The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) has issued an order which imposed two administrative penalties worth $5,000 on former life insurance and accident and sickness agent Sandeep Singh Dhaliwal, for making false and misleading statements and representations in the solicitation or registration of five life insurance policies, and for providing the FSRA with false and misleading information.
Dhaliwal was formerly an independent contractor with the managing general agency World Financial Group Insurance Agency of Canada (WFG). In that role, Dhaliwal also held a market intermediary contract with life insurance company ivari, and an independent financial advisor contract with Equitable Life of Canada – both agent contracts were set up through WFG, and the two insurers would pay WFG commissions on life insurance sold by Dhaliwal, who would also get a portion of the commissions.
FSRA documents said that Dhaliwal acted as the insurance agent and advisor for four clients – identified only through the initials “TS,” “MD,” “AS,” and “MR”. All four alleged misconduct on Dhaliwal’s end, who had misrepresented the terms of their policies. For some of the clients who specified they did not want to purchase life insurance, such as customers TS and AS, the former agent arranged for their purchase of ivari universal life insurance policies. He made false representations that the policies were “savings accounts” with “built in insurance” instead of an actual life insurance policy, and that they would receive compound interest on their contributions.
In one of the other cases, Dhaliwal arranged for customer MD to purchase ivari universal life insurance through an acquaintance, named “RM.” RM is an individual not licensed under the Insurance Act, and the purchase was arranged without the knowledge of MD.
According to documents, Dhaliwal was in a personal relationship with one of the customers, AS. It was through this that he was able to procure AS’ SIN number and bank account details without her knowledge. He used this information to apply for a life insurance policy for AS, and even submitted an application for another policy for MR – AS’ sister. Both AS and MR have denied seeing or signing documents relating to the policies taken out under their names.
Dhaliwal was also accused of providing false information to ivari and Equitable Life. When MD and TS had specified that they already had life insurance with another insurer, he still worked to get them policies and falsely represented them as having no pending or active life insurance policies.
For the sale of misrepresented policies, ivari paid WFG $19,462.86 in commissions for the “policies” of TS, AS, MR, and MD. Equitable Life paid WFG $885 in commissions for MD’s other “policy.”
On November 13, 2019, Ivari sent the FSRA a Life Agent Reporting Form, alleging Dhaliwal’s fraud and misrepresentation.
When the FSRA approached Dhaliwal in an interview on October 15, 2021 and in an email on October 19, 2021, Dhaliwal furnished the regulator with false and misleading information. He fraudulently stated that he had informed TS that he was purchasing a life insurance policy, and claimed that he met MD and AS in person to arrange the sale of life insurance policies
WFG terminated Dhaliwal’s associate membership agreement on November 12, 2019.
Dhaliwal has been served two administrative monetary penalties by the FSRA: $3,000 for making false and misleading statements and representations in the solicitation or registration of five policies; and $2,000 for furnishing false and misleading information to FSRA.
Dhaliwal has 12 months from the date of the order dated March 24, 2022, to pay the penalty, the FSRA said.
