The Insurance Council of British Columbia has ordered a fine of just $5,000 but has banned Brent Michael Polischuk from applying for a license for five years after Polischuk borrowed funds from multiple clients, using his book of business – owned by the insurer – as collateral in at least one case.
In a separate case, the Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA, now the New Self-Regulatory Organization of Canada or New SRO), also filed a notice of hearing against Polischuk alleging that the former Sun Life Financial Investment Services (Canada) Inc. dealing representative borrowed a total of $155,000 from three clients and accepted money from two additional clients. Like the insurance council, the New SRO is also accusing Polischuk of failing to cooperate with investigators.
According to the most recent intended decision from the insurance council, the nominee and sole licensee of Brent Polischuk Financial Services Inc. had his contract terminated by an insurer in September 2020 for unacceptable sales practices. “The insurer was first alerted to these practices by a client who had loaned funds to the former licensee,” the intended decision states. "The client claimed that the former licensee had secured the loan with his book of business. Upon further review, the insurer found that the former licensee had borrowed funds from several clients.”
The clients loaning money to Polischuk included a childhood friend he later stopped making interest payments to and stopped communicating with – the same client who was promised Polischuck’s book if he defaulted. He also borrowed from a client who’d been asked to loan Polischuk funds shortly after suffering a heart attack. Another client was asked for $160,000 but declined. “The former licensee went back to him several times to request smaller amounts until JG finally gave him a hard no to lending any funds,” the decision states. Another client was not repaid in time and another client still says monetary transfers made to the representative were personal and had nothing to do with business, but would not provide any further information.
When pressed for information by investigators, Polischuk blew off requests saying he was negotiating with at least one former client and did not want to jeopardize those negotiations, adding that he would provide a complete statement when the negotiations were completed. Upon their completion, however, he claimed he could not answer any questions as the matter was subject to a confidentiality clause.
During the course of the investigation, it was also determined that Polischuk did not have a valid errors and omissions insurance policy in place for nearly five months in 2020.
“Council further concluded that the former licensee’s actions demonstrated that he is not financially reliable,” they write. They also concluded that Polischuk made material misstatements when he claimed he did not use his book of business to secure a client loan, despite the existence of a promissory note to that effect provided by the complaining client. “Council notes that the book of business belonged to the insurer,” they write.
In addition to the five-year ban from applying for any insurance license in British Columbia and the $5,000 fine, the insurance council also assessed investigation costs totalling $2,562.50.
