Overview of our Services
We live and breathe registrant regulation
Do you have questions about your firm’s ongoing obligations under Canadian securities laws? Are you looking to leverage your existing team or fill in temporary gaps by outsourcing specific general counsel or compliance functions to a law firm that deeply understands your business? Are you planning to start or grow an investment management or wealth management business? Do you know what you need to do, if a member, to stay in compliance with the rules and expectations of Canada’s new self-regulatory organization — the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO)? Do you need legal or regulatory compliance advice about how you manage, distribute and operate your sponsored investment vehicles? AUM Law has the expertise, experience and connections to help you efficiently navigate Canada’s securities regulatory landscape.
AUM Law has been associated with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) since May 2021 and is integrated with BLG’s suite of alternative legal services: BLG Beyond. If a legal or regulatory issue arises that falls outside the scope of AUM Law’s services, we can seamlessly help to source the relevant expertise. In addition, BLG Beyond offers many alternative legal services important to a registrant’s business, including sophisticated consulting services for transformation initiatives and intellectual property advice to help clients navigate and leverage IP assets.
Our regulatory compliance legal and consulting services include:
- Drafting compliance policies and procedures manuals and policies on specific topics
- Drafting client documents, including account agreements, KYC/suitability questionnaires, conflicts disclosure and relationship disclosure information
- Advising on ongoing obligations as a registrant under Canadian securities law, including the enhanced know-your-client (KYC), know-your-product (KYP), suitability and conflict of interest rules set out in the Client Focused Reforms (CFRs) that came into force in 2021
- Performing regulatory compliance gap analyses and developing implementation and remediation plans
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- Providing training seminars on a wide range of topics, including the CFRs and anti-money laundering (AML) requirements
- Undertaking 2-year AML effectiveness reviews and training
- Undertaking targeted compliance risk assessments (aka “mock audits”)
- Guiding clients through regulatory compliance audits and other regulatory sweeps and examinations and assisting with responses to the regulators
- Advising on initial registration requirements and guiding clients through the process
- Assisting with registration of firms and individual registrants and permitted individuals and keeping registration information up to date
- Advising on marketing and sales communications, and carrying out reviews of marketing on a one-off or on-going basis
- Ongoing operational and compliance assistance for private investment funds, mortgage investment entities, and their managers
- Advising on, and assisting with, compliance with regulation relating to employee personal trading
- Advising on ongoing CIRO compliance obligations
- Assisting with remediation of registrant misconduct matters, including liaising with our colleagues in BLG Disputes group, as needed
- Filing reports on NRD, SEDI and SEDAR+, including for exempt trade distributions
- Supplementing in-house teams on an ongoing, temporary or project-oriented basis
Our Approach
AUM Law offers practical, cost-effective legal and consulting advice on securities regulatory compliance matters. We focus on the Canadian investment and wealth management sector, and we have deep expertise in the legal and regulatory issues relevant to firms operating in this industry.
Our team-based approach, fixed-fee annual compliance support plans and other fixed-fee services, extensive experience engaging with securities regulators, and connections with BLG and other service providers in the industry help clients navigate the ever-evolving securities regulatory environment with confidence.
AUM Law has been associated with Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG) since May 2021 and is integrated with BLG’s suite of alternative legal services: BLG Beyond. If a legal or regulatory issue arises that falls outside the scope of AUM Law’s services, we can seamlessly help to source the relevant expertise. In addition, BLG Beyond offers many alternative legal services important to a registrant’s business, including sophisticated consulting services for transformation initiatives and intellectual property advice to help clients navigate and leverage IP assets.
Regulatory Compliance Insights
New Time-Limited Expansion of Permitted EMD Activities
On June 20, 2024, Canadian securities regulators from Ontario, Québec, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Nova Scotia announced an initiative to support capital-raising by early-stage businesses by allowing exempt market dealers (EMDs) to participate as...
Consultation on Total Cost Reporting for Segregated Funds
On May 27, 2024, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) launched a public consultation on its new proposed rules that will affect all insurers that offer customers individual variable insurance contracts (also known as individual segregated...
2023 Annual Report of OSC’s Investor Advisory Panel: Staying Safe
Earlier this month, the Ontario Securities Commission’s Investor Advisory Panel (the Panel) released its annual report. The Panel is an advisory committee to the OSC, that represents the views of retail investors on policy and rule-making initiatives. Among other...