It’s a case of cutting off your nose to spite your face, the Ontario insurance industry is warning.
It’s a case of cutting off your nose to spite your face, the Ontario insurance industry is warning.
Starting in January 2016 the current system of licensing Quebec life insurance advisors will be merged with the regime governing the process in the rest of Canada, according to the Canadian Insurance Services Regulatory Organizations (CISRO).
But in order to get buy-in from Quebec for the national initiative, the Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) had to act as the program’s service provider to “develop, implement and oversee the program on behalf of all participating regulators,” documents say.
The deal is meant to appease Quebec’s financial regulator, charge some members of Ontario insurance industry and businesses claiming the decision could jeopardize private-sector jobs and drive up costs for participants, creating a barrier for new advisors.
“We already have a process that is not that easy to get through, and no demonstration that there is public harm because of a lack of a standard,” John Adams, president of Primerica Canada, said to the Financial Post. “We don’t understand why there has to be a change for the industry, when we’re really not seeing the issue.”
When the CISRO laid out the framework of the Life Licence Qualification Program (LLQP) program in 2001, topics were laid out and the private sector came forward and developed its own curriculum and materials.
Under the new system, third-party educators will have to use the regulators’ curriculum, manuals and materials and pay a licensing fee for their use.
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Robert Gardias, president of Toronto-based Oliver’s Learning which publishes life insurance licensing manuals and provides courses and materials, told the Financial Post the new system was an “expropriation of a provincial industry” in which “Ontario private-sector jobs will be converted to Quebec public sector jobs.”
“We created a market for it, and now they’re saying it’s theirs,” Gardias told the Financial Post. “Now we’ve taken all the risk out of it, we’ve demonstrated there’s a market for it. It can be profitable, and now they’re saying ‘we want it.’”
About 9,500 people participated in the LLQP in 2012, with 15 private-sector course providers across the country, including Primerica and Advocis.
But CISRO argues the licensingfee to recoup the costs of the national program may cost as much as $140 per student.
Ron Fullan, chairman of CISRO, said that the change will not result in lost jobs, as existing course providers now have access to a larger market with the addition of Quebec.
“Whenever you make a change, it could affect a certain business model over another,” he said to the Financial Post. “But our view is that the market for people taking the LLQP course is bigger than it was before, and it will still go through course providers.”
The CISRO are implementing changes to the national program because inconsistencies made agents’ mobility across provinces and compliance with interprovincial-trade agreements more difficult.
Fullan argued that the Quebec regulator never issued an ultimatum, but the province already had a team in place unlike any of the other regulators.
“I understand that if we decided that we were going to go with an outside provider, that Quebec would have to say we can’t participate then,” Fullan said. “That’s just reality. But, like I said, if they stated it as we won’t participate unless you do this, would be incorrect. We looked at an opportunity, they were looking to participate on that basis.”
Starting in January 2016 the current system of licensing Quebec life insurance advisors will be merged with the regime governing the process in the rest of Canada, according to the Canadian Insurance Services Regulatory Organizations (CISRO).
But in order to get buy-in from Quebec for the national initiative, the Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) had to act as the program’s service provider to “develop, implement and oversee the program on behalf of all participating regulators,” documents say.
The deal is meant to appease Quebec’s financial regulator, charge some members of Ontario insurance industry and businesses claiming the decision could jeopardize private-sector jobs and drive up costs for participants, creating a barrier for new advisors.
“We already have a process that is not that easy to get through, and no demonstration that there is public harm because of a lack of a standard,” John Adams, president of Primerica Canada, said to the Financial Post. “We don’t understand why there has to be a change for the industry, when we’re really not seeing the issue.”
When the CISRO laid out the framework of the Life Licence Qualification Program (LLQP) program in 2001, topics were laid out and the private sector came forward and developed its own curriculum and materials.
Under the new system, third-party educators will have to use the regulators’ curriculum, manuals and materials and pay a licensing fee for their use.
#pb#
Robert Gardias, president of Toronto-based Oliver’s Learning which publishes life insurance licensing manuals and provides courses and materials, told the Financial Post the new system was an “expropriation of a provincial industry” in which “Ontario private-sector jobs will be converted to Quebec public sector jobs.”
“We created a market for it, and now they’re saying it’s theirs,” Gardias told the Financial Post. “Now we’ve taken all the risk out of it, we’ve demonstrated there’s a market for it. It can be profitable, and now they’re saying ‘we want it.’”
About 9,500 people participated in the LLQP in 2012, with 15 private-sector course providers across the country, including Primerica and Advocis.
But CISRO argues the licensingfee to recoup the costs of the national program may cost as much as $140 per student.
Ron Fullan, chairman of CISRO, said that the change will not result in lost jobs, as existing course providers now have access to a larger market with the addition of Quebec.
“Whenever you make a change, it could affect a certain business model over another,” he said to the Financial Post. “But our view is that the market for people taking the LLQP course is bigger than it was before, and it will still go through course providers.”
The CISRO are implementing changes to the national program because inconsistencies made agents’ mobility across provinces and compliance with interprovincial-trade agreements more difficult.
Fullan argued that the Quebec regulator never issued an ultimatum, but the province already had a team in place unlike any of the other regulators.
“I understand that if we decided that we were going to go with an outside provider, that Quebec would have to say we can’t participate then,” Fullan said. “That’s just reality. But, like I said, if they stated it as we won’t participate unless you do this, would be incorrect. We looked at an opportunity, they were looking to participate on that basis.”
