Regulators across the country have continuing education (CE) infractions in their sights, issuing a range of penalties for failing to complete requisite course work and for failing to respond to CE audit demands for information.
In Ontario, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) has imposed a summary administrative penalty of $1,000, after licensed life insurance agent Maria Elenea Lozano failed to complete the required 30 hours of CE.
In Alberta, meanwhile, a former agent who’d been licensed as an employee for less than two years, was fined after leaving her employment with her former agency, for not responding to the Alberta Insurance Council’s formal demand for information in its October 2021 CE audit, after she’d left the industry. (Auditees were selected at random and asked to provide proof of CE credits.)
In the council’s decision it was noted that Rida Batool was shocked to receive the notice of a fine, given that she was no longer an employee and was unable to provide CE evidence as her course work was completed through the agency’s employee learning site. To contact Batool, the council sent an undeliverable email, priority registered mail and a telephone voicemail. For failing to respond, the insurance council fined Batool $500 saying the Insurance Act in that province requires that all holders and former holders of certificates of authority provide information when called upon.
Finally, in Saskatchewan, Maricel Maronilla Praxedes admitted she was guilty of misconduct when she failed to meet the 15 CE credit hours requirement between 2018 and 2019. In addition to completing the missing 7.25 hours, Praxedes must also pay a penalty of $1,000 to the Life Insurance Council of Saskatchewan and pay investigation costs of $550.
