Errors & omissions insurance for mortgage professionals: what Canada's regulators require.

E&O insurance protects clients — and the broker — against claims arising from negligent advice or errors in how a file was handled, from a missed disclosure to a documentation mistake that costs a client money. Every provincial regulator treats it as a condition of being licensed or registered to deal in mortgages, not a discretionary business purchase.

That framing matters when comparing provinces: the requirement sits inside the licensing framework itself, administered by the same regulator handling training, exams, and suitability — see mortgage licence requirements by province for the full comparison.

In Alberta, RECA requires every mortgage brokerage to maintain E&O insurance and a fraud endorsement from a RECA-approved provider, with published minimums of $500,000 per single occurrence and $1,000,000 aggregate in any 365-day period. RECA will not authorize a brokerage without proof of this coverage in place.

In Quebec, the AMF places the obligation on firms, independent representatives, and independent partnerships to hold professional liability insurance issued for at least 12 months, with proof submitted to the AMF only when requested — see our fuller breakdown in Quebec mortgage broker continuing obligations. Ontario's FSRA and British Columbia's BCFSA also treat coverage as a condition of brokerage licensing; check each regulator's current resources directly for their specific terms, since published minimums can change.

Standard coverage responds to claims of negligent advice, errors or omissions in documentation, and the cost of defending against those claims — including, in some provinces' frameworks, groundless allegations that still require a defence.

What it typically does not cover is fraud committed by the insured broker themselves — that's why Alberta's framework, for example, requires a separate fraud endorsement alongside the base E&O policy rather than folding it into the same coverage.

Renew before the policy lapses, confirm coverage transfers or is replaced when moving between brokerages or provinces, and keep a current certificate of insurance on file — regulators generally request proof on demand rather than on a fixed public filing schedule, which makes it easy to let lapse unnoticed.

This is one of the recurring compliance items worth tracking on a fixed calendar rather than memory — see the First-Year Compliance Calendar for a broader list of what to track alongside it.