New Brunswick passes title protection legislation

Title protection continues to roll out across the country, with New Brunswick being the latest province to pass legislation that restricts the use of the “financial advisor” and “financial planner” titles.

The province’s Financial Advisors and Financial Planners Title Protection Act received royal assent on Friday, officially making the act law.

The next step will be creating rules based on the legislation so that only those with a credential approved by the Financial and Consumer Services Commission of New Brunswick will be allowed to use “financial advisor” or “financial planner.”

N.B.’s legislation is similar to that of Ontario, which implemented title protection last year, and Saskatchewan, which ended a second consultation on proposed rules for title protection last fall.

Including Quebec, New Brunswick is the fourth province to regulate “financial planner,” FP Canada noted in a release. The certification body said it expects to apply as a credentialing body for the financial planner title in N.B. The province has about 300 professionals with the designations that FP Canada oversees, the release said, referring to the certified financial planner (CFP) and the qualified associate financial planner (QAFP).

In total, Ontario has approved four credentialing bodies and nine credentials under title protection, including FP Canada and the CFP and QAFP.

The new self-regulatory organization, the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization, will be a credentialing body for the financial advisor title, with details still in the works. In Ontario, the competency profile for the title has been criticized for its product focus — something Saskatchewan aims to address by including education requirements for financial advisors related to financial planning.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.