Insurance brokerage bookkeeping in British Columbia

In British Columbia, insurance agencies and the salespeople who work for them are licensed and regulated by the Insurance Council of British Columbia. The Council sets the licensing and conduct standards that intermediaries — agencies and their agents — have to meet. Sitting above the wider financial sector is the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA), which regulates insurers and other financial institutions; for a brokerage, though, the Insurance Council is the body whose expectations your books need to satisfy.

BC licenses agencies by level, and the Council's rules around how client money is handled run through the agency rather than the individual licensee. That makes the agency's own books — and its premium trust — the place where compliance is demonstrated. As a bookkeeper for insurance brokers in BC, we build the chart of accounts and trust reconciliation around the agency structure the Council licenses, not around a generic small-business setup.

The Council expects client premium to be held in trust, kept separate from operating funds, and reconciled. We don't quote specific account rules, thresholds, or reporting cadences here — those are set by the Insurance Council of BC, they can change, and they're the kind of detail to confirm directly with the Council. What we commit to is reconciling your premium trust monthly and keeping your books in a state where meeting the Council's expectations is straightforward.