FSRA Life and Health Insurance Stakeholder Advisory Committee (Committee) meeting with the Board of Directors
Summary for the Meeting of June 30, 2022
Via Zoom
Stakeholder Advisory Committee members present:
Cathy N. Hiscott - PPI
Eric Wachtel - Canadian Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies (CAILBA)
Chris Donnelly - Manulife
Keith Martin - Canadian Association of Financial Institutions in Insurance (CAFII)
Neil Paton - Third Party Administrators Association of Canada
Jim Mavroidis - Cigna Life Insurance Company of Canada
Lyne Duhaime - CLHIA
James Ryu - Advocis
Jamie Greenfield - HUB Financial Inc.
Susan Allemang - Independent Financial Brokers of Canada
Ali Salam - Sun Life Financial
Yasmin Visram - iA Financial Group
Andrew Fitzpatrick on behalf of Ali Ghiassi - Canada Life
Moira Gill - TD Insurance
Dennis Craig - RBC Insurance
Rosie Orlando – Primerica
Board members present:
Joanne De Laurentiis – Chair of the Board
Joseph Iannicelli - Director
Stewart Lyons – Director
Brent Zorgdrager – Director
Barbara Bellissimo – Director
Kathy Bouey – Director
Management members present:
Mark White – Chief Executive Officer
Glen Padassery – Executive Vice President, Policy & Chief Consumer Officer
Jordan Solway – Executive Vice President, Legal and Enforcement
Judy Pfeifer – Chief Public Affairs Officer
Huston Loke – Executive Vice President, Market Conduct
Swati Agrawal – Senior Manager, Market Conduct
Joel Gorlick – Director, Policy, Market Conduct
Wendy Horrobin – Head, Licencing and Risk Assessment, Market Conduct
Erica Hiemstra – Head, Insurance Conduct, Market Conduct
Reesha Hossein – Director, Legal Services and Deputy General Counsel, Legal and Enforcement
Elissa Sinha – Director, Litigation and Enforcement and Deputy General Counsel, Legal and Enforcement
Corporate Secretary’s Office:
Heather Greenberg – Corporate Secretary
Demola Oloyede – Board Administrator
General comments:
The Chair of the Board welcomed the Committee and provided introductory remarks about the importance of stakeholder engagement.
The Executive Vice-President, Market Conduct, FSRA, commented on some of the supervisory activity FSRA conducted in the Life and Health sector over the past year, including National Cooperative Fair Treatment of Customers (FTC) reviews of Canada’s largest Life & Health Insurers jointly with the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR), a thematic review of the insurer- Managing General Agencies (MGAs) relationship, and an MGA focused thematic review of higher-risk business models in the distribution of Life and Health insurance.
The Chair of the Board noted that as part of their governance role, the Board would like to better understand the Committee’s environment, needs, and interests with a focus on forward looking activities and asked the Committee to comment on the factors or changes in their sector that they are actively monitoring, top sector risks and critical success factors for the sector.
The Committee discussed factors in the sector that they are actively monitoring and top sector risks, including challenges surrounding FSRA’s expectation for insurers to develop and implement strong compliance frameworks for the supervision and oversight of the MGAs, continued support for co-operative supervision and harmonized regulatory requirements and expectations across Canada, operational risk associated with the ability of insurance companies to keep up with the increased pace of regulatory changes, cybersecurity risk and breaches, and managing conflict of interest risk in advisor compensation.
The Committee discussed critical success factors for the sector, including distribution and product innovations to ensure consumers can access insurance and receive protection, continuing to foster an inclusive, diverse and economically sustainable insurance marketplace, and succession planning for advisors given the ageing workforce.
The Chair thanked the Committee for their insight and helping the Board focus on strategic issues for the sector. The Executive Vice-President, Market Conduct, FSRA noted that the information provided by the Committee helps management determine the strategic priorities for the annual business plan and looks forward to engaging with the Committee for further input on those priorities towards the end of the year.