The Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan (FCAA) is consulting on several aspects of the proposed rules governing the use of the “financial planner” and “financial advisor” titles. It is considering toughening up proficiency requirements for those who want to call themselves financial advisors by introducing education requirements in certain technical areas that would make those more like the proposed standards for “financial planners”.
The new rules would require proven knowledge and competency in the same core financial technical areas as planners – estate, tax, retirement, and investment planning as well as finance, insurance, and risk management. Planners would need to be competent in developing and presenting integrated financial plans while advisors would need to be competent in providing suitable recommendations regarding broad-based financial and investment strategies.
Ruston, who’s been in the industry for 38 years, agreed that advisors should keep updating their education. But, he is concerned that the rules not become so restrictive that independent advisors, who don’t have the same resources as big institutions, like banks, cannot meet them.
“I believe there should be high levels of education n the industry. It’s been too wishy washy for too long,” he said. “But, they could hit a bit of a hurdle with those who have been around for a lot of years and may be looking to retire in the next few years and thinking, ‘why would I put in countless hours and thousands of dollars to attain a certain designation when that’s not in my game plan?’ We might lose some quality advisors who don’t necessarily have the letters behind their names.
“So, I’d draw the line when this becomes financially restrictive for the people who can’t afford to continue with all of the costs that are associated with maintaining some of these credits and different designations,” he added, noting that he believes education is good, but his firm already spends several thousand dollars on that a year to stay current. “This should not get to the point where it’s so super-restrictive that we’re losing quality people from this industry purely because of cost to the individual. That being said, the clients need to be protected and they need quality people to deal with them. So, we need to make sure there’s a balance.”
