The Alberta Insurance Council announced it has fined Canadian Farm Services Inc. and its agent, William Grieve $1,000 each, after Grieve self-reported that he had been compensated for sales made while he was unlicensed.
According to the agreed statement of facts, Grieve agrees he sold an accidental death and dismemberment product as an add-on to a commercial general liability product when he was not properly licensed to sell the product. The agency has primarily sold a commercial general liability product sponsored by Chubb Insurance Company of Canada since mid-2016.
On November 2019, Grieve emailed the insurance council to advise that he had inadvertently engaged in unlicensed activity after being approached by the Chubb to sell the add-on product. Grieve says he was advised by Chubb’s president that the product was covered under the agency’s general license. The agency then worked with Chubb to develop a program to market and sell the product. In January 2018, Grieve began to sell the product, before being advised in September 2019 that the product did not fall under the agency’s general license. Upon discovering the licensing issue, the agency ceased selling and compensating Grieve for the sale of the product, reported the situation to all impacted clients and self-reported the issue to the Alberta Insurance Council. The agency has since obtained the proper licenses to sell the product.
In addition to the $1,000 civil penalties, the insurance council issued a warning, saying both the agent and the agency are aware that any similar future occurrences may result in potential fines for both the agent and the agency alike, as high as $1,000 for every policy sold by an unlicensed agent.
