The RCCAQ is primarily focused on supporting brokers by defending your interests in dealings with decision makers. Our industry is currently facing a number of major issues, including contingent commissions and the Bank Act, both of which could have an impact on your business. Here is a recap of the issues the RCCAQ is currently working on.

Contingent commissions

The RCCAQ submitted a position paper focusing on fair compensation for brokers and effective consumer protection. Here are our main points:

Giving back control to brokers

Profit sharing programs (PSPs) should once again recognize effective risk selection; they should not serve as incentives to boost business volume with a given insurer.

Maintaining PSPs without volume incentives

The RCCAQ sees merit in maintaining these programs since they are an essential revenue source for brokerage firms. PSPs could also encourage good risk selection practices if criteria relating to growth or maintaining the number of policies or premium volume were eliminated.

Bank Act

The review of the federal Bank Act is scheduled for 2019. Currently, this legislation ensures that sales of insurance products by banks are strictly limited. Banks are authorized to own and operate an insurance company, but they must do so outside of their banking business (branch level). In that case, the insurance company must be separate and distinct from the bank.

Recently, the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada (IBAC) called for consumer protection measures to be maintained in the legislation implementing the federal budget (Bill C-74).

The press release is available here.

The RCCAQ will be supporting IBAC's efforts to maintain this limitation.