{"id":28663,"date":"2019-12-02T10:38:53","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T15:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/?p=28663"},"modified":"2019-12-02T10:39:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T15:39:00","slug":"uncertainty-surrounds-donations-of-life-insurance-in-bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/legal\/2019\/12\/uncertainty-surrounds-donations-of-life-insurance-in-bc\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncertainty surrounds donations of life insurance in BC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Authored by Deina Warren, Associate Director, Legal Affairs<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Charities in BC are in a state of uncertainty when it comes to accepting donations of life insurance policies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The BC\nFinancial Services Authority (BCFSA)<a href=\"#_edn1\">[i]<\/a>\nhas apparently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nortonrosefulbright.com\/en\/knowledge\/publications\/33cf038b\/prohibition-on-gifts-of-life-insurance-policies-to-charities-in-british-columbia-by-bc-residents\">notified\na charity<\/a> that accepting or soliciting life insurance policies as donations\nis trafficking in insurance, an offence under <a href=\"http:\/\/canlii.ca\/t\/53mjn#sec152\">s. 52 of the provincial <em>Insurance Act<\/em><\/a>. &nbsp;In light of this interpretation, the BCFSA\nalso advised that the charity is not allowed to solicit or accept life\ninsurance policy donations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Given that\nthese donations are routine in the charitable sector, this communication has\nraised many as-of-yet unanswered questions: was the charity engaging in acts\nthat fell beyond the scope of what is permissible? Is the directive limited to\nthis charity based on the particular facts or will it be applied across the\ncharitable sector in BC? Is a donation a \u201ctransfer\u201d or \u201cassignment\u201d or \u201cpledge\u201d\nthat is prohibited under the <em>Insurance\nAct<\/em>? Was the letter prompted by a complaint? What was the nature of the\ncomplaint? Of what impact and relevance is the &nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/en\/revenue-agency\/services\/charities-giving\/charities\/policies-guidance\/summary-policy-l02-life-insurance-policy.html\">CRA\npolicy statement<\/a> that allows charities to issue official donation receipts\nfor the cash surrender value of the policy at the time of donation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This\nsituation falls squarely within the \u2018more questions than answers\u2019 category. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">BCFSA has\nnot made this letter public nor has it issued any statements on its website. No\nsource documents related to this concern are therefore available to review or\nanalyze; however, we are closely monitoring this developing situation and will\nprovide updates as they are available. In the meantime, if your charity accept\nor solicits these types of donations it may wish to suspend these activities\nuntil BCFSA clarifies the issue. <br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ednref1\">[i]<\/a> The BCFSA is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcfsa.ca\/pdf\/news\/News20191101.pdf\">newly created Crown Agency<\/a> established under the <em>Financial Services Authority Act, 2019<\/em>\nto administer six provincial statutes. As of November 1, 2019 the BCFSA assumed\nthe responsibilities of the Financial Institutions Commissions (FICOM) which\nhad operated as part of the Ministry of Finance.&nbsp; For more information on the agency, see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcfsa.ca\/pdf\/news\/News20191101.pdf\">bcfsa.ca<\/a>.&nbsp; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Authored by Deina Warren, Associate Director, Legal Affairs Charities in BC are in a state of uncertainty when it comes to accepting donations of life insurance policies. The BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) has apparently notified a charity that accepting or soliciting life insurance policies as donations is trafficking in&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/legal\/2019\/12\/uncertainty-surrounds-donations-of-life-insurance-in-bc\/\" class=\"linkbutton\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ts_fic_featured_image_caption":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-28663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28663"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cccc.org\/news_blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=28663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}