Dear Editor,

I am totally in line with what Ray Black has to say about transferring dealers in his letter to you in the November-December 2014 issue of The Insurance and Investment Journal. I was in the same boat as him in 2011. My old dealer is into boutique shops and not into an independent guy like me, so I decided to move over to a dealer that was more inclined to accept my business.I have 33 years in the industry and I was appalled at the solicitation by the old dealer of not only my mutual fund clients but my segregated fund clients as well. I complained about the segregated fund client to FSCO and they said that the dealer has the right.

This is obviously wrong as far as I am concerned because the insurance companies have me as a vested advisor. This does not hold water in that old dealer’s eyes. I have had clients really worried and upset over the dealer telling them that I have left the company – such wording makes it seem like I have left the industry. I made a great effort to contact them in time, but was not always successful in getting the client to follow me over.

Moving dealers should not be a catalyst for clients to have a reason not to follow their trusted and long servicing advisor. Other than this letter to you, I do not know what can be done about the shanghaiing methods some dealers practice. We as advisors need some protection from these poachers.

Gerald Letourneau
Account Executive
Chippawa Financial