E-signatures for insurance brokers in Canada

What makes an e-signature count

Ontario’s Electronic Commerce Act, 2000 defines an electronic signature as electronic information that a person creates or adopts in order to sign a document, and that is in, attached to or associated with the document.

• Ontario: a legal requirement that a document be signed is satisfied by an electronic signature (section 11).
• British Columbia: the Electronic Transactions Act says a legal requirement for a person’s signature is satisfied by an electronic signature (section 11).
• Quebec: a signature can be put on a document by any process that meets article 2827 of the Civil Code, which describes a signature as a person’s name or a distinctive mark the person regularly uses to signify consent. A signature on a technology-based document can be set up against the signer if the document’s integrity is ensured and the link between the signature and the document has been kept since signing (Act to establish a legal framework for information technology, section 39).

Ontario’s law also lets a contract be formed electronically, for example by clicking an icon on a screen (section 19).

Consent comes first

Electronic commerce laws do not force anyone to give up paper.

• In Ontario and British Columbia, no one has to use or accept electronic documents without their consent. Consent can be inferred from a person’s conduct; Ontario’s law adds that there must be reasonable grounds to believe the consent is genuine and relevant to the document.
• In Quebec, no one is required to accept a document in a medium other than paper (section 29 of the Act to establish a legal framework for information technology).
• The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) applies the same rule to the electronic auto insurance card: issuing one requires the customer’s consent, and insurers cannot require a customer to receive it.
• CSIO’s advisory report recommends making sure consent is clear and covers both entering into the contract electronically and receiving documents electronically afterwards.

What regulators and the industry say

Quebec: the AMF. The AMF says its framework does not prohibit electronic signatures, but a registrant must check that the insurer’s internal guidelines allow them. Their use must also follow the Civil Code of Québec and the Act to establish a legal framework for information technology.

Ontario: RIBO. In its answers on mandatory disclosure, the Registered Insurance Brokers of Ontario (RIBO) says brokers do not have to get written confirmation that a client received and read the disclosure. Where a process already requires sign-offs, a signed acknowledgement is the best practice. RIBO also expects records of client communications in the client file, whether electronic or paper-based, and treats disclosure that could easily be missed in a package of many documents, without drawing the client’s attention to it, as non-compliant.

British Columbia: the Insurance Council. In a March 2026 order, the Insurance Council of British Columbia fined a licensee who had copied clients’ signatures from old files onto new forms. The Council found that copying client signatures is contrary to the usual practice of the business of insurance, regardless of whether the client consented. The decision also cites a 2020 case in which a licensee was fined for signing electronic applications on clients’ behalf.

The industry: CSIO. In November 2013, the Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO) published an advisory report, prepared by the law firm Fasken Martineau DuMoulin, on electronic signatures and electronic delivery in property and casualty insurance. It dates from 2013 and is advisory only, so check its points against current law.

Documents and notices with their own rules

• Ontario’s Electronic Commerce Act does not apply to wills and codicils, trusts created by wills or codicils, powers of attorney for financial affairs or personal care, negotiable instruments, or documents of title, except for the carriage of goods (section 31).
• British Columbia’s list is similar and also covers documents that create or transfer interests in land and need registration to be effective against third parties (section 2).
• Insurance laws can set their own rules for some notices. CSIO’s 2013 report noted that, at the time, some provincial insurance laws did not allow certain notices to be given electronically, such as a notice of cancellation of a contract of insurance. Check your province’s current rules before sending notices like these electronically.

A checklist for your brokerage

1. Ask each insurer whether it accepts e-signatures, and on which documents.
2. Get the client’s consent to sign and receive documents electronically, and keep a record of it.
3. Have every client sign personally, every time. Never copy, paste or reuse a signature, even with the client’s permission.
4. Let the signer open the document before signing, require a deliberate action to sign, explain what that action means, and keep the date, time and signature with the signed document in a secure, tamper-proof way.
5. Match identity checks to the risk. CSIO’s report lists options such as challenge questions and a secure log-in.
6. Keep the signed document and its signing record in the client file.
7. Make disclosures easy to see, not buried in a long package of documents.
8. Write an e-signature policy, name someone to own it, and review it at least once a year.
9. Check the privacy and language rules that apply to you. In British Columbia, the Insurance Council’s Code of Conduct reminds licensees that the province’s Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) governs their activities. See also our guides on PIPEDA, Law 25 and signing in French.