May 31, 2009 is a busy day for insurance licensing.
The following professionals need to have all of their
continuing education credits in place by May 31, 2009:
General Insurance Agents and Life
and A&S Agents in Manitoba
Insurance Adjusters in Alberta
General Insurance Agents, Adjusters,
and Life and A&S Agents in British
Columbia
While there is still time to get all of your required
credits in place, we recommend beating the deadline
by completing your courses now.
ILScorp has hundreds of hours of accredited courses
online. Browse through our catalog to find something
that is interesting and relevant to you and your job
role and get started with just a couple of clicks of
the mouse. Visit www.ilscorp.com
today.
Industry
Briefs
Sun Life CEO Stewart takes
23 per cent pay cut to $6.5M: no cash bonus
Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSX:SLF) has disclosed
that CEO Donald Stewart and other top executives received
no cash bonuses for 2008, which reduced Stewart's reported
total compensation by 23 per cent to $6.5 million.
--
Fund manager hit with civil charges in Bernard Madoff
scandal
New York's attorney general has filed civil fraud charges
against a hedge fund manager who funneled billions of
dollars in client money to Wall Street swindler Bernard
Madoff.
The complaint charges Ezra Merkin with lying to his
investors about how he was handling their money.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says Merkin invested $2.4
billion in client cash with Madoff without their permission.
The complaint says Merkin collected $470 million in
management fees from the accounts.
Merkin has claimed he was victimized by Madoff like
everyone else. He is the former chairman of the financing
arm of General Motors Corp.
-- Conference Board says Canadian economy will
shrink more than it previously thought
The Conference Board of Canada has laid out a grim outlook
for employment in 2009 and 2010.
The board's director of national and provincial forecasts
says unemployment numbers will steadily rise this year
and peak at 9.5 per cent in the middle of 2010.
Pedro Antunes says he's predicting 340,000 lost jobs
in Canada in 2009.
The Ottawa-based economic think-tank also says the Canadian
economy will shrink more this year than it originally
estimated.
The Conference Board now says Canada's gross domestic
product will contract by 1.7 per cent in 2009.
It had previously called for the Canadian economy to
shrink by half a percentage point in 2009.
--
No separate bailout in the works for auto parts
suppliers: Premier McGuinty
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty says there will be no
separate aid package for the auto parts sector from
the province.
He says any direct loans for the parts suppliers will
come from Ottawa's Export Development Corp., while the
province is willing to help indirectly by putting conditions
on its overall aid package to automakers.
One of the conditions of planned loans to General Motors
and Chrysler, McGuinty says, will be that the car companies
must pay their suppliers.
But there will be no direct, separate loans to parts
makers - even though observers say a parts shortage
that shut down two Chrysler plants last week should
act as a warning of things to come.
The federal and Ontario governments have agreed to extend
$4 billion in stop-gap funding for GM and Chrysler's
Canadian arms, but have offered little to the suppliers
-- Industry Briefs courtesy of The Canadian Press.
Looking for even more industry news?
Check out ILSTV
today.
Want to win a new camera?
Take a CE course and you could win a new digital
camera
From April 8 to May 14, every time you complete
a continuing education course at www.ilscorp.com you will
be automatically entered to win an Olympus FE-370 digital
camera.
Whether your deadline for CE credits is approaching or you
want to beat the deadline rush, taking CE credits with ILScorp
this spring can help you save time later.
For more information, including terms and conditions of this
promotion, check out our blog
posting.
Alberta continuing education changes
Important information for all Alberta insurance
professionals. The following is from the Alberta
Insurance Council regarding changes to the CE program:
Recent changes have been made to the Insurance
Agents and Adjusters Regulation and these changes affect
the Continuing Education Requirements for insurance agents,
brokers and adjusters.
Prior to this amendment to the regulation agents, brokers
and adjusters were required to maintain their certificates
for their continuing education for an indefinite period
of time. That is to say that audits would include all course
taken since the inception of the requirement in 2002.
On February 5, 2009 the Insurance Agents and Adjusters Regulations
was amended to specify a period for retention of these records.
The new requirement of the Insurance Agents and Adjusters
Regulation reads as follows:
Records
31(1) An individual who holds a certificate of authority
must keep a record issued by a continuing education provider
respecting the continuing education courses completed by
the individual during that certificate term.
(2) The records must be kept for a period of 3 years following
the expiry of the certificate term and must be provided
to the Minister upon request.
(3) If the individual does not provide the records within
30 days after receiving a request from the Minister, the
certificate of authority is suspended until the demand is
complied with.
