Advocis announced this week that it has launched an initiative to help Canadian consumers build their financial savvy.

The initiative, is branded MyMoneySmarts™ – Build your financial savvy. Shape your future™. It focuses on “educating Canadians across generations about how money, credit and debt management; and saving, spending and investing, all work together,” stated Advocis, The Financial Advisors Association of Canada, in a Nov. 1 announcement.

Making sound financial and life decisions

"Canadians are very smart, educated people. But it's our 'money smarts', our knowledge of what you need to know to make sound financial and life decisions, that's lacking," says Greg Pollock, president and CEO of Advocis.

The core of the initiative is a new micro-website mymoneysmarts.ca launched Nov. 1. The site, which Advocis plans to grow over time, features articles on financial topics such as how having joint bank accounts can make your financial life easier; the value of having a financial advisor to guide you and why financial savvy is important in the new "freelance" economy.

Supports national strategy

MyMoneySmarts is the start of a long-term plan by Advocis to promote financial literacy in support of the national financial literacy strategy, Count me in, Canada, launched by the federal government in 2015.

Advocis is encouraging financial advisors to actively promote and participate in MyMoneySmarts, and financial literacy. Individual Advocis chapters across Canada have begun taking the lead in presenting Junior Achievement (JA) Canada financial literacy programs on a voluntary basis to students in their local elementary, middle and high schools. "Financial advisors have a critically important role to play," says Pollock.

Financial literacy networks

Advocis is also encouraging its 40 chapters to help create financial literacy networks in their communities that would bring together representatives of municipal councils, Advocis, JA Canada and chambers of commerce, to develop stronger financial literacy programs in their communities.

"This initiative is currently in the works in our Kingston, Ontario chapter," explains Pollock. "Once the Kingston financial literacy network is established, it will be a model other Advocis chapters can follow."

November is financial literacy month in Canada.