Canadian CANNAINVESTOR Magazine June 2019 | Page 180

OK … similarly, the Ontario government has announced that It will soon pass legislation regulating just who can provide financial planning and financial advisory services …. Until that happens, just about anyone can self-identify as providing financial planning or advisory services … how important is this to the typical investor?

Trust is most important in any relationship first and foremost. In addition to that investors need someone with education AND experience in the field. Continuing education ensures their advisor is keeping up to date with all the latest changes. Now you don’t have to have a designation to do that but it is a requirement for designation so it’s a way of making sure they are.

What a Certified Financial Planner specifically brings to the table is a comprehensive study in the major planning disciplines. Financial Management, Investment Planning, Insurance and Risk Management, Tax Planning and Estate Planning. That education along with work experience is powerful.

Now this is a tough one I know … our own content is more about breadth and depth and awareness and education and is not focused with targeted campaigns to promote a single company. For those that do operate that way, and especially if the companies are paying for such targeted coverage combined with the promoter charging say a membership fee – do you believe that such individuals should be disallowed when these new rules come into play from sending such targeted promotional material to subscribers in Ontario because at the end of the day (in my opinion) … it is a financial/investment advice and without accreditation/certification perhaps will prohibited to be communicated to Ontario subscribers. All the disclaimers in the world to the contrary of it being advice may be just noise if it is accepted that these members paying a fee use that information to coordinate speculative behaviour on the markets … do you see that as a problem this may address or just part of the badlands of the wild west that will continue to exist unchecked as it slips through the cracks …?

180