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Are you Ready for POS3?

Effective today, May 30, 2016, Point of Sale 3 regulation comes into effect.  This means that advisors and dealers that are selling a mutual fund must provide Fund Facts disclosure prior to booking a mutual fund trade.  This regulation, first announced in 2009 has had several phases including the introduction of the Fund Fact in […]

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Point of Sale Disclosure is Coming to Segregated Funds….

We are less than 3 weeks away from the May 30th deadline, where dealers must have a process to deliver Fund Facts prior to accepting trade instructions from investors and the MFDA has indicated that extension of mutual fund regulation principles to insurance (Segregated funds) is in its preliminary stage. This article should definitely have the […]

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Human Insight more important in Data-Driven World

Forrester’s article emphasizes the importance of human insight and thinking in a post-digital world. As our organizations digest and rely on more data from an increasing number of channels, many fear the reduced role of human-led decision making. Will our organizations be reduced to data-led decision making with dashboards running everything from operations to finance […]

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Consumers Should Have the Unfettered Choice of Paper or Electronic Statements

A recent paper published by the National Consumer Law Centre titled Paper Statements: An Important Consumer Protection provides some important guidelines to financial institutions that are implementing e-migration strategies.  The publication, referencing US legal and compliance guidelines, urges the careful consideration of many consumer choice considerations and ultimately lands on a theme that we strongly support […]

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Salesforce “2016 Connected Investor Report”

A recently released Salesforce Global report that surveyed nearly 8000 adults in Canada, Australia, France, Japan, UK and the US, provides some interesting survey results to anyone in the financial services industry in Canada. A key finding that jumped off the page for me was the following:  67% of investors believe that modern tools for financial planning […]

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A New Brand of Financial Adviser

The Globe and Mail ran a story today called “A new brand of financial adviser” that featured a Canadian Fintech startup, Tridus Wealth Management, and its plans to offer a more cost-effective solution to investors through its use of technology. Tridus is foregoing office space and traditional overhead expenses, emphasizing digital communication over paper and relying […]

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It’s Not Too Late to Comply

A February MFDA review of the industry’s readiness for POS3 and CRM2 provided mixed results – while some dealers are ahead of the curve, the review “found incidents of both outright non-compliance and examples of half-hearted compliance”. With POS3 only 90 days away and the last CRM2 reforms only 135 days away, the clock is […]

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Increasing Fee Disclosure in the Investment Industry

There’s nothing like a weakening stock market to turn everyone’s attention to the cost of their investments. And as it should be. In a strong market I may be willing to give up 2-3% if I can make an 8-10% return overall, but if the markets turn south and I’m fighting for every bit of […]

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New Record-Keeping Requirements Raise Compliance Concerns

The Ontario government quietly amended the Ontario Securities Act a few weeks ago, paving the way for even greater disclosure and compliance measures by dealers and their advisors. In fact, as Blakes highlights in their June 29, 2015 bulletin the new record-keeping obligation will place even more onus on all dealers, advisors and other market […]

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The Need for Digital Transformation in Wealth Management

We have blogged about this before but it is such a prevalent issue that it bears repeating: there is a significant ‘digital divide’ between wealth management clients (particularly Millenials) and their advisors, a divide which is disrupting the traditional wealth management model. A recent paper by The Boston Consulting Group put it succinctly:  “Although the […]

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