(4) In this section, "certificate term" has the
same meaning as in section 30(13).
What this means to agents, brokers and adjusters is that
they will be required to maintain their continuing education
certificates for 3 years after the expiry of the term in
which they were earned. The AIC will continue to conduct
audits for compliance with this requirement on a random
basis, however, these compliance audits will only extend
back 3 years. Agents, brokers or adjusters will still be
able to enter continuing education credits which extend
backwards beyond 3 years so they may continue to take advantage
of the carry forward from one year to the next.
Agents, brokers or adjusters who are depending on carry
forward to satisfy any of the year being checked will need
to be able to prove that they are entitled to the carry
forward by supplying certificates that extend back to the
fourth year from the year of the compliance audit.
The periods covered by the "certificate term"
are as follows:
Adjusters: June 1 of one year to May 31 of the following
year.
General Agents: November 1 of one year to October 31 of
the following year.
Life and Accident and Sickness Agents: February 16 of one
year to February 15 of the following year.
Have your say: the ILSTV Comment Line is now
open
Have
you visited ILSTV lately? With news stories and features being
updated every day of the work week, there’s a lot of
information to absorb and discuss.
We’ve now made it easier for you to leave your comments
about ILSTV stories, or leave us your feedback about ILSTV
in general. Let ILSTV and others in the industry know what
you think about a hot topic.
You can call our toll-free comment line at 1-877-703-2713
and leave a voicemail about any of our stories or topics.
Or, you can email comments@ilstv.com
if you'd rather put your thoughts down in writing.
We will be airing some selected viewer's comments soon. Please
take a look at the policies by clicking here.
Good news! Savings still available for three Super Courses
Due to popular demand, ILScorp has extended the deadline
for 15% savings on three of our great courses.
Julia Simpson's course "Successful Communication"
is an interesting look at how communication and relationships
are interrelated. This insightful course can benefit anyone
who deals with people, from managers to salespeople to support
staff.
Susan Swedberg-Kohli has two courses available at www.ilscorp.com,
each of which is highly relevant in this age of 24 hour news
and information. In "Advancing Corporate Goals via the
Media", Susan explains how traditional media exposure
can help grow your business, providing certain steps are taken
to maintain control.
Have you seen interviews with insurance professionals lately?
Chances are you have. The industry has received accolades
and a few suspicions as well. Do you know what to do when
a journalist calls? Susan's "What to do when the Media
Call" can help you navigate through interviews or press
requests. Don’t fear the media – embrace them.
From now until April 30 you can take advantage
of the 15% savings on each of these three courses. Visit our
Super
Courses page and enter the code Superwoman at the checkout
to have your 15% discount applied!
Introducing the ILScorp blog
Last
month the ILScorp blog
was launched. It's a brand new way for ILScorp subscribers
– and casual web surfers – to get a little more
information about what's going on at ILScorp and in the industry.
You can find information about ILScorp promotions and important
details like holiday hours. You can also find out more information
on industry news. For example, did you know that Calgary police
will be using updated red light cameras to lay careless driving
charges? You can read this story – and have your vote
– here.
We'll soon be getting blog posts from ILScorp executives
and other Strategic Partners, so check back often.
Do you have an idea for a topic you'd like to see in a blog
posting? Send a note to editor@ilscorp.com
and let us know.
Holiday Hours
Please note that the ILScorp office will be
closed on Friday, April 10. We will be open again on Monday,
April 13.
We hope you enjoy the long weekend. Should you wish to complete
courses or access other ILScorp features, you may –
all of our courses and content are available 24 hours a day,
every day of the year. Simply log into your account at www.ilscorp.com
to get started.
Live Preparation Course at BCIT
West Coast Training's Todd Hochban is conducting
a couple of live courses at BCIT in downtown Vancouver in
the upcoming months. If these courses are of interest to you
or a colleague, here is the information you need to know:
CAIB IV Preparation Course
June 15 – 19, 2009
Examination registration deadline: June 12, 2009
Examination date: July 15, 2009
CAIB III Preparation Course
June 22 – 26, 2009
Examination registration deadline: June 12, 2009
Examination date: July 15, 2009
Fundamentals of Insurance Preparation Course
May 25 – 29, 2009
Exam on the last day of the course
For more information or to register for these classes, visit
West
Coast Training.
Have
you visited ILSTV lately? With news stories and features being
updated every day of the work week, there’s a lot of
information to absorb and discuss.
Last
month the ILScorp 