Following a hearing convened to dispute an intended decision of the Insurance Council of British Columbia, and following an appeal of the council’s order, a Financial Services Tribunal (FST) has concluded that a fine imposed in February 2019 against Xiao Mei Zou was reasonable and within the range of acceptable outcomes.
The FST also determined that the imposition of hearing costs against Zou – a level 3 general insurance agent and life accident and sickness insurance agent – was fair, but added that the council had provided inadequate reasons for the assessment. The FST remitted the issue of hearing costs back to the council for reconsideration, directing it to include new dates for payment and fulfillment of the various conditions set out in the February 2019 order.
The new order, dated April 2, 2020 states that Zou must successfully complete any missing continuing education credits from 2015 and 2016, on or before July 1, 2020. The agent must also successfully complete the Council Rules Course through Advocis, before that date as well. In addition, Zou is fined $1,000 for each year in which she failed to complete the required continuing education credit for a total of $3,000 and must pay the council’s hearing costs of $5,875.71 on or before September 29, 2020. Failure to pay her penalties or failure to complete the specified training will result in suspension of her licenses.
Although Zou maintains that her agency was supposed to have kept track of her continuing education credits, the insurance council maintains that, having been licensed since 2006, Zou knew or ought to have known that she was responsible for maintaining her own CE records and for producing them when asked. Although Zou did submit some records over time, some were duplicates. “The totality of the certificates still did not show that she had achieved the required number of credits.”
