The Hong Kong Insurance Authority has banned Ms So Yuen Wa from being an insurance intermediary for 50 months following misconduct involving misleading advice and deceptive practices around policy replacement. Ms So misled two clients by claiming her appointing insurer would acquire their existing policies to induce them to surrender three critical illness and long-term savings policies and purchase eight new policies from her. The IA found she did not disclose that the transactions involved de facto policy replacement, impersonated one client to enquire about her policies, and pocketed the surrender value rather than applying it to the new policies, although almost all funds were subsequently repaid. The IA noted that policy replacement can have far-reaching implications, and in this case the clients lost protection under their original policies and the opportunity to reinstate them, warning that deceptive or unethical replacement practices will attract severe penalties.
Hong Kong Insurance Authority 2025-09-25
Hong Kong Insurance Authority bans So Yuen Wa from acting as an insurance intermediary for 50 months
The Hong Kong Insurance Authority banned Ms So Yuen Wa from acting as an insurance intermediary for 50 months due to misconduct involving misleading advice and deceptive practices related to policy replacement. Ms So misled clients about policy acquisitions, impersonated a client, and misappropriated surrender values, although most funds were later repaid. The IA emphasized the serious implications of policy replacement and warned that unethical practices will incur severe penalties.