May 16, 2017 Insurance Organization

Montréal – Since early April, Québec has received substantial amounts of rainfall. The consequences of the rain, including floods, affect many people in several regions. The services of claims adjusters are urgently needed and there are currently not enough persons normally authorized to act as claims adjusters to respond to the needs of all those who have incurred losses.

Implementation Directive pertaining to the definition of claims adjuster

In order to speed up claims processing in this catastrophic situation, the Autorité des marchés financiers (the “AMF” or the “Authority”) has announced the implementation of point 2.1 of the Implementation Directive of the Autorité des marchés financiers pertaining to the definition and exclusive activities of claims adjusters (pdf - 58 KB)This link will open in a new windowUpdated on November 21, 2012Claims Adjusters (the “Directive”) to allow firms to use the services of supernumeraries.

In accordance with the Directive, the AMF will allow, subject to the conditions below, a firm or independent partnership registered in the claims adjustment sector (“firm”) to use, for a period of 60 days, the services of supernumeraries who are not certified claims adjusters to carry out activities that are reserved for claims adjusters.

The AMF will therefore allow, from May 17, to July 15, 2017, a person authorized to act as a claims adjuster in another province or territory of Canada and a firm’s employees (”supernumerary” or “he”) to act as claims adjusters for a firm in Québec where the following conditions are met:

• The firm on behalf of which the supernumerary is acting, in accordance with this news release, is fully responsible for the activities carried out under the exemption;
• The supernumerary must have been authorized to carry out claims adjustment activities in another Canadian province or territory for at least five of the past seven years in order to act without supervision. Otherwise, he must act under the direct supervision of a claims adjuster duly certified in Québec;
• In order to act at the location where the loss occurred, he must have been authorized to carry out claims adjustment activities in another Canadian province or territory for at least five of the past seven years;
• The firm on behalf of which the supernumerary is acting carries liability insurance as required under the Regulation respecting firms, independent representatives and independent partnerships that covers activities carried out by the supernumerary under the Directive;
• Each supernumerary must be assigned to a claims adjuster, who will be in charge of the file once the period is over, to ensure continuity in the processing of each file after July 15, 2017;
• In connection with claims adjustment activities in Québec, the supernumerary complies with all regulatory requirements applicable to the carrying out of such activities.

During the same period, the AMF will allow the value of claims that can be processed by employees working by phone in accordance with point 2.2 of the Directive to be increased to $7,500.

Each firm must send the AMF by e-mail ([email protected]) a list of the supernumeraries acting on its behalf and ensure it receives confirmation that the AMF has received the list before beginning to use the services of a supernumerary. The required template for indicating the experience of the supernumeraries and the claims adjusters responsible for their supervision is available on the AMF’s website.

Initiatives of the AMF and the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR)

The AMF and insurance regulators that are CCIR members have determined that natural catastrophes are a priority. A CCIR working group, in which the AMF participated actively, reviewed the matter in 2016. Their efforts resulted in the release for public consultation of an issues paper This link will open in a new window.

The challenges stemming from natural disasters are included in the new strategic plans developed by the CCIR and the AMF.

The Autorité des marché financiers (the “AMF”) is the regulatory and oversight body for Québec’s financial sector.

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