The Life Insurance Council of Manitoba (ICM) has levied a $250 fine and assessed partial investigation costs in the amount of $250 after Hetal Prajay Bhatt failed to disclose that she had two additional occupations, both on her initial licensing application and on renewal. Bhatt chose not to pursue a hearing and expressly accepted the terms of the intended decision.
Specifically, Bhatt is being sanctioned, first for making a material misstatement on her application when she did not disclose her outside occupations, then for failing to report a material change when she left one of those employers.
A life and accident & sickness agent in Manitoba from December 2022 until May 2024, Bhatt was first discovered when she disclosed her employment in a call centre administering group dental and medical benefits and claims, on a license renewal in May 2024. She told investigators that her error was due to a lack of understanding. The investigator pointed her to information on the regulator’s website pertaining to material changes and provided copies of a 2023 communication and a 2024 council report, both pertaining to material changes, for her review.
“Council dismissed the licensee’s statement that the misrepresentation on her licensing applications occurred due to a lack of understanding, as the application was straightforward and, had there been any doubt or confusion, the licensee’s undertaking should’ve been to contact the ICM for assistance,” they write. “Furthermore, council specified that the licensee received multiple communications from the ICM regarding a license holders’ responsibility and the requirement to report material changes.”
They add that such disclosures are an important obligation: “Disclosure of additional occupations on licensing applications permits council to assess whether the individual’s additional employment poses a potential risk to the public and conduct further inquiries, if necessary, to aid in that assessment.
