How ethical are you as a broker? What would you do in the following situation?
Question: It has been a difficult year at the brokerage with agents quitting, retiring and taking sick leave. The workload is piling up and the employees are working hard to deal with new business and renewals. The agents are aware standards of service must be met. What activity could result in disciplinary action for an agent?
Answer (Pick one):
1. The agent advises the client that the insurer has imposed a warranty that the property must have an alarm system installed and monitored to provide coverage for the fine arts kept in the building.
2. The agent returns phones calls within one day to confirm that he has received the client's call back request and advises the client that he will answer any questions or perform any amendments to the policy in a few days when the agent has a free moment.
3. The agent advises the client that the client's policy is being replaced by a new carrier and provides the reasons why this is being done.
4. The insurer is late in providing the renewal and the agent provides evidence of insurance to the client in accordance with his binding authority until the renewal is delivered.
The scenario and multiple-choice answers above are one example of a quick, online Code of Conduct quiz prepared by the Insurance Council of Manitoba.
“The idea came from compliance concerns,” said Erin Pearson, executive director of the Insurance Council of Manitoba. (continued.)
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“From time to time, we would review issues that arise from complaints that relate to the Code of Conduct. Having some kind of test or quiz that we could incorporate into our review of our discipline or complaint matters might be a great idea.”
Manitoba brokers seeking an education credit may be interested in taking the quiz. If they score a perfect 10 out of 10 on the council’s ethics quiz, that could lead to one education credit, if not a refresher on the council’s Code of Conduct.
Of course, brokers have to be perfect on the quiz and it’s a one-time-only deal. Brokers have to register with the council to receive credit for the quiz, and re-takes will not earn a credit. The questions are revolving, so the same questions don’t always appear on the quiz.
The quiz is a type of “open-book” test of the council’s Code of Conduct. The scenarios are a combination of typical situations a broker might confront, issues the council has seen over the years, and an attempt to reflect a broad cross-section of elements found in the council’s Code of Conduct.
The council put together a quiz for life insurance agents last year, and then followed up recently with a quiz for property and casualty insurance brokers.
The quiz can be found under the ‘Compliance and Enforcement’ tab at: www.icm.mb.ca
