MAS bans two former insurance agents for misleading clients and for forgery

THE Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Wednesday announced prohibition orders (POs) against two former insurance agents for dishonest conduct over the sale of Integrated Shield Plans (ISPs).

Chong Yoon Loi, a former representative of Aviva Financial Advisers (AFA), was handed a four-year PO, while Suresh Kannan, a former representative of The Great Eastern Life Assurance Co, was issued a two-year PO. The orders took effect on Wednesday.

Between May and August 2017, Mr Chong sold ISPs from Aviva to three policyholders who had already purchased such policies from another insurer when they were in good health. He wilfully misled two of them into believing that they could hold more than one ISP, when in fact their applications for the new ISPs would result in the termination of their previous policies.

MAS said: "This could have resulted in serious consequences for the policyholders, as new insurance policies do not cover medical conditions that policyholders already have at the time of entry into force of the policies. Hence, the policyholders could have lost insurance cover for medical conditions that they had developed since the purchase of their original policies."

Mr Chong had also intentionally provided false information in the applications of the three policyholders to Aviva and AFA, so that these policyholders would not be identified as vulnerable clients. Otherwise, AFA may have reached out to them to ensure that they understood the purchase.

In the other case, Mr Kannan forged the signature of a policyholder in an application for the purchase of an ISP in March 2018. He also declared in the application form that the policyholder did not have any pre-existing medical conditions, without checking with the policyholder if this was true.

"This conduct could have resulted in the policy being rendered invalid, and the policyholder denied insurance cover, due to the non-disclosure of material information to the insurer," MAS noted.

Under the POs, Mr Chong and Mr Kannan are barred from providing financial advisory service, taking part in the management of, acting as a director of or becoming a substantial shareholder of any financial advisory firm under the Financial Advisers Act (FAA), for the respective durations.

They are also barred from carrying on business as or taking part in the management of any insurance intermediary under the Insurance Act for the duration of the PO.

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