Dear Readers,

Welcome to the reinvigoration of Advisor.ca! If you haven’t explored our new look yet, I encourage you to check us out.

Rethinking Advisor.ca has been a two-year journey of meetings, design concepts and technology strategies. While June was our target launch date, not unlike with a home renovation project, June quickly became October, then November and, now in reality, yesterday, December 3, 2008.

Our relaunch may have taken longer than we’d anticipated but it was, we hope, well worth the wait.

To help you get a sense of Advisor.ca’s new features, I will be hosting the following conference call for interested participants.

Wednesday, December 10 at 1 p.m. EST
Conference call number: 1-866-365-1119
Quote “Advisor.ca” or “Deanne Gage”
A replay of this call will be available for 30 days.

If you’d rather explore Advisor.ca on your own, here’s a peek at what’s new.

Easier to read

You asked us to increase the typeface, since you’re not getting any younger.

We listened. Our new typeface is more spacious and we hope easier on the eyes. And there’s more white space on Advisor.ca, making things easier to find.

Easier navigation

You asked us to make it easier to find content you’re looking for. Special reports, insurance and tax coverage, for instance, were buried on our old website.

We listened. Our new design allows you to locate the content you need quickly and more efficiently.

We now have separate, clearly identified zones for tax, insurance, continuing education and special reports. Visit these zones here.

(Of course, we’ll continue to bring you the breaking news, practice and investment articles you’ve come to rely upon.)

Expanded coverage

Our readers who are compliance officers or work in the distributor channel have asked us for coverage of their areas of expertise.

We listened. We now have separate, dedicated areas of the site for compliance officers and distributors. As we grow, we will feature proprietary coverage for these audiences.

Visit these zones here.

Better search

You asked for a superior search engine.

We listened. Our new integrated search allows you to find all relevant articles from not only Advisor.ca, but also Advisor’s Edge magazine and Advisor’s Edge Report newspaper. You can also search for articles by category (e.g., alternative investments, client relationships), date (e.g. past week, past month) and author (e.g. our columnists and in-house writers and editors).

Going forward, our search engine will also include relevant articles from other Canadian and international financial websites.

Thank you!

Special thanks to the Rogers Online Services Group and everyone on staff at Advisor Group who worked tirelessly to make this relaunch happen.

The new Advisor.ca would not be possible without feedback from readers like you. Thanks for the advice and a big thank you to the following individuals for their input: Michael Berton, Assante; Janet Freedman, Finance Matters; Russell Lazaruk, ScotiaMcLeod; Kelly Maidens, Desjardins; Robert Smith, Dundee Securities; Marjorie Matthews, Investors Group; Scott Plaskett, IRONSHIELD Financial Planning; Thane Stenner, Stenner Investment Partners of GMP Private Client LP.

Beware: Glitches

There’s still more work for us to complete. Please bear with us as we spend the coming weeks fixing the glitches.

Thank you for your continued support of Advisor.ca. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.