RIBO cautions brokerages not to share office space without obtaining proper exemptions

Registered Insurance Brokers of Ontario (RIBO), Ontario’s insurance broker regulator, has cautioned brokers to obtain a proper exemption from their regulator if they wish to share office space with another business.
“It has recently come to our attention that firms are sharing office space with another business without first applying for an exemption from [RIBO’s] Qualification & Registration Committee (QRC),” RIBO’s QRC chairman Jim Hawryluk wrote in the regulator’s Winter 2010 newsletter. “A brokerage office must be separate and distinct from other businesses to avoid any conflicts of interest and to ensure confidentiality of client information.”
RIBO directs brokers to its Principal Broker Handbook, Supplementary Resource section, page 6.60, for more information about sharing office space.