Executive summary
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) is an independent regulatory agency established to improve consumer protection in Ontario. FSRA promotes high standards of business conduct by regulating financial services sectors, including the Financial Planners and Financial Advisors sector.
For 2025-2026, FSRA will:
- continue to educate life insurance agents through managing general agents[1] (MGAs) and insurers about title use, to improve compliance with the Financial Professionals Title Protection Act, 2019 (FPTPA)
- focus supervision efforts on the credential holder oversight processes of the approved credentialing bodies
What this means for industry and consumers
FSRA’s supervision plan is intended to achieve the following outcomes:
- promote education and awareness about the framework among FSRA’s Life and Health Insurance sector
- assess how well the approved credentialing bodies are adapting as regulated entities under the Financial Professionals Title Protection Framework
- strengthen oversight among credentialing bodies to protect consumers
This supervision plan will support better outcomes for consumers and foster accountability among financial professionals across Ontario.
Background
Since the implementation of the title protection framework, FSRA has established its supervisory priorities and policy direction through ongoing engagement with both consumer and industry stakeholders. Insights gained from these engagements, along with risks and areas for improvement identified during supervisory activities, have informed FSRA’s supervisory focus. Based on these findings, FSRA has developed supervision plans to monitor industry risks and compliance among credentialing bodies and to make recommendations as necessary.
As of the date of this publication, FSRA has approved five (5) credentialing bodies and thirteen (13) credentials. The framework ensures that an individual using the Financial Planner or Financial Advisor title:
- has a minimum standard of education
- is actively supervised by an approved credentialing body
- is subject to a complaints and disciplinary process
In 2024-2025, FSRA set its focus on educating the Life and Health Insurance sector about the framework. FSRA conducted this initiative following the conclusion of the Financial Advisor title transition period on March 28, 2024, and in response to observed evidence of uncredentialed title use within the sector. In 2024-2025, FSRA educated the sector through industry event presentations and the distribution of educational material to nearly 60,000 licensed life insurance agents and two life insurance associations. Additionally, through constructive engagement with life insurers and managing general agents, these entities have committed to taking steps to address the use of uncredentialed titles by their life agents. However, FSRA recognizes further opportunities to raise awareness about title protection within the Life and Health Insurance sector and will continue this initiative in 2025-2026.
In 2024-2025, FSRA also reviewed whether credentialing bodies had implemented improvements based on FSRA’s prior year recommendations and conducted risk-based assessments of their credential holder oversight processes. Through this review, FSRA observed that credentialing bodies had made progress in addressing identified areas for improvement. Overall, FSRA concluded that oversight of credential holders remains a key area for improvement across some credentialing bodies and will continue to prioritize this in 2025–2026 to support consumer protection.
FSRA’s 2025-2026 Areas of Supervision
Component #1: Continue to educate Life Insurance Agents through Managing General Agents (MGAs) and Insurers
In 2025-2026, FSRA will continue its efforts to address uncredentialed title use in the Life and Health Insurance sector, building on the educational initiative launched in 2024-2025. This effort seeks to uphold the integrity of the framework and protect consumers by ensuring title users are appropriately credentialed, supervised and subject to a complaints and disciplinary process.
FSRA’s 2025-2026 supervisory activities will involve:
- following up with the managing general agents and insurers engaged in 2024-2025 aiming to reduce uncredentialed title use
- engaging additional life insurance sector entities where FSRA identified uncredentialed title usage to educate them about the framework
1. Following up with the managing general agents and insurers engaged in 2024-2025 aiming to reduce uncredentialed title use
In 2024-2025, FSRA engaged seven (7) life insurance companies and managing general agents to educate them on the title protection framework and the implications of uncredentialed title use. Several entities committed to implementing measures designed to raise awareness of the framework and reduce uncredentialed title use. FSRA intends to continue engaging with these entities to assess their progress in implementing these strategies. Additionally, the information obtained from these engagements will help FSRA set best practices that MGAs and insurers can follow to ensure their agents properly use the protected titles.
2. Engaging additional life sector entities where FSRA identified uncredentialed title usage to educate them about the framework
FSRA will select additional life insurers and/or MGAs where uncredentialed title use is observed and educate them about the FPTPA. FSRA will set out expectations and share best practices with these entities, based on insights from previous engagements, to support their efforts in ensuring their life agents comply with the Act. FSRA will seek commitments from the selected entities to address issues noted within their respective business processes, with the goal of upholding the integrity of the title protection framework.
Component #2: Focusing supervision efforts on credential holder oversight processes at the credentialing bodies
Given that the areas for improvement identified during the 2024-2025 supervisory period were predominately related to credential holder oversight processes, FSRA will focus on strengthening these processes at some of the credentialing bodies during the 2025-2026 fiscal year. Strengthening credential holder oversight processes promotes professionalism among Financial Planners and Financial Advisors, while also bolstering consumer protection. For instance, FSRA may recommend that a credentialing body improve its processes to conduct environmental scans for disciplinary actions related to their credential holders. This recommendation would assist credentialing bodies to effectively monitor the suitability of their credential holders. FSRA would assess whether the changes made to the credentialing bodies’ oversight processes for credential holders are aligned with FSRA’s goal of consumer protection.
Conclusion
The 2025-2026 Supervision Plan intends to raise awareness of the title protection framework in the Life and Health Insurance sector and strengthen credential holder oversight. The 2025-2026 Supervision Plan aims to reduce uncredentialed title usage by educating life insurers and MGAs about the title protection framework. This helps protect consumers from the risks associated with individuals who are not qualified to provide financial advice. Additionally, improving credential holder oversight processes at the credentialing bodies will help further protect consumers and promote high standards of business conduct among credential holders.
[1] Managing General Agents (MGAs) are intermediaries which are generally licensed as corporate or partnership agencies to distribute life insurance. They generally have an agreement with insurance companies to find agents to sell the insurers’ products. Typically, insurers delegate compliance duties such as agent screening, training, and monitoring to their MGAs.