Promoting Professional Ethics

Since 2007, the CIP Society has published a regular ethics column exploring ethical dilemmas specific to the insurance industry, most recently in Canadian Underwriter magazine. These columns are intended to engage our members and the insurance community in the practice of ethical thinking and decision-making. Given the timelessness of many of these dilemmas, the columns are archived on the CIP Society website.

Our most recent columns have included the following scenarios:

August 2017 - "Here Comes Trouble"

The quick fix of terminating a producer suspected of unethical behaviour by simply cutting a cheque could have some lingering effects. Litigation costs and unpleasantness may be avoided, but what if the producer simply moves on to a new job and continues with the same questionable behaviour? What must a brokerage do to meet its obligations to its customers, its industry and regulators?

May 2017 - "Reaching Out”

Suppose a change in regulation affects many of a broker’s clients. How much effort should brokers expend on notifying insureds of potential coverage gaps?

February 2017 - "Clouding the Issue"

What if information about a specific claim, stored in the cloud as part of a company’s new cloud-based system, goes missing? What are the ethical responsibilities of the company, the claims adjuster, the manager and other employees who may have handled the file in the past?

We look forward to expanding our library of ethics articles and hope to engage you on a number of important ethical issues going forward. If you are interested in participating in a future column, please contact us at cips@insuranceinstitute.ca.