An Alberta life, accident and sickness insurance agent who was originally barred from practice for one year, will keep his certificate of authority after appealing a decision of the Alberta Life Insurance Council. Under the new order, however, Robert Vaughan, formerly of RBC Insurance, will pay a higher monetary penalty than he’d initially been assessed.
Under the original decision Vaughan was found guilty of two offences of misleading clients by providing them with false financial information about their segregated funds. After reviewing the facts in the case, including information provided by RBC, Vaughan’s clients and from Vaughan himself, the panel found that the insurance agent had committed not two, but three offences under the province’s Insurance Act.
Inaccurate and misleading information
According to the appeal hearing documents, Vaughan admitted to creating signed and stamped documents that contained inaccurate and misleading information about his client’s investments, he had a series of conversations with the clients by text and phone that were also misleading, and he admitted that he provided the client with inaccurate or misleading information about how he was compensated.
Although Vaughan stated that he had mislead clients about his compensation hundreds of times at RBC, with their knowledge, and although council for the Alberta Insurance Council submitted that Vaughan’s conduct was intentional, the review panel found that his actions were not part of a persistent, larger scheme.
The panel ultimately decided and ordered that Vaughan’s fine should be increased, from $10,000 to $15,000 to include the additional offence identified during the proceedings. The panel, however, said it was unable to agree with findings that Vaughan’s certificate of authority should be revoked, and reversed the decision.
