The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) has refused to renew Sandy Leigh Ulrich’s insurance agent’s license, closing the file on a case first opened by the regulator’s predecessor organization in 2019.
The regulator says Ulrich is not suitable to hold a license after it was discovered that she purchased and used fraudulent continuing education (CE) certificates in 2017 for the 2016 licensing year.
First licensed in December 2004 and continuously licensed since 2011, Ulrich held a life insurance and accident and sickness insurance agent’s license until January 2021 when her license expired.
A notice of proposal to revoke Ulrich’s license was first issued in February 2019. The current notice of proposal, dated February 2021, says the proceeding was ongoing at the time it was issued.
When Ulrich applied to renew her license in 2017, she indicated that she completed 30 hours during the licensing period. “However, Ulrich did not complete 30 hours of CE during the previous licensing period. Instead, she purchased five CE certificates from an individual named Michael J. Rutledge without taking any courses as described in the certificates,” the notice of proposal states. After the issuance of the 2019 notice of proposal, FSRA says it obtained an email from Ulrich to Rutledge asking Rutledge to spread the course dates out throughout 2016 – more than two weeks after she claimed to have completed the courses.
“Ulrich’s lack of CE and intentional deceit further demonstrates her general incompetence and untrustworthiness to transact insurance business,” the regulators states.