Survey finds advice gap widest for investors with $50K or less: OSC

TORONTO — A research study done for the Ontario Securities Commission says investors with small- and mid-sized portfolios may be receiving insufficient information about financial planning from their advisers.

The conclusion is based on findings of a cross-Canada online survey of about 3,000 people who have financial advisers.

It says 43 per cent of respondents said they didn’t think their adviser provided education about financial concepts and the vast majority got no advice about debt management, tax and estate planning or planning for a family member.

The report says the pattern was consistent across most categories of advised investors but was most pronounced for respondents with portfolios worth less than $50,000.

It says the survey provides evidence of potentially significant shortfalls in the scope, timeliness and effectiveness of educational information that advised investors receive.

The survey of investors with advisers was conducted in English and French by Innovative Research Group on behalf of the OSC’s investor advisory panel.

According to the polling industry’s generally accepted standards, online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.

The Canadian Press