Can ‘principles’ ensure adjuster mobility?

Principles will have to do.

Facing industry calls for improved adjuster mobility, the Canadian Insurance Services Regulatory Organizations (CISRO) appears to be opting for the status quo.

In lieu of firm rules to mandate greater labour mobility to ease the strain of increasingly frequent and severe natural catastrophes (NatCats), CISRO has issued “principles to enhance responsiveness of adjuster licensing for catastrophe and disaster events across Canada’s insurance sector.”

The principles “support labour mobility and reinforce the leadership of regulators and adjusters in delivering timely, coordinated service to Canadians, especially during crises,” CISRO says in an Aug. 13 press release.

CISRO established an Adjuster Licensing Committee (ALC) in 2024 to explore how adjuster mobility and regulator response during NatCats could be improved. That committee reviewed both provincial licensing protocols and labour mobility requirements contained in the 2017 Canadian Free Trade Agreement.

“While licensing language and structures vary across jurisdictions, there is substantial practical alignment in natural catastrophes and disaster licensing practices,” CISRO says in a document outlining its new labour mobility principles.  

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“The ALC concluded that there is a strong foundation for improving clarity around mutual recognition of licenses and enhancing temporary licensing frameworks. These efforts could yield immediate benefits to policyholders and support broader discussions on national labour mobility.”

The first of seven outlined principles says regulator response to NatCats “should prioritize timely service to policyholders and minimize procedural delays that could hinder recovery efforts.” As examples, CISRO cites stakeholder coordination to minimize service disruptions so consumers get timely support, and that decisions around catastrophe and disaster licensing prioritize consumer protection and responsiveness.

Related: Aviva Canada reports escalating NatCats during first half of 2025

Another principle advocates ‘regulatory agility’ and licensing protocols that “enable swift, flexible responses to catastrophic events while maintaining appropriate oversight.” That could include creating temporary protocols or exemptions to respond to NatCats and deploy adjusters from outside jurisdictions.

It also calls for pre-approved application processes for adjuster mobility that would be triggered by NatCats, and in some cases allow for an “exception regime to enable any non-licensed persons to act under supervision during emergencies.”

The document also encourages interjurisdictional coordination to harmonize definitions and thresholds for NatCat declarations and to recognize each jurisdiction’s declarations. Doing this, says CISRO, “supports timely, coordinated responses across provincial and territorial boundaries.”

And CISRO calls for practical mobility that recognizes “legislative diversity across provinces and territories.” To accomplish this, it says regulators can recognize “licences or frameworks across various Canadian jurisdictions” to let adjusters operate across jurisdictions during NatCats “without onerous licensing requirements,” and also be open to models allowing “broad recognition of credentials based on core competencies.”

The remaining principles ask regulators to ensure clarity of communication about emergency licensing requirements to reduce confusion and administrative burden during NatCats; support oversight so expedited licensing during NatCats is “balanced with post-event review within an appropriate regulatory framework” to preserve regulatory integrity and protect consumers; and explore alternative licensing structures, including those allowing cross-jurisdictional surge capacity.

Phil Porado

Phil, an award-winning journalist with over 30 years of experience in financial topics, has been managing editor of Canadian Underwriter for more than three years.