Financial advisors are praising a new online resource for investors launched by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada because it promises to reassure wary investors, build confidence in the investment industry and protect honest advi-sors from the occasional bad apple who gives them all a bad name.

The new web page, Advisor-Report — found at www.iiroc.ca, under “Know Your Advisor” in the “Investors” section — could also become a useful marketing tool for those advisors who choose to promote their clean records to prospective clients.

Launched on Aug. 30, the web page allows investors to check the background of the 28,300 IIROC-registered advisors across Canada at no cost, quickly and easily. Advisor-Report gives a considerable amount of information on advi-sors registered with IIROC, including their business address, a list of past employers, the professional courses they have taken and their areas of expertise. It also includes the courses advisors need to take to retain their licences and details of any disciplinary actions.

Some industry associations and advisors say they support the web page because it opens a window on an industry that has borne its share of bad publicity in recent years.

“The industry recognizes the benefits of educating the client,” says Michelle Alexander, director of policy for the Investment Industry Association of Canada.An educated client is good for the industry and good for the advisor, she adds, noting that educated clients tend to have greater confidence in the person they are dealing with. “Generally, the more educated investors are, the more protection there is for the advisor.”

There are critics, however — and they argue that the web page does not go far enough to laud the good advisors and expose the bad ones.

Rossana Di Lietto, IIROC’s vice president of registration and complaints, notes that the new web page does not offer any information that was not already available; it just makes the information easier to access.

“What we’ve done with Advisor-Report is make it faster and easier for investors to obtain [the information],” she says. “If the service assists in making that information more visible and if that motivates advisors to improve their qualifications, I think investors would see that as a positive thing.”

Several advisors across Canada praise AdvisorReport because they believe it makes the investment industry more accessible to clients.

“If you want integrity in this industry, [AdvisorReport] is awesome,” says David Smith, an advisor in Charlottetown with RBC Dominion Securities Inc. “Those who don’t want [the web page] have something to fear.”

AdvisorReport helps clarify exactly who is a qualified professional, says Smith, who used to be chairman of IIROC’s district council in Prince Edward Island. But he would like the web page to go one step further and state who is “an advisor in good standing with IIROC.”

Smith says he would also promote IIROC and the AdvisorReport widely. “IIROC has prepared some very nice brochures, but the person on the street has no idea what IIROC is. They know what the IDA is, but not IIROC,” he says, referring to IIROC’s predecessor, the Investment Dealers Association of Canada.

Christopher James, a member of the business development team at MF Global Canada Co. in Toronto, echoes Smith’s comments. He welcomes AdvisorReport as a useful marketing tool that will help him reassure a potential client.

“Educating the client can only be a good thing,” James said. “The more information available, the better.”

Nevertheless, James sees room for improvements because some of IIROC’s measures don’t necessarily indicate a good or bad advisor — and others could be misinterpreted. Some advisors change employers frequently because they are ambitious and upwardly mobile, he says, but a potential client may suspect they can’t hold down a job.

Like Smith, James suggests IIROC raise the profile of the web page. “No client has ever asked me about AdvisorReport,” he says. “The subject has never come up.”

Kian Ghanei, an advisor in Vancouver with Toronto-based Dundee Securities Corp. , strongly backs AdvisorReport and any other tool that raises awareness in the industry. And, like Smith and James, Ghanei would like to make AdvisorReport even better. He argues strongly for client feedback — a place on the web page where happy clients can include testimonials and angry clients can offer criticism. Feedback, he says, would correct a flaw in these kinds of tools — how does one judge a good or bad advisor?

Some of Ghanei’s favourite mentors — people he respects as excellent, personable professionals — don’t necessarily have a long list of course designations beside their name, he says, while some of the bad apples in the industry — the people who give the industry a bad reputation — may be eminently qualified.

“How do you quantify somebody’s ability?” Ghanei asks. “A list of courses won’t tell me that, or the list of employers at which he has worked. The client should have the ability to post positive and negative feedback. This would be in the best interest of the client.” IE