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by Mike Caswell

The Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization has fined PFSL Investments Canada Ltd., better known as Primerica, for insufficient supervision of two since-dismissed employees who obtained $925,000 from the accounts of an 84-year-old client. CIRO says that the two employees, which included a branch manager, redeemed all of the client's investments and closed the client's accounts. Just weeks later, the pair deposited $800,000 of the client's money into their own PFSL accounts, according to CIRO.

The penalty for PFSL is contained in a settlement agreement that CIRO released on Wednesday, April 22. The firm has agreed to pay a $250,000 fine and to pay $15,000 in CIRO's costs. In agreeing to pay the money, PFSL has admitted to the events at issue.

The case, as set out by CIRO, arose from the actions of a branch manager, only identified as "Approved Person PE," that took place in March, 2023. The client at issue had been with PFSL for 12 years and was living in a retirement home. According to CIRO, the manager processed redemptions for substantially all of the assets in the client's account over a period of six days. "Notwithstanding the unusual size and nature of the redemptions," nobody at PFSL questioned the transactions, CIRO said.

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