In private lending, a broker typically owes disclosure duties to both sides of the transaction — the borrower and the private lender or investor — and the specifics differ meaningfully by province. Getting this right is a professional and regulatory obligation, not a courtesy extended when convenient.
Under FSRA's framework, disclosures to a private lender or to each investor in a qualified syndicated mortgage must use the prescribed Form 1 – Investor/Lender Disclosure Statement, signed by a licensed broker (not an agent). Form 1 covers the brokerage's relationship with lenders, its remuneration, any conflicts of interest, and the material risks of the mortgage to both borrower and lender. Separately, cost-of-borrowing disclosure — the APR and fees — is owed to the borrower under O.Reg 191/08, at the earliest opportunity and no later than two business days before the mortgage is signed. These are two distinct obligations to two distinct audiences, both mandatory.
Under BC's current Mortgage Brokers Act regime, submortgage brokers and brokerages must disclose conflicts of interest — direct interests such as commissions or ownership stakes, and indirect interests flowing to associates — using the prescribed Form 10, provided to the borrower before signing and to the lender before funds are advanced. BC's Mortgage Services Act comes into force October 13, 2026, replacing this framework entirely. Confirm current disclosure forms and rules directly with BCFSA as that transition lands, rather than assuming the Form 10 regime is unchanged after that date.
RECA's framework requires licensees to act honestly, to disclose how they will be paid at the earliest practical opportunity, and to disclose any conflict of interest — with written informed consent required from the affected party before proceeding where a genuine conflict exists. Alberta also runs a representation framework worth understanding on its own terms: whether the broker represents the borrower, the lender, or acts as an intermediary treating both as customers changes what duty — fiduciary versus basic honest dealing — is owed to each side of the deal.
Private transactions more often involve the broker, the brokerage, or someone connected to them having a direct or indirect financial stake — as the lender, a co-investor, or through a referral arrangement. That's exactly the situation these disclosure regimes are built to surface, which means a broker arranging private money needs to be more careful, not less, about who they represent and who needs to see what.
Treat disclosure as an ongoing duty through the life of the deal, not a form signed once at the start. If circumstances or interests change — a new referral fee, a change in who's actually funding the deal — the disclosure needs to be updated and reissued, not left as it stood on day one.
A mortgage broker in Ontario is arranging a mortgage funded by a private individual investor. Which document is specifically prescribed for disclosing the arrangement's risks and the brokerage's remuneration to that investor?
Ontario's prescribed Form 1 is specifically the investor/lender-facing disclosure for private and qualified syndicated mortgage transactions, signed by a licensed broker. Form 10 is the tempting wrong answer here because it's a real, correctly-named disclosure form — just BC's conflict-of-interest form, not Ontario's investor disclosure, which is exactly the kind of cross-province mix-up this module is designed to prevent.
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