The MoneySense Find a Qualified Advisor Tool

Note: The MoneySense Find A Qualified Advisor tool is a paid service for advisors in partnership with the Financial Planning Association of Canada. Members of the association must be an accredited CFP, R.F.P, F.Pl or QAFP.

What’s the difference between the types of advisors listed in the tool?

The Find a Qualified Advisor tool allows you to search for advisors by Qualifications, Location, Services, Specializations and Payment Model. 

A note about location: Maybe you’ve already tried searching for “financial advisor near me” or something similar. Many advisors now provide services virtually, so you don’t necessarily need to find an advisor in your own town or city. 

The advisors listed in our tool provide different services and have different specializations, and they have a variety of financial planning designations. In addition, they charge for or get paid for their services in several ways. Here’s how to understand these criteria: 

Services 

The advisors in our directory may provide some or all of the following services:

• Financial planning: These advisors can evaluate your current and future financial states and provide a comprehensive financial plan with recommendations to optimize your situation while taking into account your goals and values. A financial plan can also focus on a specific goal or circumstance, such as planning for post-secondary education funding, debt repayment, financial planning as part of a separation or divorce, risk management or retirement, to name only a few examples. See below for a list of different financial planning designations.

• Investment planning and implementation: These advisors can provide specific investment recommendations and implement them by investing your money for you. To provide investment planning and implementation services, an advisor must be licensed by the investment regulatory body in every province and territory where they provide services, and they must manage money through an investment dealership.
• Insurance planning and implementation: These advisors can provide specific insurance recommendations and implement them by selling you insurance products. To provide insurance implementation services, an advisor must be licensed by the insurance regulatory body in every province and territory where they provide services.
• Mortgage/lending implementation: These advisors can provide specific mortgage and lending recommendations and implement them for you by arranging mortgages, term loans, consolidation loans and other forms of credit. To provide mortgages, these advisors must be licensed as mortgage brokers or mortgage agents in every province and territory where they provide services. 

Specializations 

The advisors in our directory may specialize in specific types of advice or services—such as cross-border or international financial planning, socially responsible investing, business succession planning or retirement income planning.

Qualifications 

The advisors in our directory are all members of the Financial Planning Association of Canada. In accordance with FPAC membership requirements, they all have at least one of the following financial planning designations: 

• Certified Financial Planner (CFP)
• Qualified Associate Financial Planner (QAFP)
• Registered Financial Planner (R.F.P.)
• Financial Planner (Quebec only) (F.P.l.)

FPAC members listed in this directory may have additional qualifications, including: 

• Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
• Certified Financial Planner (CFP) (U.S.)
• Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP)
• Family Enterprise Advisor (FEA)
• Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU)

Several of these designations are registered or trademarked (including CFP, QAFP and others), and financial professionals must meet rigorous requirements to earn them. To learn more, click the provided links, which will take you to the official issuing body for each designation.

When looking for a financial advisor, it’s important to do your own research, including a background check and verifying that the advisor has the right credentials to call themselves a financial planner or a financial advisor. If you live in Ontario, you can use the Check Credentials Tool, launched by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA), the province’s financial services regulator, in March 2024.

Payment model 

Advisors may charge for their services in different ways, and they may get paid for their services in multiple ways. Here are all the ways they may be paid: 

• Fees paid by clients based on assets managed by an advisor: Advisors using this “assets under management” or “AUM” payment model charge fees based on the assets they manage on the client’s behalf. For example, if the advisor charges a 2% fee on assets of $100,000, a client would pay $2,000 in annual fees for the advisor’s services.
• Fees paid by clients for advice (not based on assets): Some advisors are “advice-only” planners who charge fees for financial planning advice. Their fees depend on the type and complexity of advice provided. Advice-only planners do not recommend specific investments or insurance products, and they do not manage investments for clients or sell insurance products. Instead, an advice-only planner might review a client’s investment portfolio and make recommendations about their asset allocation, or they might review a client’s overall insurance coverage and recommend where to increase or decrease coverage. Some advisors who manage assets for clients also provide advice for an additional fee (not based on the client’s assets).
• Commissions: Advisors may be paid in the form of sales commissions on products they sell to clients. Products that pay commissions to advisors include mortgages, insurance policies, life annuities, mutual funds and other types of investments. When an advisor is paid by commission, the client does not pay the advisor for that product directly. Instead, the advisor receives the commission directly from the investment or insurance product issuer.

Advice on choosing an advisor

Before choosing an advisor, first consider your needs and goals, then use the Find a Qualified Advisor tool to identify the advisor or advisors who may be right for you. For example: 

• Are you looking for a comprehensive view into your overall financial situation and ability to meet your goals over the longer term? 
• Are you looking for advice about a specific situation such as buying a house, planning for retirement or commuting a pension?
• Do you want investment recommendations and someone to manage your investments for you? 
• Are you looking for a review of your insurance needs, and do you want to purchase insurance coverage to meet those needs? 

Your answers to these questions will help you identify the type of advisor you are looking for, and the Find a Qualified Advisor tool will help you find advisors in Canada who meet your criteria. 

You can learn more about the advisors in our directory by clicking on an advisor’s name, which will take you to their profile page. 

Does your advisor need to be local?

Zoom. Skype. FaceTime. Google Meet. Microsoft Teams. How we meet with our financial planners has changed a ton since 2020. More advisors offer virtual meetings for financial planning, and clients seem to like it, too. 

A 2022 study found that 57% of people polled preferred virtual meetings. And 29% would use video meetings exclusively, and 28% like a mix with occasional in-person meetings. 

The advisors on this qualified advisor tool offer virtual meetings for introductory calls, financial planning and check-ins with clients. So, if you don’t find someone in your city, know that you can connect with a Canadian qualified advisor somewhere else. Just be sure to check that their services align with your needs.

About MoneySense Editors

MoneySense editors and journalists work closely with leading personal finance experts in Canada. Since 1999, our award-winning magazine has helped Canadians navigate money matters.

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