Newfoundland brokers seek changes to consumer legislation

Newfoundland brokers are meeting with the province’s superintendent of insurance to discuss the disclosure requirements contained in the province’s January 2007 consumer protection document entitled “Principles for the Sale of Insurance.”

“As far as the industry is concerned, especially the brokers here in the province, we feel it puts an onerous requirement on us as businesspeople,” said Insurance Brokers Association of Newfoundland president Robert Dunne. “We’re trying to enter discussions with the government on that.”

In a press release, Dianne Whalen, Newfoundland’s minister of government services, said “all insurance companies and brokers are now obliged to provide this consumer protection document to all consumers when they purchase automobile, homeowners, commercial, marine, life and other insurances and to provide the information about their insurance purchase as outlined in the document.”

Among other things, the consumer protection document requires disclosure of:

* deductible options and premiums with various deductibles

* any available discounts

* all coverages available and costs of each

* companies represented and quotes obtained

* reasons for cancellation or refusal to renew as well as rationale for increases

* broker affiliations with insurance companies

* commission structures, and

* product suitability

Dunne said the province’s brokers have no objections to reporting the above information to their clients. But “we want [the province] to change ‘must provide’ to terms such as ‘a right to know,'” Dunne said, noting the ‘right to know’ terminology is used elsewhere in the consumer protection document.