Financial Relationships between Insurers and P&C Brokers in Ontario: RIBO Survey

June 3, 2005 Ontario – RIBO has essentially completed a survey of the P&C Brokers in Ontario in response to a request from national regulators. Two documents with results from that survey have been posted at the RIBO web site.

“The Joint CCIR-CISRO Committee was established to examine aspects of the financial relationships between insurance companies and their sales intermediaries that may give rise to potential conflict of interest concerns. One of the goals of this exercise was to gain a comprehensive understanding of the environmental controls regarding financial linkages between insurers and intermediaries.

To assist in this review RIBO sent a survey to all brokerages licensed in Ontario requesting information on markets, volumes and direct or indirect financial interests in the brokerage by an insurer, including share ownership and/or loans made by insurers. The idea was to obtain a snapshot of these industry issues from the intermediary side, at least in Ontario.”

Summary of Findings

“In total, adding all 3 categories together, there are 157 brokerage firms in Ontario that have a financial or business relationship with 31 insurance companies, or 12.9% of the total number of brokerages accounted for to date (1217).”
“118 brokerages of the 157 total or 75.2%, have less than half of their volume with their �business related� insurer.”

These summary points are much more fully described in the SUMMARY OF SURVEY RESULTS, June 3, 2005 (6 pages, pdf)

A more detailed set of supplementary data is available at BROKER SURVEY SUPPLEMENTARY SUMMARY, June 3, 2005 (4 pages, pdf)

About RIBO

The Registered Insurance Brokers of Ontario (RIBO) is the self-regulatory body for insurance brokers in Ontario. Established in October 1981, RIBO regulates the licensing, professional competence, ethical conduct, and insurance related financial obligations of all independent general insurance brokers in the province. More at www.RIBO.com.