In Saskatchewan, a lapsed crop hail errors and omissions (E&O) insurance policy, making material misstatements on a renewal application and failing to respond to the province’s insurance regulator will cost Wayne Robert Horkoff $924.
Broken down, Horkoff was ordered to pay a $594 penalty and investigation costs in the amount of $330. First licensed in June 2010, Horkoff was without the requisite E&O coverage for 55 days in 2025. When the council’s licensing representatives emailed to request an explanation as to why there was no coverage in place in April and May that year, Horkoff did not provide a response.
“Every business and individual that applies for or holds an insurance intermediary’s license shall meet and maintain the prescribed financial security requirements,” the consensual agreement and undertaking in the case states.
Crop hail producers in Saskatchewan must maintain a valid policy that provides a minimum of $250,000 coverage for any one occurrence and a minimum aggregate limit of $500,000 for all occurrences within a year. The agreement between Horkoff and the General Insurance Council of Saskatchewan (GICS) notes that agents must also notify the council immediately if they are without the prescribed financial security requirements. They also add that it is misconduct to make a material misstatement on an application for licensing, noting that Horkoff did as much when he claimed to have a valid policy in place when he renewed his license in June 2025.
Although the province’s General Insurance Council instituted a minimum $2,000 fine for similar lapses in coverage, the Hail Insurance Council chose not to implement a level dollar fine amount, in favour of a calculation involving the number of days the licensee was without coverage and their annual premium at the time, if they had paid it in the first place.
The undertaking also explains that in order to maintain coverage for any errors made in the past, even while insured, the policy must not lapse. “If the policy is not kept in force and there is a lapse, the licensee may not have coverage for losses which occurred during and prior to the lapse,” it states.
