Between April 1, 2025, and March 31, 2026, the Financial Services Compensation Fund (FISF) rendered 10 decisions in favour of individuals who had submitted claims after being defrauded by a representative registered in one of the disciplines covered by the Fund.
Payments made by the Financial Services Compensation Fund in 2025-2026 totalled $550,340.93. Of the claims that were approved, seven were related to the life insurance discipline, two involved mutual fund brokerage and one was associated with group benefits.
In 2025-2026, the Autorité des marchés financiers received 25 claims as part of its administration of the FISF. Fifteen of those claims were denied. Three other claims were closed, the Autorité states in the summary published on September 24 in section 4.4 of its weekly bulletin.
A review process is available to individuals whose compensation claim has been denied. The Autorité’s general secretariat is responsible for conducting the review. In the three cases submitted to it in 2025-2026, the initial decision was upheld.
Life insurance
In the life insurance discipline, two representatives were responsible for the seven approved compensation claims.
One of them, Martin Isabelle, accounts for the largest share of the compensation paid by the FISF in 2025-2026. Payments made to the former representative’s four victims represent 82 per cent of the claims approved during this period.
Isabelle (certificate No. 199307) was found guilty of two misappropriation offences by the disciplinary committee of the Chambre de l’assurance on October 30, 2025. He was permanently struck from the roll in May 2026. He did not participate in the disciplinary process at all.
For one of the compensation claims approved for one of this representative’s victims, the maximum amount of $200,000 was awarded. Changes were made in 2026 to the contributions of representatives subject to the FISF, but the compensation limit per claim remained at $200,000.
For another approved claim involving misconduct by Martin Isabelle, the payment was $197,790.
The other life insurance representative whose misconduct resulted in claims is Minh Anh Nguyen. In his case, all three claims were approved in March 2026.
In February 2026, Nguyen’s certificate and licences were revoked by the Financial Markets Administrative Tribunal (FMAT). In addition, he was ordered to pay administrative penalties totalling $469,719.82. The respondent was absent and unrepresented at the hearing.
Mutual fund brokerage
In the mutual fund brokerage discipline, two claims were approved by the FISF in 2025-2026, both involving Cape Cove Financial Management Inc. The payments were made in May and October 2025.
In 2024-2025, the FISF had paid $9.1 million to 414 claimants in connection with the same firm. It was the second-largest compensation payout in the Autorité’s history, the regulator stated in its annual management report.
The complete list of amounts paid to these claimants appeared in the February 26, 2026 weekly bulletin. Most of these claims had been approved between June 25 and July 3, 2024. The other nine were approved in the following months and through the end of March 2025.
In connection with the Cape Cove matter, in a decision rendered in French by the Superior Court on July 2, 2026, Robert Audet, one of the respondents in the proceeding brought by the Autorité against the companies and individuals who participated in the scheme, sought to have the proceeding split. The Autorité is seeking nearly $16 million from the 27 defendants in the case.
Audet was chair of the board of Cape Cove, which has been under the provisional administration of a trustee since July 2021. The other directors whose names appeared in the Quebec enterprise register are among the defendants in the lawsuit brought by the Autorité.
The court dismissed the application to split the proceeding. The case was filed nearly two years ago “and has been delayed by Mr. Audet’s lack of diligence in filing his application.” No trial date has been set.
The trial could be particularly complex, Justice Ian Demers states at the end of his decision. Approximately 12 defendants have responded to the Autorité’s application. Although the financial impact has not yet been proven, it could be significant, according to the judge.
“They are exposed to a monetary judgment inversely proportional to the limited role they may have played in the scheme,” he writes. Splitting the proceeding would not resolve these concerns, the court adds, calling on the parties to be creative in bringing the proceeding to a conclusion.
Group insurance
The final claim was approved in September 2025 and concerns the group insurance discipline. The payment is related to misconduct committed by A2 Courtiers and Raymond Charruau, who have been subject to freeze orders issued by the TMF since December 2023.
According to the Autorité’s register of registrants, consulted by the Insurance Portal, Charruau (certificate No. 230916) has had no mode of practice as a group insurance of persons representative since May 3, 2023.
On May 28, Administrative Judge Christine Dubé renewed the freeze orders imposed by the TMF on the respondent parties until December 9, 2026.
The complaint filed against Charruau by the syndic of the Chambre de l’assurance was heard by the disciplinary committee on March 4 and 5, 2026. The decision has not yet been published. Two violations were listed on the hearing schedule: the use of false documents and failure to remit amounts collected to the insurer.
After the election
The financial statements of the Financial Services Compensation Fund for 2025-2026 have not yet been released. They will be included in the Autorité des marchés financiers’ 2025-2026 annual management report. The document will be made public once it has been tabled in the National Assembly of Quebec.
The document will be tabled by the finance minister of the next government elected in the October 5, 2026 election. Proceedings of the new legislature are expected to begin during the week of November 16, according to the provisional calendar provided by the National Assembly.
