (now former) certified financial planner (CFP) certificant who was also a lawyer and found by the court to have engaged in misleading conduct in that capacity.
“[T]he certificant argued that FP Canada did not have jurisdiction over her conduct, and that the Law Society of Ontario has the exclusive jurisdiction to discipline lawyers for conduct involving legal representation of clients,” the report says. “She also argued that none of the impugned conduct involved conduct as a financial planner and, accordingly, that the panel did not have jurisdiction.”
The hearing panel rejected those arguments, reinforcing that CFP certificants are required to act with integrity, the report says.
A hearing panel will now oversee a matter related to social media posts. The Standards Council issued a statement of allegations last November against a different (now former) certificant for posting comments on LinkedIn, where he held himself out as a financial planner, “which would be considered by readers, including members of the public, as unprofessional, hurtful, demeaning and discriminatory,” the report says. Although the conduct may be considered outside the certificant’s practice, the council has alleged that “the conduct reflects adversely on his integrity or fitness as a CFP professional, the FP Canada certification marks or the profession.”
As detailed in guidance, a financial planner’s integrity could be called into question because of off-duty conduct or social media posts.
The hearing is scheduled for July.
Oversight stats for 2024
Overall in 2024, the Standards Council received 87 complaints, the report says, down about 28% from 121 complaints in 2023 — and more aligned with the 84 complaints received in 2022.
Of the 87 complaints, 52 (about 60%) were initiated by the council, 22 were from the public, and 13 resulted from a presumptive bar. (For a list of bars to certification, see the Standards of Professional Responsibility.)
Similar to 2023, the top complaint allegations in 2024 were diligence (about 17%), suitability (about 17%) and integrity (about 15%).
Of the complaints, 22 (about 25%) were referred to a conduct review panel, and nine (about 10% of all complaints) were referred to a discipline hearing panel.
In 2024, 12 discipline hearings were held, and eight of these cases concluded last year, FP Canada said in an email. Four resulted in suspensions or temporary bans, three resulted in permanent bans or revocations, and one resulted in a letter of admonishment.
The Standards Council report also highlights the hearing panel decisions released last year. Conduct that resulted in permanent or temporary bans involved the violation of securities rules, being named beneficiary of a client’s estate and not informing one’s employer, failing to adequately disclose compensation and risks of segregated funds, and being named beneficiary or power of attorney on an investment account without disclosing conflicts.
One case involved pre-signed and altered forms, and photocopying signatures. In regulatory proceedings, pre-signed forms have been a perennial top allegation against individual registrants at mutual fund dealers, and the Standards Council was alerted to the case because of a regulatory proceeding.
The report also says FP Canada, as a credentialing body under Ontario’s title protection regime for the financial planner title, supports those who make complaints against financial planners: When FP Canada is aware that one of its certificants also holds another approved credential under title protection, the certification body informs the complainant that the financial planner is a member of that credentialing body.
In its email, FP Canada said it works to ensure complainants have “all relevant information, including which bodies have jurisdiction over the individual they have concerns with” — an approach that pre-dates title protection. “FP Canada has a long history of providing complainants and consumers with information about the various federal and provincial enforcement organizations [that] accept complaints from the public,” the email said.