April 12, 2019 Insurance Organization

Montréal – This winter, Québec experienced periods of heavy precipitation, resulting in a large number of claims, many of them related to collapsed roofs and water infiltration. Individuals normally authorized to act as claims adjusters are already straining to meet the needs of all the claimants. Rapid melting of the snow cover could result in flooding, which could make the situation even worse.

In light of this situation, the Autorité des marchés financiers (“AMF”) is implementing 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 (“Directive”) in order to allow firms to use the services of supernumeraries.

In accordance with the Directive and subject to the conditions below, the AMF will allow a firm or independent partnership duly 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 ordinarily reserved for claims adjusters.

The AMF will therefore allow, from April 13th to June 12th, 2019 (“exemption period”), (i) a person authorized to act as a claims adjuster in another province or territory of Canada (“out-of-province claims adjuster”), (ii) a person who has held a claims adjuster certificate in Québec for at least five of the last seven years, or (iii) a firm’s employee (“supernumerary”) to act as a claims adjuster for a firm in Québec, subject to the following conditions:

• The firm on behalf of which the supernumerary acts, in accordance with this news release, is wholly responsible for the activities carried out by the supernumerary under the exemption;
• A supernumerary who is (i) an employee of a firm or (ii) an out-of-province claims adjuster who has not been authorized to act as a claims adjuster for at least five of the last seven years may not act at a location where a loss has occurred and must act under the direct supervision of a claims adjuster duly certified in Québec;
• The firm on behalf of which the supernumerary acts carries liability insurance as required under the Regulation respecting firms, independent representatives and independent partnerships, which covers the activities carried out by the supernumerary under the Directive;
• Each supernumerary is assigned to a claims adjuster, who will take charge of the file upon expiry of the exemption period in order to ensure processing continuity after June 12th, 2019;
• The supernumerary complies with all regulatory requirements applicable to the carrying out of claims adjuster activities in Québec when performing such activities during the exemption period;

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

Each firm must send the AMF ([email protected]) a list of supernumeraries acting on its behalf by e-mail and obtain confirmation that the AMF has received the list before it begins to use the services of a supernumerary. A sample list illustrating how to declare the experience of  supernumeraries and of the claims adjusters responsible for their supervision is available on the AMF’s website .

Each firm must also complete the activity report available on the AMF’s website and send it by e-mail to [email protected] within 30 days of the end of the exemption period. The report must indicate the number of claims processed by supernumeraries and by employees working by phone during the exemption period.

The Autorité des marchés financiers is the regulatory and oversight body for Québec’s financial sector.

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