Disclosure is broken: CSA best interest roundtable

Advisor.ca live-tweeted the CSA Statutory Best Interest roundtable this morning. Participants expressed frustration about current disclosure requirements.

A play-by-play of the roundtable:

IFIC comments note the products are being built within a regulatory framework and the dealer has vetting responsibilities. #CSA

Further, Fund Facts needs time to get out there and see if investors feel the information they get has improved. #CSA

Read: OSC roundtable participants predict fees could double

And, documents outlining what the advisor was paid which are coming soon, will allow investors to determine if they got value. #CSA

How much money a person has doesn’t equal brain power. So carving out investor sophistication classes by dollars won’t work. #CSA

Disclosure as it stands is broken. And combining KYC and KYP is not doing the job. What we’re doing now isn’t working. #CSA

Read: CSA requires delivery of Fund Facts

A lot of work goes into selecting a mutual fund for a dealer shelf. We have to, though, focus on the advice process, not transactions. #CSA

“Very few people in this room have ever given advice and been accountable to clients,” says one commentor. “Most of you are lawyers.” He continues, “You look at everything through the veneer of enforcement; and that’s a very limited view.” #CSA

Does the concept of a dealer make sense in the context of a fiduciary standard for advisors? Advisors have to make money for dealers

Clients will acknowledge that they make decisions. The notion they put it all back on advisors is inaccurate. But you can’t try to put it all back on the investor by talking solely about disclosure. #CSA

Can a discussion about professionalization of financial advice get past the regulatory arbitrage and push the debate forward? #CSA

Read: Can’t empathize with clients? Get out of this business

I would expect my advisor to look at three products that do a similar job, and if they choose something more expensive to tell me why. And the reason the product was chosen can’t be, “the trailer fee was higher,” says one commentor who proudly identified herself as a compliance pro #CSA

A standard like this will put a dent in volume programs currently in use by the industry. The compensation would have to be un-bedded. #CSA

Read: Keep embedded commissions, says Invesco president

The best advisors are more fee sensitive than their clients. They disclose everything. There are no secrets. #CSA

An advisor with only one product on the shelf can declare it suitable because it’s all that’s available. #CSA

What’s suitable today may not be in six months or two years. We can prove we met the test when the investment was placed. Instead, the emphasis needs to be on communication so that as client needs shift it’s reflected in their investments. #CSA