Our office has been very fortunate. The Lunch and Learn presentations have been successful in driving interest to our office from prospective clients. In the prospective client meetings, I am noticing a growing trend – people are concerned with the sustainability and solvency of our dealer, Assante Capital Management Ltd. This is not due to a poor brand in the industry but more so indicative of the sophistication and growth of fraudulent activity in our industry as a whole.
I thought it to be prudent to address these concerns with those who may not be aware of the protection their accounts have while invested with us.
Firstly, there is the protection of being wholly owned by CI Financial, one of Canada’s largest investment fund companies. CI Financial is Canadian-owned and publicly traded on the TSX. It has a market capitalization of over $10B.
Secondly, Assante Capital Management Ltd. is a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund. The majority of legitimate dealers will be a member of this fund. Simply put, our clients’ accounts can be insured up to $1M against dealer insolvency. Please note that the protection does not cover losses due to market fluctuations.
Thirdly, Assante employs the services of 3rd party providers for the purposes of securities tracking and record keeping. In fact, physical securities are held by the National Bank Correspondent Network, a wholly owned subsidiary of National Bank.
Canadian banks have a great reputation for being financially sound, evidenced by their performance through the 2008 global market crisis. Bank-owned dealers are no different from an independent dealer like Assante when it comes to protecting clients’ assets.
Dealer insolvency is considered an unlikely event, especially since they may be highly regulated by an SRO (IIROC in our case) and if it is backed by a publicly-traded, multibillion dollar corporation that provides transparency and accountability through continuous financial disclosure obligations. That said, losing our clients’ confidence is something we do not take lightly and we want to address any of these concerns immediately.
For further clarification of this topic, please don’t hesitate to contact us at the office.
