Advisors may soon face increased reporting regulations if a new bill regarding money laundering, currently working its way through Ottawa, is passed. Bill C-25 is the first step to reform the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act. The implications of the planned changes are far reaching. In an anti-money laundering panel hosted […]
Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s surprise decision that he plans to tax income trusts may have been a nasty trick on All Hallow’s Eve, but tax experts say the writing was on the wall. If tax leakage was ever an issue for the federal government than Telus’s decision to convert to a trust certainly sent […]
Financial service institutions and advisors are sitting on a multi-trillion dollar opportunity to gain assets and grow their business, according to a recent study on the financial services industry by the TowerGroup. By providing efficient and effective retirement income planning services for the growing percentage of the population in or near retirement, the research firm […]
Are your clients attuned to “eStatements”? Receiving electronic statements of banking transactions is becoming increasingly popular, according to a study by Forrester Research. However, Forrester says financial firms are not doing enough to capitalize on this trend. Nearly half of all Canadians who bank online receive electronic statements of their activity, notes the report. The […]
Covington Group of Funds once described its Covington Fund I as being “the most mature, stable LSIF in Canada.” But as the fund begins an orderly wind-up of operations, most investors who held the labour-sponsored investment fund might question that description. An analysis of the fund shows that if not for the 30% worth of […]
The Investment Dealers Association of Canada is appealing a ruling by the Saskatchewan Financial Services Commission that says the regulator has no authority to discipline former registrants. Earlier this year, Wade MacBain, Karl Neufeld and Frederick Smith filed a motion to the SFSC to challenge the authority of the IDA to haul sanctions against them. […]
IFIC has released its annual wish list for the next federal budget. While many of the proposals will seem familiar, they have been repositioned around the Conservative Party’s platform in the hope of getting them through. IFIC’s key message this year: do something to help boomers before they go bust. “A large portion of the […]
Remember the days when “no-money-down” was used only to entice people to buy a new couch? Brace yourself: these deals are now entering the real estate arena. With the slew of innovations coming to the mortgage market, Canadians are now able to take on more debt then ever before. And while the risks of missing […]
The number of federally registered private pension plans reporting a deficit appears to have “stabilized,” but the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions warns in its annual report that the situation remains fragile. In the 92-page report, OSFI say it is watching a “handful” of the 1,300 plans it supervises that have a funding […]
Some of Canada’s more recognizable mutual fund manufacturers, managers and distributors used a panel discussion at IFIC’s annual conference to stress the importance of the advisor to the industry, despite reports that say funds pay advisors too much. Don Reed, president and CEO of Franklin Templeton Investments, characterized the relationship between the advisor and a […]