About Legal and Regulatory Affairs

The Legal and Regulatory Affairs department (LRA) works on the key issues affecting our members, including:

• advisor professionalism
• titles, designations and proficiencies
• compensation and conflicts of interest
• emerging technological trends in the regulatory-advisory space and
• standards of conduct in the advisor-client relationship.

We advocate for our members’ positions through written submissions to regulators and legislators across the country, as well as in-person meetings with bureaucrats, politicians and stakeholder groups.

Our goal is to promote a sensible and effective legal and regulatory framework that

• promotes the recognition of financial advice and planning as a true profession,
• protects the livelihood of our members,
• fosters consumer access to financial advice and planning services, and
• provides strong consumer protection safeguards.

LRA reaches out to Advocis’s membership and the wider financial services community through the public posting of our submissions and the publishing of Regulatory Affairs Bulletins and other explainer and backgrounder material. We also update our members on the latest regulatory trends at Chapter events across Canada, through individual presentations and participation on discussion panels.

And each year, LRA hosts Symposium, an annual conference that provides a platform for financial advisors, industry experts, consumer advocates, regulators and politicians to debate and exchange perspectives on the key issues facing the sector.

Through our committees, we are fortunate to have the input of Advocis members to help us understand the impact of law and regulation on an advisor’s practice. We regularly meet with the Legal, Regulatory and Policy Committee, Investment Subcommittee and Technology Task Force. These committees are staffed by volunteer members with years of insurance, securities and technology-related experience, and LRA’s work is stronger with their invaluable input.