Peter Hodson and the OSC's Registration Charade

If Warren Buffett, having now retired as CEO of Berkshire, moved to Canada to relaunch his career as a fund manager, he might need to complete an apprenticeship before getting his regulatory license. This is essentially what happened when Peter Hodson returned to fund management after nearly a decade away. Peter is a former Senior Portfolio Manager and Chairman of Sprott Asset Management. He is one of the most well-known stock-pickers in the country, with decades of experience. Peter, who had at one point been in charge of portfolios worth $1.2B, found himself forced to settle for the license of Associate Advising Representative at Belco Private Capital. That's an investment firm founded by Kevin Cohen, who is also the founder of AUM Law. People on the buyside can typically achieve the rank of Associate Advising Representative in their 20s. One pathway is to complete Level 1 of the CFA and two years as an analyst. So pretty minimal requirements. The arrangement meant that Peter had to go through the charade of having his stock picks approved by a fully licensed portfolio manager. Most observers would say he was supervised by someone who had less credentials than him. In this post, I expose one aspect of the Ontario Securities Commission’s Registration Racket, a kabuki dance sustained by scheming lawyers within the commission in tacit collusion with greedy lawyers on the outside.