CCIR consults on the incidental selling of insurance

The Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR) is consulting the insurance industry on the incidental selling of insurance (ISI).
“As a result of potential licensing and consumer issues stemming from the sale of insurance incidental to some other core business activity, the [CCIR] created the ISI working group,” the CCIR says in a letter sent to stakeholder organizations dated Dec. 13, 2007. The letter was just recently posted on the regulator’s Web site.
The ISI working group has defined an incidental seller of insurance as being “a person who, in pursuing activities in a field other than insurance, offers, as an accessory, for an insurer, an insurance product which relates solely to goods sold or services offered by the person or secures a client’s enrolment in respect of such an insurance product.”
The working group is expected to consult the industry and produce a consultation report on the topic sometime “during the winter of 2008.”
The CCIR says the consultation document will deal with the following issues related to the sale of insurance by incidental sellers:
exclusions, restrictions and limitations in insurance policies being sold by incidental sellers;
potential conflicts of interest;
role and responsibilities of the incidental sellers; and
availability of statistical information.