Strathmore, Alberta insurance agent, Sean Ronson Nethercott is being fined by the Alberta Insurance Council again, after he allegedly made changes to a client’s insurance policy without the client’s knowledge or consent.
In one previous decision the council fined Nethercott $5,000 and suspended his certificates of authority after he lead two clients to believe they were insured when one was left uninsured. In another, the suspended agent was fined a further $5,000 for falsely declaring that he’d completed continuing education credits when he did not.
In this most recent case the insurance council says it commenced an investigation after the client accused Nethercott of modifying her life insurance policy without her knowledge or consent.
Although the client believed she was covered for $50,000, the face amount of her policy was reduced to $40,000, then $30,000, after the client said she was interested in reducing the premiums she was paying each month.
“I spoke with him and asked if there was some way of reducing the premium I was paying while still keeping the $50,000 in coverage. He responded that due to the visit by the nurse in June 2017 that I qualified for a new lower rate of approximately $69.00. I agreed that was acceptable provided that the amount of the policy remained at $50,000,” the client wrote in a statement to the insurance council.
Later, when calling the agency for something unrelated, she was informed that Nethercott no longer worked for the insurer and that her policy was for $30,000, not $50,000 as she believed. The client maintains that she did not sign off on any of the policy changes. More, she provided documents, including a plan summary, showing a base insurance amount of $50,000 with monthly premiums of $69.71.
“The insurer documents provided to the (Alberta Insurance Council) directly from the agency differ substantially when compared to the documents that the agent provided to the client,” the council writes in its decision. “The council is satisfied that there is sufficient, clear and cogent evidence that the requisite elements of an offense under (the Alberta Insurance Act) have been met and that the agent’s conduct was intentional, dishonest or untrustworthy.”
