Alberta’s broker regulator has added a new training or ‘probationary’ licence, geared at allowing an agency and its prospective agent to take stock of their commitment to one another.
The new probationary certificate level allows a brokerage or insurer to bring in a new person to act as an agent prior to completing his or her Level 1 agent examination.
The probationary agent must act under the direct supervision of a Level 2 or Level 3 agent and the certificate expires in 90 days if the agent does not advance to a Level 1 license by passing the required examination. It can only be issued once for any individual.
“Under the old scheme, an agency would have to go and get somebody in the training sessions, and then that person would write the provincial examination,” said Tom Hampton, chief operating officer of the Alberta Insurance Council. “They would arrive in your office all ready to go, and then you would find out they couldn’t sell a bucket of water to a person whose house was on fire – it just wasn’t for them, this style of work.
"This [probationary level] gives them a couple of months to look at this in advance, [to test] the commitment level of the agency to the individual, as well as the individual to the agency and the industry.”
Other changes allow Level 1 brokers to stay at that level for as long as they want. Previously, Level 1 brokers had to advance to a Level 2 licence within three years of obtaining their Level 1 licence.
“The Level 1 can stay a Level 1 indefinitely, but they are subject to supervision,” Hampton said of the change. “The Designated Representative of the agency or Level 2 in the agency does have to provide some level of supervision. It wasn’t carved in stone what that has to look like.”
Regardless of how it’s done, the supervision should be adequate for the skill of the person, Hampton said. “If you have someone who has been around 40 years, versus someone who has been around for three weeks, you probably don’t have to look at the 40-year person as long as you have to look at the three-week person.”
Finally, the days of holding a Level 2 license while also being a Designated Representative of a brokerage are over. A new Level 3 certificate has been created for Designated Representatives. Level 2 brokers who are currently Designated Representatives of their agencies will automatically receive Level 3 licenses.
Going forward, those wishing to become a Designated Representative must obtain a Level 3 certificate, which will involve passing a Management Examination.
The change was made because Level 2 brokers who were Designated Representatives of their agencies previously only had to pass an exam in either personal or commercial insurance. Now Level 2 licence applicants will have to pass a single examination that covers both personal and
