All posts by Roisin Hutchinson

On January 1, 2015, certain amendments to Manitoba’s The Insurance Act came into force requiring incidental sellers of insurance to hold a restricted insurance agent’s license in Manitoba as of June 1, 2015. See Section 72 of the The Insurance Amendment Act  S.M. 2012, c. 29 (“Bill 27”) for full text of the amendments. These amendments in Bill 27 are the second instalment in a series of amendments that were proclaimed to come into force in three parts: on September 1, 2014, January 1, 2015 and March 1, 2015, and which bring Manitoba’s The Insurance Act closer in line with Alberta’s Insurance Act.

This second group of amendments implements a restricted insurance agent licensing regime similar to those in place in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In addition to the amendments to The Insurance Act, the Manitoba Insurance Agents and Adjusters Regulation was also amended to set out the particulars of the new licensing regime (see M.R. 215/2014 for the amendments to the regulation proclaimed in force on January 1, 2015). Under the new restricted agent licensing regime, incidental sellers of insurance are required to obtain a restricted insurance agent license from the Insurance Council of Manitoba. Incidental sellers of insurance that will require a restricted agent license include deposit-taking institutions, travel agencies, mortgage brokers and funeral directors and other specified entities that, in the course of selling certain goods or services to their customers or clients, offer certain classes of insurance that relate to those goods or services.

The Insurance Council of Manitoba has announced that it will begin accepting applications for restricted insurance agent licences on February 1, 2015, and has advised that applications must be received prior to April 30, 2015 to ensure they are issued prior to June 1, 2015. The Insurance Council of Manitoba issued a Notice in December 2014 with further information about the transition, which is available here.

In the issue of the Canada Gazette released today, the federal government published long-awaited draft regulations which will permit Canada’s federal property and casualty mutual insurance companies to demutualize.   The text of the draft regulations can be seen by clicking here.  Interested parties are invited to make representations concerning the proposed regulations within 30 days.

The Marcotte Trilogy

The 2014 publication of Getting the Deal Through, is now available, and includes our updated summary guide to the regulation of insurance and reinsurance in Canada.   Click here for access to a pdf version of the Canadian chapter.

NEW – This year we are also pleased to be able to provide iPad users with complimentary access to the entire 2014 edition of Getting the Deal Through – Insurance & Reinsurance.  This publication provides a comprehensive analysis of the key insurance and reinsurance issues in 23 countries (which includes the Canadian chapter written by Walker Sorensen LLP).   Instructions on how to gain access using your iPad are found here.  You will need an iPad and an iTunes account.  The Sponsor and Reference codes are as follows:

Sponsor:   INR2014

Reference:  20JUN14

We also have a limited number of hard copies of this publication, which are available on request.

Reproduced with permission from Law Business Research Ltd. This article was first published in Getting the Deal Through – Insurance & Reinsurance 2014, (published in June 2014; contributing editor: E Paul Kanefsky, Edwards WIldman Palmer LLP) For further information please visit www.GettingTheDealThrough.com.”

In December 2010, OSFI released its Guidance for Reinsurance Agreements, which sets out OSFI’s expectations with respect to Reinsurance Security Agreements (“RSAs”) where capital/asset credit is being sought by a Canadian licensed insurer that has ceded risks to an unlicensed foreign reinsurer. In order to obtain capital/asset credit when an RSA has been entered into, the Canadian licensed cedant must obtain a legal opinion asserting that a valid and enforceable security interest, that has priority over any other security interest in the pledged assets, has been or will be created in its favour for the type of assets covered by the legal opinion. This legal opinion must then be filed with OSFI’s Securities Administration Unit.

In addition, OSFI has stated that it expects companies to have a Board, or committee of the Board, approved policy requiring management to confirm to the Board, or committee thereof, from time to time but at a minimum once every two years, that a valid and enforceable security interest that has priority over any other security interest in the pledged assets continues to be created in their favour, including where changes have been made to personal property security legislation or securities transfer legislation in the province or territory where the assets are held. OSFI states that the confirmation should either state that the opinion may still be relied upon or that subsequent changes to legislation do not affect the validity of the opinion or, alternatively, a new opinion can be provided.

Canadian licensed cedants are reminded that these confirmations are necessary every two years at a minimum, and are encouraged to be in contact with the legal firms who originally provided the RSA opinions in order to obtain such confirmation. You can see the full text of OSFI’s Guidance for Reinsurance Agreements by clicking here.