ARCTIC OBITER

FINANCIAL MATTERS
Over $8.8 Million to be refunded to CBIA customers!
The CBIA is excited to announce that, as a result of better
than anticipated financial performance, in October 2013,
CBIA Business Overhead Expense and Term Life certificate
owners will share in over $8.8 million through a premium
refund.
Qualifying Business Overhead Expense certificate owners
will receive a cheque in an amount equal to 100% of their
2012 paid premiums.
Qualifying Term Life certificate owners will receive a cheque
in an amount equal to more than 32% of their 2012 paid premiums
on combined face amounts of $1,500,000 or less per
life insured.
The CBIA helps members of the Canadian legal profession
buy high-quality insurance at the lowest possible cost. This
is achieved through a combination of group buying power
and our no-profit, breakeven pricing goal. If better than anticipated
plan performance results in a financial position
that exceeds the long-term requirements of an insurance
program, we return this money to our customers. Such is the
case with the over $8.8 million now being refunded to most
Term Life and Business Overhead Expense insurance customers.
Although we cannot guarantee future results, over the last
15 years better than anticipated plan performance has resulted
in over $53 million being returned to CBIA customers
through reduced rates, contractual improvements and refunded
premiums.
Choosing the Right Bank for Your Trust Accounts
If you’re in private practice and do more than legal aid
work, you’ve got a trust account. Any interest that the account
generates is to be paid, by law, to the NWT Law Foundation
semi-annually under the Legal Profession Act, s. 57(2).
Not all trust accounts are equal, however, so it bears taking a
few minutes to assess what your bank is doing for you, and
whether or not you could be doing a better job generating
interest on those trust monies.
It is the lawyer’s obligation to instruct their bank to remit
any interest earned on the trust monies to the Law Foundation
every six months. Every year during the audit process,
we discover a few lawyers who have been receiving the interest
back into the trust account, which is verboten under
the Act. Please review your bank statements carefully in order
to be sure the interest is not going back into the account,
and check with the bank periodically to make sure the interest
is actually being paid to the Law Foundation.
Currently, the five banks operating in the NWT have
slightly different rates of return—ScotiaBank is offering
prime less 3%, effectively zero interest. The other four—
Bank of Montreal, CIBC, Royal Bank and TD—are all offering
0.25%. When dealing with your bank, please insist on
getting the highest return possible—low interest has a direct
effect on the work the Law Foundation can support year to
year.
We rely on your diligence, so please take a couple of minutes
to make sure your part of the system is working the
way it is supposed to. Students and community groups
thank you for your efforts.
RULES REFRESHER:
#113 A member shall only pay an amount out of a clients trust account by cheque bearing the signature or
countersignature of the member or of another member that he or she has designated as a signing
authority.
10 ■ FALL 2013 ARCTIC OBITER