Insurance Companies Act (S.C. 1991, c. 47)

Marginal note:Proposal involving fundamental change

• 715 (1) On application, made in accordance with the regulations, by a life company, including a converted company, to give effect to a proposal to incorporate an insurance holding company as the holding body corporate of the company, to continue a body corporate as an insurance holding company of the company or to amalgamate two or more bodies corporate and continue those bodies corporate as an insurance holding company of the company — and to make any other fundamental change to the company, including an exchange of any or all of the shares of the company for shares of the insurance holding company —, the Minister may, to give effect to the proposal,

  • (a) include in the letters patent of the insurance holding company issued under section 708, 721 or 863 any provision the Minister considers necessary; or

  • (b) despite any provision of the Act specified in regulations made under paragraph (2)(e), give any approval that the Minister considers necessary.

• Marginal note:Regulations

  (2) The Governor in Council may make regulations

  • (a) respecting applications referred to in subsection (1), including their form and the information to be contained in them, and authorizing the Superintendent to require additional information in respect of such applications;

  • (b) respecting proposals to which subsection (1) applies, including the information to be contained in the proposals and the times within which the transactions involved in them must occur;

  • (c) respecting the procedures to be followed by the company that makes an application under subsection (1);

  • (d) respecting the approval, confirmation or authorization, if any, of all or any portion of proposals to which subsection (1) applies, and including the approval of shareholders and policyholders and including the terms and conditions of those approvals, confirmations or authorizations and their effect; and

  • (e) specifying provisions of the Act for the purpose of paragraph (1)(b).

Marginal note:Notice of issue of letters patent

716 The Superintendent shall cause to be published in the Canada Gazette a notice of the issuance of letters patent incorporating an insurance holding company.

Marginal note:First directors

717 The first directors of an insurance holding company are the directors named in the application for letters patent to incorporate the insurance holding company.

Marginal note:Effect of letters patent

718 An insurance holding company comes into existence on the date provided therefor in its letters patent.

Continuance

Marginal note:Federal corporations

• 719 (1) A body corporate incorporated under the Canada Business Corporations Act or any other Act of Parliament, including a company but not including a federal credit union, may apply to the Minister for letters patent continuing the body corporate as an insurance holding company under this Part.

• Marginal note:Other corporations

  (2) A body corporate incorporated otherwise than by or under an Act of Parliament may, if so authorized by the laws of the jurisdiction where it is incorporated, apply to the Minister for letters patent continuing the body corporate as an insurance holding company under this Part.

Marginal note:Application for continuance

• 720 (1) Where a body corporate applies for letters patent under subsection 719(1) or (2), sections 709 to 712 apply in respect of the application, with such modifications as the circumstances require.

• Marginal note:Special resolution approval

  (2) Where a body corporate applies for letters patent under subsection 719(1) or (2), the application must be duly authorized by a special resolution.

• Marginal note:Copy of special resolution

  (3) A copy of the special resolution referred to in subsection (2) shall be filed with the application.

Marginal note:Power to issue letters patent

• 721 (1) On the application of a body corporate under subsection 719(1) or (2), the Minister may, subject to this Division, issue letters patent continuing the body corporate as an insurance holding company under this Part.

• Marginal note:Issue of letters patent

  (2) Section 713 applies in respect of the issue of letters patent under subsection (1), with such modifications as the circumstances require.

Marginal note:Effect of letters patent

722 On the day set out in the letters patent continuing a body corporate as an insurance holding company under subsection 721(1),

• (a) the body corporate becomes an insurance holding company as if it had been incorporated under this Part; and

• (b) the letters patent are deemed to be the incorporating instrument of the continued insurance holding company.

Marginal note:Copy of letters patent

• 723 (1) Where a body corporate is continued as an insurance holding company under this Part, the Superintendent shall without delay send a copy of the letters patent to the appropriate official or public body in the jurisdiction in which the body corporate was authorized to apply to be continued under this Part.

• Marginal note:Notice of issuance of letters patent

  (2) The Superintendent shall publish in the Canada Gazette a notice of the issuance of letters patent continuing a body corporate as an insurance holding company under this Part.

Marginal note:Effects of continuance

724 Where a body corporate is continued as an insurance holding company under this Part,

• (a) the property of the body corporate continues to be the property of the insurance holding company;

• (b) the insurance holding company continues to be liable for the obligations of the body corporate;

• (c) an existing cause of action or claim by or against the body corporate or any liability of the body corporate to prosecution is unaffected;

• (d) a civil, criminal or administrative action or proceeding pending by or against the body corporate may continue to be prosecuted by or against the insurance holding company;

• (e) a conviction against, or any ruling, order or judgment in favour of or against, the body corporate may be enforced by or against the insurance holding company;

• (f) a person who, on the day the body corporate becomes an insurance holding company, is the holder of a security issued by the body corporate is not deprived of any right or privilege available to the person at that time in respect of the security or relieved of any liability in respect of it, but any such right or privilege may be exercised only in accordance with this Act; and

• (g) the by-laws of the body corporate, except those that are in conflict with this Act, continue as the by-laws of the insurance holding company.

