The Alberta Insurance Council’s Life Insurance Council issued a decision sanctioning Rosemary Emenim for falsely declaring that she was not engaged in another occupation on licensing application and renewal forms.
A life, accident and sickness certificate of authority holder since April 2021, the agent in May 2022 disclosed that she was engaged in another occupation and had been since September 2018 – an occupation that was not disclosed on her initial application or subsequent renewal applications in April and May 2021.
When asked to provide an explanation, the agent wrote to the council saying she did not remember seeing the question related to outside business activities in the earlier applications. She also said it was her first experience applying for a license, and then provided her employment history to answer the council’s questions. She added that leaving some fields blank was an unintentional mistake.
The council took particular issue with the way Emenim filled out the applications, primarily for assuming that providing her employment history would be sufficient and would answer the application’s questions. “As insurance agents are working for and completing applications on behalf of clients, it is not unreasonable to expect that a high standard of due diligence be practiced by insurance agents when completing applications, be that their own applications or client applications,” the insurance council’s decision states.
In ordering civil penalties in the case, the council ordered Emenim to pay $250 for each misleading application filed, resulting in a total civil penalty of $1,000.
