Darin Diehl didn’t introduce himself so much as jump headlong into my life. There was never a question of us being mere colleagues, although that was how we met. He had an irresistible gregariousness that turned every relationship into a friendship.

Diehl was with the Toronto-based mutual fund shop Global Strategy in the late 1990s when we first connected, part of a team that built a practice management and news service for Canadian financial advisors. He and Dwayne Desaulniers hosted a 4 p.m. market wrap that we used to dial into on our landline telephones.

Both were recruited by Rogers Media in 2001 to launch Advisor.ca — an early web property that complemented Advisor’s Edge, which I’d helped launch in 1998. That cinched it. He and I would be teammates, in one form or another, for good.

We lost him a little more than three years ago. As if it wasn’t cruel enough to see such a joyful life cut short, it was lung cancer that took our friend, a lifelong non-smoker.

Read more

We are thrilled to welcome Jeff Cait to Advisor.ca as a regular contributor. His first piece for us is on better Reason Why letters, that are “categorically different from the regulatory version.”

“Traditional retirement planning — the linear kind that assumes uninterrupted work until 65 — is no longer enough,” writes Robin Riviere. Ten questions to ask your clients.

A former Equifax employee has filed a class action application against the company, alleging that the credit bureau allowed one of its third-party partners to access his credit file without consent. Michelle Schriver reports.

Canaccord Genuity Group Inc., is paying US$75 million to settle allegations that it failed to guard against manipulative trading and other illicit activity. James Langton has the story.