You can check a Canadian financial advisor for free in about 15 minutes. Search their name on the Canadian Securities Administrators’ National Registration Search to see what they’re registered to do, check the CSA Disciplined List and CIRO’s AdvisorReport for past problems, and confirm any planning credential with the body that issued it. Each source covers a different part of the picture, so you need more than one.
The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada notes that the titles financial advisor and financial planner “don’t always mean that a person has specific qualifications, expertise or certifications.” The checks below tell you what’s behind the title. Our general guide to checking an advisor covers the US databases; this one goes through the Canadian ones in order.
Step 1: Find out what they are
Before you search, ask the advisor three things: what they’re registered as, with which firm, and in which provinces. The answer tells you where to look.
| If they’re a | They’re registered with | Check |
|---|---|---|
| Mutual fund advisor at a bank or fund dealer | A provincial regulator, through a mutual fund dealer overseen by CIRO | National Registration Search |
| Investment advisor at a brokerage | A provincial regulator, through an investment dealer overseen by CIRO | National Registration Search, CIRO AdvisorReport |
| Portfolio manager or robo-advisor | A provincial securities regulator directly | National Registration Search |
| Advice-only planner | Often no securities regulator | Their planning credential (Step 4) |
| Insurance agent | The provincial insurance regulator | That regulator’s licence records (Step 5) |
A dealing representative can sell you investments on behalf of a dealer. An advising representative at a portfolio manager can manage your account with discretion, meaning without asking you to approve each trade. Neither category says anything about planning training.
Step 2: Search the National Registration Search
By law, sellers of mutual funds, stocks and bonds must be registered with a provincial or territorial securities regulator. The CSA search shows each person’s registration category, their sponsoring firm and the provinces they’re registered in.
Look for three things:
- The category matches the work. Someone offering to manage your money should be an advising representative at a portfolio manager. A mutual fund dealing representative can only sell certain products.
- The firm is the one on their business card. If the firm in the search is different, ask why.
- Terms and conditions. The Financial Consumer Agency suggests asking whether any “restrictions, terms or conditions” have been placed on their registration. They appear in the search.
If someone sells or recommends specific investments and isn’t registered, stop there. The BC Securities Commission’s advice is to report an unregistered advisor seeking your business to your regulator.
Step 3: Check their disciplinary history
The CSA Disciplined List covers individuals and companies sanctioned by Canadian securities regulators, by CIRO since January 1, 2023, and by the two bodies it replaced, IIROC and the MFDA. The BC Securities Commission says it “contains all individuals and companies who have been subject to sanctions, no matter how serious.” It doesn’t include anyone currently under investigation or in a hearing or settlement process.
CIRO’s AdvisorReport covers advisors currently approved at CIRO-regulated investment dealers. It shows their approval categories, past firms, courses and disciplinary history. It doesn’t cover mutual fund dealer representatives, so for them the National Registration Search and the Disciplined List are the main sources.
Because pending cases don’t show, ask the advisor directly whether they’re under investigation by any securities regulator in Canada. It’s one of the questions the Financial Consumer Agency recommends. If you find a past sanction, read the details. The BC Securities Commission suggests walking away if it involved dealing dishonestly with clients.
Step 4: Verify any planning credential
A planning credential is separate from registration, and it’s the main check for an advice-only planner.
- CFP and QAFP: FP Canada’s Planner Directory shows current certification and any FP Canada discipline.
- PFP and CIM: the Canadian Securities Institute keeps directories of holders in good standing. Someone who earned the original PFP and never moved to the current requirements won’t appear.
- Ontario: FSRA’s Check Credentials tool confirms whether someone using the financial planner or financial advisor title holds an approved credential, is in good standing and has been disciplined. See financial planner vs financial advisor in Ontario for what each title requires.
- Quebec: the financial planner title requires a certificate from the AMF. Ask for it.
Step 5: Check any insurance licence
If the advisor sells life insurance, segregated funds or annuities, they need a licence from your province’s insurance regulator, and that licence won’t appear on the National Registration Search. Ask which province licensed them and check with that regulator. An insurance-only agent may not appear in any securities database at all.
Step 6: Find out how they’re paid
Registration doesn’t tell you how someone earns their money. Ask the question the Financial Consumer Agency suggests: are they paid by salary, commission or other fees? Then confirm it in writing.
- Mutual funds: each fund’s Fund Facts lists its MER and any trailer fee. Your dealer’s annual report on charges and other compensation shows what was paid on your accounts, in dollars.
- Old funds: ask whether anything you hold is still on a deferred sales charge schedule before you move it.
- Fee-only planners: ask, “Do you or your firm earn anything from the products you recommend, including insurance?” A fee-only planner answers no.
Our guide to mutual fund fees in Canada goes through what to look for line by line.
Step 7: Check who holds your money
If the advisor’s firm will hold your investments, check whether it’s a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund. CIPF members are CIRO-regulated investment dealers and mutual fund dealers, and CIPF protects securities and cash a member holds for you if the firm becomes insolvent, within limits. It doesn’t cover crypto assets or investment losses.
An advice-only planner shouldn’t hold your money at all. If they ask you to transfer funds to them personally, walk away.
Step 8: Read your know-your-client form
Once you open an account with a registered advisor, they’ll record your goals, finances, time horizon and risk profile on a know-your-client form. Under the Client Focused Reforms, that record is the basis for every suitability decision made for you. Read it before you sign. A risk tolerance recorded higher than you’d choose can make riskier products look suitable on paper.
If something goes wrong
- Complain to the firm in writing. Investment firms have 90 days to respond, or 60 days in Quebec.
- Take it to OBSI. The Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments is free and independent. You have 180 days after the firm’s final response to bring your complaint. OBSI recommends compensation where it finds it’s owed. If a firm refuses, OBSI publishes the firm’s name.
- Report misconduct to CIRO or your provincial securities regulator, such as the Ontario Securities Commission, the BC Securities Commission or the AMF.
What these checks won’t show
The records show what was reported to regulators. They won’t show a complaint a client never filed, or an advisor who is registered and clean but simply not very good. For that, use the first meeting. Our questions to ask a financial advisor and warning signs of a bad advisor cover what to listen for, and what fee-only advisors charge in Canada tells you what fair pricing looks like.
Browse fee-only advisors in the public graph by province, starting with Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, or the list of fee-only advisors in Ontario.