What’s New: In Brief (July 29, 2008)

Manitoba Public Insurance and the provincial ombudsman have agreed on a process to reimburse customers for premium overpayment due to incorrect vehicle descriptions on policies.
MPI will refund premium overpayments for 2004, the year the corporation discovered that roughly 2,000 customers were paying slightly more because they had provided incorrect information. The errors were discovered when new computer technology was introduced.
“We needed clarification from the ombudsman on what would be fair, and we received it,” MPI president and CEO Marilyn McLaren said in a release. “The corporation values its good working relationship with the ombudsman and we are pleased that we have resolved this today.”

The Court of Quebec has fined a man Cdn$70,000 for acting as an insurance representative without being registered with the Autorite des marches financiers (AMF).
Richard Laroche pled guilty to the seven charges before Court of Quebec Justice Danielle Michaud, according to an AMF release.
At the sentencing hearings on June 23, 2008, Laroche was ordered to pay fines totalling Cdn$70,000 plus costs “for violating the Act respecting the distribution of financial products and services by pursuing activities as a representative in insurance of persons without being registered with the AMF, thereby violating sections 12 and 461 of the Act,” AMF notes in the release.
The fines are the maximum amount prescribed under the Act.