Hundreds of Ontario insurance agents targeted for CE non-compliance

Life agents in Ontario were reminded Thursday by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) to complete their continuing education (CE) credits or risk regulatory action.

The regulator’s market conduct report for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022, detailed a review during the year of more than 7,300 insurance agents’ renewals and licensing applications. In total, FSRA regulates more than 67,000 agents in the life and health insurance sector, the report said.

The review resulted in 539 letters of warning in the sector, most (445) for failing to complete CE hours, the report said.

Other letters of warning were issued for non-disclosure of a potential suitability issue (69), failure to maintain updated errors and omissions insurance (15) and “other” activities (10).

FSRA also processed 344 withdrawals of insurance agent applications, with the most common reason for withdrawal being no response from the agent or their sponsor (213).

Fifty-seven files were escalated for further regulatory action, with a licensee’s bankruptcy or consumer proposal being the most common reason for escalation (17 files). Other reasons included enforcement action by another regulator (16) and the licensee having a criminal record (11).

Of the 57 files, the most common outcomes were conditions added to the licence or the application being withdrawn, the report said.

The main themes of the review — insufficient CE credits and suitability to hold a licence — were reflected in the year’s completed regulatory actions in the insurance sector, the regulator said.

These completed regulatory actions were:

• 17 conditions on licence,
• eight letters of warning,
• six administrative or summary administrative monetary penalties, and
• two licensing refusals/suspensions.

Disclosure: Newcom Media, owner of Advisor.ca, also owns CECorner.ca, which offers CE courses to insurance agents and financial advisors.

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.