FSRA Consumer Advisory Panel (Panel) meeting with the Board of Directors

Summary of the meeting of May 9, 2025

Consumer Advisory Panel members present:

Lucy Becker, Co-Chair
Harvey Naglie, Co-Chair
Ellen Bessner
Julie Kuzmic
Ninette Ibanez
Peter D’Iorio
Terri Williams Kinghorn
Zahir Dharsee
Edwin Weinstein
Liisa Woolley
Samuel Lichtman
Karina Souza 

Board members present: 

Joanne De Laurentiis, Chair 
Joseph Iannicelli 
Lucie Tedesco 
Peggy McCallum 
Ali Salahuddin 
Rob Wellstood 
Doug Turnbull 
Steve Geist 
Stewart Lyons 

Management members present:  

Dexter John, Chief Executive Officer   
Jordan Solway, EVP, Legal & Enforcement 
Meghan Kilty, Chief Public Affairs Officer 
Mehrdad Rastan, EVP, Credit Union and Insurance Prudential
Huston Loke, EVP, Market Conduct
Glen Padassery, EVP, Policy & Auto Insurance
Stuart Wilkinson, Chief Consumer Officer  
Joel Gorlick, Head, Cross Sectoral Policy
Fern Karsh, Senior Policy & Technical Lead
Paul Reid, Chief Financial Officer
Danelle Brown, Corporate Secretary & Deputy General Counsel
Diana Green, Senior Policy & Technical Lead, Consumer Office
Dillon Byrd, Project Assistant, Policy

Meeting summary:

The Chair of the Board welcomed the Consumer Advisory Panel (the Panel) to the meeting. The Panel reported on its activities in the 2024-25 term and presented its recommendations for FSRA to empower consumers and modernize its regulatory activities.

The Panel highlighted the challenges consumers face, such as information overload that inhibits good decision-making, increased vulnerability, and potential impacts from tariffs, and provided suggestions for initiatives that can empower consumers in this volatile financial environment, such as:

  • sector-specific plain language disclosure templates
  • requiring all regulated entities to link to the FSRA website
  • multilingual educational tools
  • mandatory vulnerability assessments in sales processes
  • enhanced “Check Credentials Tool” for financial planners / advisors

The Panel provided examples of risks of harm Ontarians face in specific sectors. In the Auto Insurance sector, insurers’ access to time and financial resources for medical evaluation of accident victims far exceed those of the victims themselves, leading to disproportionate denials of health benefit claims or critical medical treatment. In the Pensions sector, many Ontario pension plan members are not fully aware of the details of their plans or whether they are on track to meet their retirement needs.

The Panel indicated that innovation in financial services has triggered a need for FSRA to adopt modern technology in order to drive better outcomes for consumers. This can be achieved by harnessing data, including using a unified digital complaint portal, post-transaction surveys, and a published consumer outcomes dashboard.

Possible technologies or processes FSRA could harness include further digitization of FSRA operations, increased use of artificial intelligence, and enhancing Test and Learn Environment initiatives. The Panel also proposed that FSRA embed Panel recommendations into its FSRAForward information technology modernization initiatives, expand the Panel’s role in consumer research and engagement, and provide guidance on how the Panel can most effectively support FSRA.

The Panel pointed out that many non-compliant parties operate beyond regulatory control, which highlights the importance of educating the public on the risks of dealing with unregistered parties. The use of FSRA’s logo, mandatory disclosure language, and a strong complaints database could help protect consumers within the regulatory framework by driving traffic to neutral and trusted information.

The Board thanked the Panel for its presentation and indicated that many of the themes presented align with FSRA’s ongoing work, such as modernization of operational tools, Test and Learn environments, and FSRAForward.