The Mutual Fund Dealers Association (MFDA) has fined a pair of Ontario advisors, in separate decisions, and has issued their reasons for decision in each case where the advisors in question used pre-signed forms and made alterations to client forms without getting clients to initial those alterations.

According to the MFDA, Magdalene Mun-Yin Wong of Richmond Hill, Ontario, and Diane Knyf of Burlington, Ontario have each been fined for obtaining and using pre-signed forms, and for altering forms without getting clients to initial the alterations. In Wong’s case, the dealing representative was also sanctioned for cutting and pasting two client signatures from used forms onto new account forms before submitting those forms for processing.

Wong, registered since November 2001 and employed with Investia Financial Services Inc. since August 2017, admitted to cutting and pasting the client signatures sometime between October 2015 and May 2018. She also admits she obtained, possessed and in some cases used 10 pre-signed forms for six different clients between August and December 2018. Between 2018 and 2020 she also altered and used nine account forms for seven different clients. Wong was fined $17,000 and has paid the MFDA’s costs of $2,500. 

In Knyf’s case, the FundEX Investment Inc. dealing representative, registered since January 2008, obtained, possessed and used to process transactions, seven pre-signed forms for six different clients between 2013 and 2018. She also admits to altering and using 19 account forms for 16 clients between 2014 and 2015, without having the clients initial the alterations. The reasons for decision document states that Knyf has paid a fine of $13,000 and costs totaling $2,500.

In both cases, the firms issued letters to clients with a transaction history asking clients to ensure that all transaction activity in their accounts was authorized. The letters also asked clients to contact the firms if their personal or financial circumstances had changed. No clients raised any concerns in response to the letters. In addition to their MFDA fines, both representatives were also placed under strict supervision, charged administrative penalties to cover the cost of client mailings and were issued warning letters by their respective firms.