Advocis calls on CCIR for improved implementation of harmonized rules

Advocis, The Financial Advisors Association of Canada, is calling on the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR) to find some way to better harmonize the nation-wide implementation of its regulatory solutions.
“There has been much progress on developing, through national organizations, a harmonized approach to regulation and much time and resources are devoted to it,” Advocis says in a February 2010 submission to the CCIR. “However, when it comes to implementation, one or more provinces may develop its own regulatory regime that does not mirror the harmonized solution proposed by the national organization.”
The CCIR called for public input as part of its development of a new strategic plan, effective April 1, 2010.
Advocis says the patchwork implementation of the CCIR’s three principles for managing conflicts of interest is an example of what it means.
The CCIR in June 2006 formally endorsed three principles for managing conflicts of interest in the insurance industry. They included the priority of a client’s interest; disclosure of conflict or potential conflicts of interest; and product suitability.
The principles emerged as a result of a 2004 investigation by Eliot Spitzer, then the New York State Attorney General, into allegations of insurance bid-rigging.
The CCIR’s principles, Advocis says, were “endorsed by all CCIR and CISRO members, but subsequently a few provinces have or are contemplating going beyond this approach and imposing other rules without significant justification that the principles are insufficient to protect consumers…
“Where all CCIR members agree to a harmonized approach and then individual provinces move in a direction contrary to the harmonization initiative, it makes the industry less effective and less efficient in delivering the necessary advice, services and products to consumers.”