by Tom Bradley

Canadian investors recently lost a great advocate. Glorianne Stromberg passed away in Toronto on October 15th.

Glorianne was a corporate and securities lawyer who penned two seminal papers on the mutual fund industry in the 1990’s. Her work has influenced regulatory policy ever since, albeit with unnecessary delay. People who worked with her said she was always interested in investor protection and knew mutual fund regulation as well, or better, than anyone. She was a good listener, always hearing people out, and never said anything she hadn’t thoroughly thought through.

To learn more about this forward thinker, I’d suggest you read this excellent article by Melissa Shin on Advisor.ca.

A quote in the piece from my friend, Dan Hallett of Highview Financial Group, perfectly captures our relationship with Glorianne:

“I feel like I knew her better than I really did because of her many years of very public advocacy. She was warm and soft-spoken. Unlike her physical stature, her presence in — and impact on — our industry were enormous ... The industry listened when she spoke — even if they didn’t like what she said. One of the things I most admired about her was her will to stand up for investors because that often meant standing up to a lot of industry pushback.”

To Dan’s point, Glorianne’s influence on me, and the firms I worked for (PH&N and Steadyhand), far outweighed the time I had to spend with her. I didn’t know her well, but when we talked, we were on the same page on the issues of transparency, client reporting, and conflicts of interest. My partners and I have tried to walk her talk ever since her reports came out. What she proposed just made sense.

Glorianne will be missed but her legacy lives on.