Mortgage Broker is the magazine of the Canadian Mortgage Brokers Association and showcases the multi-billion dollar mortgage-broking industry to all levels of government, associated organizations and other interested individuals.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/309414
report from the CEO MortgageBroker mbabc.ca spring 2014 | 9 Samantha Gale CEO MBABC & MBIBC samanthagale@mbabc.ca MBABC boosts legal services for members MBABC MeMBers hAve hAd legAl expense insurAnCe for certain legal issues for over a year now. Just how have you used the legal advice program, which provides 24/7 telephone access to a lawyer? Of the members who used this service, 40 per cent wanted advice on civil litigation matters, 25 per cent related to family law issues, 15 per cent wanted criminal law advice, 10 per cent needed commercial/corporate legal assistance, 5 per cent related to real estate issues and 1per cent wanted employment law advice. e MBABC will continue to include legal expense insurance with membership for the upcoming year, but will also enhance the legal protection coverage. Currently individual members receive free legal defense for traffic tickets. is coverage enables the MBABC to pay for a member's legal costs to defend his or her rights in relation to being prosecuted for a highway traffic or motor vehicle offence in connection with the ownership, use or operation of an automobile. Now we are expanding this coverage so that a member's spouse and children living in his or her residence will also receive coverage. If you have teenage children with a driver's license, this coverage will be invaluable to you. Motor Vehicle Act violations may result in increased insurance premiums. What's more – if you don't pay traffic fines, you may find that your driver's license is not renewed or that money to pay for the fines is taken right from your bank account. A friend, who used this coverage, told me that his 17-year-old daughter was given a ticket that would have resulted in a $167 fine and three demerit points. He emailed a copy of the ticket to the insurance program, which sent a lawyer to court to defend the ticket on the day of the hearing. Neither the member nor his daughter were required to appear in court: e lawyer negotiated a deal with crown where the fine was reduced by half with no demerit points. In this case, the insurance coverage saved the member from having to take a day off from work to deal with the ticket and covered the many hundreds of dollars in legal fees to pay for the legal defense services. MBABC is also going to provide individual members with the ability to initiate legal action against persons to protect personal property in cases involving trespass, nuisance or damage to personal property. In these instances, members will be able to start a legal action using an MBABC LEI lawyer. is coverage will be valuable for all members, but should provide the greatest value to any member who owns a home and/or office location. Call 1-877-832-7534 to make a claim. On the education front, many of our members have asked for information about how to tackle the new anti-spam laws that come into effect on July 1, 2014. is new legislation may not adequately prevent you from receiving the usual torrent of foreign spam into your email box, but it will affect local industry members, and their ability to market to clients. We will be providing education sessions, one in Victoria on June 12 and one in Vancouver on June 25, to explain the new rules, and in particular, the rules for third party referrals and how to obtain consent from clients to receive communications. If you are an Islander who ever experienced the Sidney Spit MBABC networking event and have looked forward to its return, you are now in luck as the Sidney Spit will be held in conjunction with the Victoria education session. Save the date: June 12, Capital City Yacht Club. • MBABC is also going to provide individual members with the ability to initiate legal action against persons to protect personal property. p08-09_CEOMessage.indd 9 14-05-08 2:40 PM