The Globe & Mail reports that a coalition of Canadian investment regulators have offered 55 investment firms that referred business to the scandal plagued hedge fund company Portus a settlement term. The terms were to repay the referral fees paid to advisors of said firms in exchange for dropping investigations against the firms and their financial advisors.

The deadline for firms to accept the offer is January 24th, 2006. Manulife has previously offered restitution proactively. 2 firms that have already accepted the terms of the proposal are Berkshire Securities (widely publicized during this scandal) and Aegon Dealer Service Canada Inc.

I feel this settlement offer is really generous and the advisors and firms involved are certainly getting away from this with a light slap on the hand! I predict that almost all the firms will accept the settlement terms by its deadline.

I know people who are part of the Aegon distribution channel and some have referred clients to Portus. It’ll be interesting to see if I can find out whether the settlement will be at the cost of the firms or if advisors have to be charged-back for the referral fees they earned themselves. You can also read my views on previous posts here.

Globe & Mail: Firms given option to repay Portus fees