IDA (ACCOVAM) - the Canadian Investment Dealer’s Association.

Independent Adviser (Conseiller indépendant) - an adviser that provides financial planning services and operates on an hourly basis only, without selling additional financial services (such as portfolio management) and without revenue sharing with brokers. See the AMF definition of a financial planner (AMF Definitions of Intermediaries (doc.530); a financial planner may, depending on how he operates, constitute an independent advisor as we define the term. See also the section Alternative ways of investing- Independent Adviser.

Index Mutual Fund (FCP-I) - a mutual fund which invests in the securities markets broadly, generally investing in each security, in proportion to its relative importance or weight in the market. See section Index Funds (ET’s and Index Mutual Funds) for a discussion.

Investment Counsel (Conseiller en valeurs) - A firm also sometimes known as an adviser (see the AMF Definitions of Intermediaries (doc.530) which specializes in advising typically high net-worth clients (often institutional clients) in investing in securities, without directly providing the trade execution services of a broker. In summary, it is the person a client goes to for investment advice and who may also look after the management of the client’s portfolio (in which event, the firm uses a broker for trade execution). See the section How to invest- investment counsel.

Issuer (Émetteur) - a company, trust or other organization which can issue shares or units to finance its activities. An issuer is a broader term than company or corporation since it includes entities such as ETFs, mutual funds and income trusts which issue units and are not created under corporate legislation.