When one spouse stole $10,000 from the other’s Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA), Dennis Jerome Duclos was the advisor processing the request. Because neither spouse had trading authorization over the other’s accounts, and because Duclos hid complaints about the transfer from his firm, the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA), now the New Self-Regulatory Organization of Canada (New SRO), entered into a settlement agreement fining Duclos $25,000 plus costs in the amount of $2,500.
In addition to processing the unauthorized redemption and hiding two complaints from the affected client before the client complained directly to Sun Life Financial Investment Services (Canada) Inc. (the firm compensated the client for the full $10,000), Duclos is also being sanctioned for altering forms four times for two different clients between 2014 and 2018 without getting the clients to initial the alterations. For 11 months in 2019 and 2020 he also failed to record client trading instructions for 16 redemptions made in four client accounts.
Following the firm’s investigation into Duclos’ conduct, the Waterloo, Ontario representative, registered since 2011, paid $5,000 to partially reimburse Sun Life for the compensation it paid to the client and spent six months working under close supervision.
The hearing panel unanimously accepted the settlement agreement in late 2022. They note that failing to record client trading instructions alone violates three MFDA rules. “We were, unanimously of the view that this settlement agreement was reasonable and in the public interest and should be accepted by the hearing panel,” the reasons for decision document concludes.