A B.C. insurance broker has been fined $2,500 for breaching a client’s confidentiality, after she called a salesperson at her former agency for information that would help her win a prospective client’s business.
Sheilah Elizabeth Egan also received a one-year restriction on her broker license, requiring her to represent only her current employer, Coast Capital Insurance Services Ltd.
Egan, licensed as a broker in B.C. for 16 years, has worked for Coast since September 2010. She worked for an unnamed agency for eight years prior to working for Coast.
Egan received a broadcast email from Coast Capital's call centre advising of a client who was interested in insurance. The broadcast email was sent to Coast Capital producers and revealed that the prospect was a client of Egan’s former agency. Egan did not know the client.
Egan tried to impress her new employer by nabbing the client’s business. (continued)#pb#
She emailed her former agency, contacting a salesperson she used to supervise there. She asked the salesperson to provide information about the insurance coverage that the former agency had placed for the client. This included the client’s renewal premium and the name of the insurer on risk.
The salesperson emailed back the information in about an hour. Egan responded with a new request, this time asking for the value of the buildings on the client's property. The following morning, the salesperson responded with the requested information.
Egan’s next move was to email the salesperson again, this time providing information about the client's risk that she had obtained from Coast Capital's broadcast email. She told the salesperson that based on this information, she felt the client may require a commercial policy.
At this point, Egan realized that she had gone too far. “Upon exchanging emails with the salesperson, the licensee realized what she was doing was wrong, and she did not take any further steps to pursue the client's business,” the Insurance Council of B.C. stated in its intended decision.
Coast had Egan undertake ethics and privacy training through tutorials. Council found Coast’s response to the incident was appropriate, and tacked on a $2,500 fine and the license restriction.
