A recent survey in Alberta shows that most insurers have effective policies in place with agents and brokers. This is a good thing. These policies are to make sure that regulations are followed and the agents and brokers are meeting expected compliance.
This "Risk Based Market Conduct Survey" had few gaps in compliance. The survey considered how well companies screened adjuster, agent and broker qualifications, product knowledge and their compensation. The findings were released by The Ministry of Finance and Enterprise at the end of April, and can be viewed at the link show below.
The insurance companies make sure that the agents and brokers have valid Certificates of Authority except for about 7% who admitted to not having this type of policy in place.
The numbers were not quite as good when it came to adjusters. Only 55% of the responding companies said they follow procedures to ensure adjusters have valid Certificates of Authority. Life and health insurers were 34% of the respondents, and they do not use Adjusters. A full 11% stated they have have no policies or processes.
Most of the companies said they had screening processes in place for suitable sales representatives - 77%. While 13% said this process was not applicable to them. Companies that do not screen sales representatives totaled 10%.
The sales representative's knowledge numbers dropped even further. 56% of the
insurers say that the rules do not apply on the requirement to ensure the restricted sales representative has knowledge of insurance products, since they do not use this type of agent. It is interesting to note that 30% have policies in place and that 7% do not.
Compensation compliance is much higher. There is 85% following policies to make sure they only compensate authorized agents.
The response overall is that 92% said they’ve incorporated all the policies into their relevant business operations. Many insurers (74%), have updated their procedures to reflect changes in activities or products within the last year. All but 7% also have protocols in place to report non-compliance with their overall policies.
