Answering brokers questions about e-signatures

Brokers understand that e-signatures are gaining acceptance in Canada – but many still have questions about exactly what e-signatures are. Michael Laurie, vice president of product strategy and co-founder of Silanis Technology, answers those questions.

Motor & Fleet

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Brokers understand that e-signatures are gaining acceptance in Canada – but many still have questions about exactly what e-signatures are. Michael Laurie, vice president of product strategy and co-founder of Silanis Technology, answers those questions.

“The use of e-signatures by Canadian insurance brokers is growing in popularity, despite a sometimes murky understanding of how e-signature use is governed across Canada,” says Laurie, whose e-signature solution e-SignLive is the most widely used e-signature solution in the world. “While there is a Federal law called the Uniform Electronic Commerce Act (UECA) that makes e-signature use legal across Canada, provinces can have different laws or guidelines around e-signature use in e-commerce specific to insurance.”

It’s this lack of a clear-cut answer that has created a ‘wait and see’ approach among brokers, says Laurie, in case e-signing insurance documents could result in document packages not being accepted by carriers or not meeting certain regulatory compliance standards.

“However, with most provinces having written legislation specific to e-signatures,” says Laurie, “plus the recent release of the e-signatures advisory report from CSIO and the increasing presence of Canadian electronic signature providers, brokers can rest assured they case adopt e-signatures with peace of mind.”

To help assure brokers of the validity and acceptance of e-signatures in Canada, Laurie answers some of the top questions brokers are asking:

Are e-signatures legal?
“Insurance Business recently interviewed the author of the CSIO e-signatures report, covering the legalities of the use of this technology,” says Laurie. “The top takeaway is this: e-signatures are legal, though e-commerce legislation in some provinces does not apply to documents including wills, trusts, powers of attorney, land transfer or negotiable instruments. For guidance around provincial legislation as it relates to specific documents, it’s important to review the report.” (continued.)
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Why use e-signatures?
“Unlike many electronic processes built to replace paper processes, using e-signatures lets brokers increase the personal touch that differentiates them in a competitive market, when closing business in-person or over the phone,” he says. “By offering a solution that automates, digitizes and enhances mobility, e-signatures give brokers more time to be the trusted advisors customers expect.

“On top of that, e-signatures speed up the time it takes to close business because the technology offers the ability to receive, review and sign documents from anywhere at any time. This enhanced convenience not only helps a broker with their business but also improves the experience for customers and offers a more efficient process overall. And for brokers, eliminating all manual paper management like printing, faxing, signing and filing reduces time spent on administrative work.”

A robust e-signature solution also brings enforced workflow rules and built-in security based on digital signature technology, keeping documents in good order and enforceable in court, Laurie points out. Coupled with the ability to streamline long-term record retention, e-signatures let brokers eliminate non-compliance and the amount of time spent doing compliance reviews.

Is there a difference between electronic signatures and digital signatures?
“Yes, there is a difference between these non-interchangeable technologies, though they often work together in enterprise-class e-signature solutions,” he says. “An electronic signature, like its paper equivalent, is a legal concept defined by UECA as “information in electronic form that a person has created or adopted in order to sign a document that is in, attached to or associated with the document.” It is used as a method of signing, a way to authenticate data, a way to authenticate users and a capture of intent.”

The term digital signature refers to the encryption technology used by variety of security, e-business and e-commerce products. Based on public/private key cryptography, digital signatures are used in secure messaging, public key infrastructure (PKI), virtual private networks (VPN), secure socket layers, and electronic signatures.

“A digital signature alone is not a type of electronic signature. Rather, digital signature encryption can and should be used by electronic signature solutions to secure the data and verify the authenticity of a signed record,” says Laurie. “What’s more, a digital signature itself does not capture a person’s intent to sign a document and be legally bound to an agreement or contract.”


 

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