Insurance Acts to spark Alberta changes

While the potential restructuring of financial institutions on the national scene is holding the attention of Alberta brokers, there are plenty of initiatives on the homefront to keep them busy. New Insurance Brokers Association of Alberta (IBAA) president Stephen Evanson says his organization is concentrating efforts on assisting the provincial government in rewriting its Insurance Act while focussing inward on its own strategic planning.

The Insurance Act rewrite is of particular interest to both Alberta brokers and the rest of Canada. With the insurance industry and regulators eyeing national harmonization of regulation sometime down the road, the Insurance Act re-write in Alberta takes on extra relevance. The association is assisting the province by providing input on the mandatory continuing education requirements, a proposed amendment to the act. “There is also talk of doing away with the sole occupation requirement for independent brokers,” Evanson says. The Act has not be passed yet and the time frame on its legislative passage is still up in the air, he adds.

The past year and the years ahead are seeing changes in the organizational constitution as well, notes Evanson. At the recent annual convention in Kannaskis, the organization passed bylaw amendments restructuring membership criteria to include the consolidators and brokers who have welcomed ownership and cash infusions from insurers. “The previous membership definitions were strict and made some of our current members no longer members. We really felt that just because you get some cash from an insurer or have received operating money from a bank doesn’t change the fact that you are an independent broker.” The amendments, Evanson maintains, sought to include today’s broker models as well as future possibilities. “We broke down our definition of membership. It used to be one paragraph, now it is eight.” In the year ahead, he says, the organization will examine a new structure for its members and executive and will bring back recommendations to constituents at the year 2000 convention in Jasper.

The threat of direct writers is there, Evanson says. But he does not believe Alberta brokers are nervous about the onslaught of television advertising by these new players. A broker for 14 years and a partner at Taber-based Saunders Insurance Ltd., Evanson says the profession has to continue offering its core value to compete with the latest threats. “You can be nervous and not do anything or you can tighten up and continually enhance better value for your consumers,” he contends.