The Insurance Council of British Columbia (ICoBC) has published a pair of intended decisions wherein agents are sanctioned for not completing the requisite amount of continuing education (CE) during the licensing periods audited by the council.
In both cases, the decisions stem from audits initiated after a review of the licensee’s 2022/2023 annual license renewal declarations. When council staff asked the agents to provide their CE records for that licensing period and the two years preceding it, the agents were each only able to provide evidence of completing 9.75 credits.
In the decisions, the agents are noted as being cooperative with the council’s respective investigations, fully acknowledging and accepting the breach in each case and accepting that remedial action in the cases is warranted. All were mitigating factors that the council took into consideration when determining that it would levy penalties lower than the $1,000 baseline amount. It also decided against ordering costs in the respective cases.
The council fined Jubert Fernandez, first licensed as a life and accident and sickness insurance agent in June 2017, $500 for each licensing period, for a total fine of $1,500. It also fined Jelmarie Daliva Madarang, licensed since June 2015, the same amount. In Fernandez’ case, the agent was ordered to complete 35.25 outstanding CE credits. Madarang already completed an additional 50.75 credits on her own initiative, prior to the decision being handed down by the council.
Both agents were also ordered to complete remedial education – the Council Rules Course for Life and/or Accident & Sickness Insurance Agents and the Continuing Education Requirements & Guidelines Course.
