Following an audit in August 2021 which sought to verify that the continuing education (CE) credits claimed on license renewal applications were correct, the General Insurance Council of the Alberta Insurance Council levied sanctions against at least six different agents, alleging the agents failed or refused to provide information requested in a formal demand for information.
The agents were all selected as auditees at random and asked to provide proof of their claimed CE credits. In all cases, the regulator sent the agents three emails, and a telephone call to remind them of the demand. In each case the agent’s certificates of authority were suspended due to the failure to produce the required CE records. (Regulations in that province state that if an individual does not provide records within 30 days of such a demand, their certificate of authority is suspended.)
After receiving their respective reports, five out of the six agents provided all of the records requested. “The agent did respond, but it was outside of the period set out in the demand,” the decisions state.
The decisions also state that such records must be kept for a period of three years following the expiry of the certificate term, and must be provided to the Minister upon request. (The Minister of Treasury Board and Finance has delegated its authority to the Alberta Insurance Council.)
Because the agents subsequently satisfied the audit requirements after receiving the council’s report, the regulator ordered Gazmend Hasaj, Nisarg Patel, Jayduth Chumun, Maria Train, and Ankit Patel to each pay a civil penalty of $500.
In the last case, council assessed a civil penalty of $750 after Jessamea Zabala, recruited in 2019, wrote to the council after receiving the report, to say that she did not wish to have her license reinstated. “My experience as a life insurance agent has been very expensive with no returns in sight. I do not wish to have my license reinstated but I hope I do not have to pay any more fees,” Zabala wrote to the council.
