Financial Advisors: directory of firms

Securities regulation in Canada is provincial and territorial. The Canadian Securities Administrators explain that anyone in the business of trading securities or advising clients on securities must be registered with the securities regulator in each province or territory where they do business unless an exemption applies, with those exemptions set out in National Instrument 31-103 and related rules. Regulators register firms and individuals only if they are properly qualified, which is why the check is worth two minutes of anybody's time.

The category matters as much as the fact of registration. The Canadian Securities Administrators note that the category of registration tells you what products and services a firm or individual can offer — a mutual fund dealing representative, for instance, is limited to mutual funds. The National Registration Search lets you search by individual name, firm name or number and to narrow by jurisdiction and category, and historical registration information is available from September 28, 2009 onwards.

The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization publishes a second check. Its AdvisorReport is available for advisors currently approved with an investment dealer, but not for individuals registered in the mutual fund dealer category, for whom the regulator points people back to the National Registration Search. Information about former advisors who were the subject of disciplinary action remains published rather than being removed, so a search that turns up nothing is not the same as a search you never ran.

Ontario has a title protection framework administered by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario. The transition period for the Financial Advisor title concluded on March 28, 2024: since then, anyone using that title or a similar one in Ontario must hold an approved credential from a FSRA-approved credentialing body. The corresponding transition period for the Financial Planner title concluded on March 28, 2026. FSRA publishes a Check Credentials tool so consumers can confirm whether the person in front of them holds an approved credential, whether they are in good standing with their credentialing body and whether they have a disciplinary history.

Québec is stricter on the planner title specifically: nobody may use the title of financial planner or purport to offer financial planning services without the appropriate certificate issued by the Autorité des marchés financiers, and that certificate depends on holding the financial planning diploma issued by the Institute of Financial Planning. The Autorité maintains a public register of firms and individuals authorized to practise so you can confirm what the person you are dealing with is permitted to do.

New Brunswick's Financial Advisors and Financial Planners Title Protection Act came into force on January 1, 2026, with the Financial and Consumer Services Commission approving credentialing bodies and credentials; the regime is voluntary in the sense that a professional may simply decline to use a protected title, and transition periods of two years for financial advisor and four years for financial planner apply to those already using the titles. Elsewhere in Canada there may be no title restriction at all, which is the single best argument for checking registration rather than relying on a title.

Compensation shapes advice, and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada says so plainly: advisors paid by commission have an incentive to encourage you to invest where they will earn more, while those on salary may have an incentive to promote the products and services their employer offers. Neither observation makes an advisor unsuitable; not knowing which one applies to yours is the problem.

The agency suggests asking about qualifications and regulatory status, about the firm and its services, and about the working relationship and how the advisor is paid — whether by salary, commission or other arrangements. Ask for that in writing along with the range of products the firm can actually offer, because an advisor limited to one product shelf is not being dishonest by recommending from it, but you should know the shelf exists before you are standing in front of it.

Complaints start with the firm. If you are not satisfied with the response of a member of the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization, or if you have not received a response within 90 days, the complaint can be taken to the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, a free, independent and impartial service for resolving investment and banking disputes with participating firms; all of the regulator's dealer members must belong to it. Where the firm has responded, there is a window of 180 days from that response to bring the matter to the ombudsman, so the clock is worth noting the day the letter arrives.

The regulator also accepts complaints about the conduct of a firm or an individual it oversees, which is a different route from seeking money back, and the securities commission in your province handles matters outside its remit. Investor protection against the insolvency of a member firm is separate again, and is not protection against an investment losing value.

LokalMatch publishes a directory of financial advisors by city. Firms describe their own practice and you contact them yourself. We do not refer clients to advisors, we receive nothing in connection with any account you open or any advice you act on, and we do not present any firm as a better answer than another.

We also do not give financial advice or evaluate anyone's. Every check described on this page is one you can run yourself in a public register, free, and those registers — not a listing page and not a title — are what tell you whether the person across the table may do what they are proposing to do.