The regulatory clock that has been ticking loudly for Ontario's Life and Health Managing General Agents (MGAs) has suddenly stopped. For months, firms have been racing against a compliance deadline that promised to fundamentally reshape the distribution landscape. Now, that finish line has moved. On February 23, 2026, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario ...

Canadian finance and insurance professionals spend considerable time daily on administrative tasks, time that could be spent building client relationships and growing their business.  Between navigating complex provincial regulations, drafting client communications, and staying current with market changes, the workload can feel overwhelming.  This article shows you ...

Continuing Education (CE) requirements can make or break your insurance career in Canada. Miss a deadline or miscalculate your credits, and you're facing license suspension, fines, or worse—losing client trust when they discover you're not properly certified. This article shows you exactly how to navigate provincial CE variations, avoid common tracking mistakes, and turn ...

Canadian financial planners face a critical challenge: meeting continuing education requirements while actually growing their professional skills. With regulatory changes happening constantly and clients expecting cutting-edge advice, your Continuing Education (CE) strategy can either be a checkbox exercise or a powerful tool for career advancement. This guide shows you how ...

Canadian financial and insurance professionals face mounting pressure to stay current with evolving regulations, market trends, and client expectations. Yet many struggle with the same challenge: finding affordable, high-quality continuing education (CE) courses that fit their demanding schedules and budgets.  This article shows you practical strategies to fulfill your CE ...

Penalty Clauses and Liquidated Damages Clauses are included in contracts to specify the amount of damages the defaulting party is required to pay the innocent party when a contract is breached. They each serve different purposes and utilize different calculation methods, but both are meant to efficiently resolve disputes and avoid legal action. Like all contract clauses, ...

Before identifying the list of possible or exact legal risk mitigation strategies for a business project, it is important to identify the metrics by which you will assess your options. For example, if you are dealing with an established business, I would suggest a mitigation strategy or plan that comes as close as possible to meeting the following criteria: Provides the ...

The short answer is YES. Whether your contract is local, interprovincial, or international, it should contain a governing law clause.  If you don’t include it, a court will choose a governing law for you.  The court will do that by applying its jurisdiction’s conflict of laws rules to find the proper law of the contract.  In Canada, the well-established rule is to apply the ...

INCOTERMS® 2020 are 11 rules issued by the International Chamber of Commerce (“ICC”).  If you’re thinking: How can they issue them?  They don’t make law.  You would be right. They are not laws.  They are terms that have been used historically in international sale of goods contracts, which are widely understood/interpreted by courts and people who deal with logistics issues. ...

Legal sovereignty is a political concept that gives States the power to govern themselves and the people within a state. It is the ultimate source of legal power and autonomy.  In a monarchy, a king or queen has sovereign power.  It is sovereignty that allows a State to create laws, like a constitution, and create/protect its border from other sovereign States.  That is, one ...

If the proper law of the contract has not been identified in the contract through a governing law clause, and it cannot be inferred from the express or implied intentions of the parties, the court will apply its jurisdiction’s conflict of laws rules to determine which legal system applies to the contract.  Where that analysis dictates that another jurisdiction’s legal system ...

There are many ways to draft a governing law clause. For our purposes, and to keep things manageable, we will focus on three types of governing law clauses, which will be referred to as: 1) simplified, 2) excluding, and 3) combined clauses.  A simplified governing law clause names a governing law jurisdiction, such as Ontario or New York state. It is “simple” in that it is ...