Marginal note:Transitional

• 725 (1) Despite any other provision of this Act or the regulations, the Minister may, on the recommendation of the Superintendent, by order, grant to an insurance holding company in respect of which letters patent were issued under subsection 721(1) permission to

  • (a) engage in a business activity specified in the order that the insurance holding company would not otherwise be permitted by this Act to engage in and that the body corporate continued as the insurance holding company was engaging in at the time the application for the letters patent was made;

  • (b) continue to have issued and outstanding debt obligations the issue of which is not authorized by this Act if the debt obligations were outstanding at the time the application for the letters patent was made;

  • (c) hold assets that the insurance holding company would not otherwise be permitted by this Act to hold, if the assets were held by the body corporate continued as the insurance holding company at the time the application for the letters patent was made;

  • (d) acquire and hold assets that the insurance holding company would not otherwise be permitted by this Act to acquire or hold, if the body corporate continued as the insurance holding company was obliged, at the time the application for the letters patent was made, to acquire those assets; and

  • (e) maintain outside Canada any records or registers required by this Act to be maintained in Canada.

• Marginal note:Duration

  (2) The permission granted under subsection (1) shall be expressed to be granted for a period specified in the order not exceeding

  • (a) with respect to any activity described in paragraph (1)(a), thirty days after the effective date of the letters patent or, where the activity is conducted pursuant to an agreement existing on the effective date of the letters patent, the expiration of the agreement;

  • (b) with respect to any matter described in paragraph (1)(b), ten years; and

  • (c) with respect to any matter described in any of paragraphs (1)(c) to (e), two years.

• Marginal note:Renewal

  (3) Subject to subsection (4), the Minister may, on the recommendation of the Superintendent, by order, renew a permission granted by order under subsection (1) with respect to any matter described in paragraphs (1)(b) to (d) for such further period or periods as the Minister considers necessary.

• Marginal note:Limitation

  (4) The Minister shall not grant to an insurance holding company any permission

  • (a) with respect to matters described in paragraph (1)(b), that purports to be effective more than ten years after the effective date of the letters patent of continuance issued to continue the insurance holding company under this Part, unless the Minister is satisfied on the basis of evidence on oath provided by an officer of the insurance holding company that the insurance holding company will not be able at law to redeem at the end of the ten years the outstanding debt obligations to which the permission relates; and

  • (b) with respect to matters described in paragraphs (1)(c) and (d), that purports to be effective more than ten years after the effective date of the letters patent of continuance issued to continue the insurance holding company under this Part.

Discontinuance

Marginal note:Transferring to other Acts

• 726 (1) An insurance holding company may apply to be continued only as a body corporate under any other Act of Parliament or any Act of the legislature of a province, and it may do so only with the approval in writing of the Minister.

• Marginal note:Conditions for approval

  (2) No approval referred to in subsection (1) may be given to an insurance holding company unless the Minister is satisfied that the application of the insurance holding company has been authorized by a special resolution.

Meaning of insurance holding company without a life company subsidiary

• 727 (1) For the purpose of this section, insurance holding company without a life company subsidiary means an insurance holding company that does not, at any time within one year after it came into existence, have a subsidiary that is a life company or that does not, for a period of one year, have a subsidiary that is a life company.

• Marginal note:Obligation to apply

  (2) An insurance holding company without a life company subsidiary must, within thirty days after becoming an insurance holding company without a life company subsidiary, apply to be continued under subsection 726(1).

• Marginal note:Cessation of existence

  (3) Except for the sole purpose of winding up its affairs, an insurance holding company without a life company subsidiary that has no other subsidiary that fails to make an application under subsection (2) within the time provided for in that subsection ceases to exist on the expiration of that period.

Marginal note:Act ceases to apply

728 On the day specified by the Minister, this Act ceases to apply to the body corporate continued under the other Act of Parliament or under the Act of the legislature of a province.

Marginal note:Withdrawing application

729 Where a special resolution authorizing the application under subsection 726(1) so states, the directors of an insurance holding company may, without further approval of the shareholders, withdraw the application before it is acted on.

Corporate Name

Marginal note:Prohibited names

730 An insurance holding company may not be incorporated under this Part with a name

• (a) that is prohibited by an Act of Parliament;

• (b) that is, in the opinion of the Superintendent, deceptively misdescriptive;

• (c) that is the same as or, in the opinion of the Superintendent, substantially the same as or confusingly similar to any existing

  • (i) trademark or trade name, or

  • (ii) corporate name of a body corporate,

  except where the trademark or trade name is being changed or the body corporate is being dissolved or is changing its corporate name and consent to the use of the trademark, trade name or corporate name is signified to the Superintendent in such manner as the Superintendent may require;

• (d) that is the same as or, in the opinion of the Superintendent, substantially the same as or confusingly similar to the known name under or by which any entity carries on business or is identified; or

• (e) that is reserved under section 45 for a company or society or a proposed company or society or under section 734 for another insurance holding company or a proposed insurance holding company.

Marginal note:Affiliated insurance holding company

731 Despite section 730 and subject to section 732, an insurance holding company that is affiliated with another entity may, with the consent of that entity,

• (a) be incorporated with, or change its name to, substantially the same name as that of the affiliated entity; or

• (b) subject to any terms and conditions that may be prescribed, carry on business under or identify itself by a name, other than its corporate name, that is substantially the same as the corporate name of the affiliated entity or that is another name under which or with which the affiliated entity carries on business or otherwise identifies itself.