The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) refused to renew Michael Lampel’s life agent licence and fined him $55,000, the regulator said in a statement Tuesday.
The fine included $50,000 for using false or misleading information while soliciting or registering insurance and two $2,500 fines for lying to FSRA.
Lampel ran a corporate agent called Insurance for Children, or IFC Financial Inc., which also lost its licence in the FSRA decision.
Lampel was contracted to sell Faith Life Financial products in March 2020. He tasked a life-licensed employee to meet with clients and complete a Word document provided by Lampel that mirrored the Faith Life application form.
After a few months, Lampel instructed the employee to complete the applications directly in the Faith Life online portal. However, this employee was not contracted by Faith Life and did not have their own agent access code, instead using Lampel’s. The applications were not sanctioned by Faith Life.
The employee made 74 applications and policies were issued with Lampel’s agent code and signature. Lampel received all $59,355.07 in commissions and paid the employee based on a verbal agreement. Lampel did not record how much the employee was paid.
Faith Life reported Lampel to FSRA in March 2022 and terminated his contract. Faith Life investigated 137 of Lampel’s policies, including the 74 the employee sold, and found 24 child policies with heights and weights different than provided by parents at the time of application. Faith Life said five policies would have been denied or rated differently if the changes weren’t made.
In 2023, one of Lampel’s administrative assistants told a FSRA investigator that Lempel instructed them to ensure heights and weights would fit the Faith Life table before sending the applications. The intention was to prevent Faith Life from rejecting the applications.
In addition, Lempel failed to disclose his contract with Faith Life in his 2021 life agent licence renewal and IFC failed to disclose the FSRA investigation into Lempel in its 2023 corporate agent licence renewal.