ALIAdvisory - Levy Announcement

May 15, 2023

ALIA Board sets annual indemnity levy for 2023-2024,

mitigates increase by approving $5.7M capital subsidy

The Board of Alberta Lawyers Indemnity Association (“ALIA”) has set the annual levy for 2023-2024 to:

$2,960 for Part A (Professional Liability / Negligence)
$210 for Part B (Misappropriation)
$265 for Universal Cyber Coverage

for a combined levy ("base levy") of $3,435 (Part A + Part B + cyber) before GST.

The Part B levy remains the same as last year, which was an historical low. The Part A levy is an increase over last year’s 14-year-low as a result of negative investment market performance, as set out below. The universal cybercrime coverage is a new levy for the coverage implemented last year, for which there was no levy billed at that time.

Continuously since the 2016-2017 Policy Years, ALIA has used capital from strong investment returns to subsidize the annual Part A base levy. These investment returns, combined in more recent years with the Civil Litigation Filing Levy ("CLFL"), have enabled ALIA to reduce the base levy each year since the 2018-2019 Policy Year.

ALIA continued to subsidize that levy this year but, regrettably, market conditions have been less favourable and ALIA’s investments did not yield sufficient returns to provide the same levy of subsidy as last year for Alberta lawyers (“Subscribers”) participating in the mandatory indemnity program for the policy year starting July 1, 2023.

Specifically, last year ALIA was able to provide a subsidy of approximately $12.3 million ($1,662 per Subscriber), which was the highest reduction using surplus capital since 2007-2008, whereas this year that subsidy was approximately $5.7 million (or $765 per Subscriber). Last year’s unusually high subsidy was largely a result of very strong investment returns.

Civil Litigation Filing Levy

The CLFL remains the same at $75 per filing. Visit ALIA’s website for more information on the CLFL.

Payment of the annual levy is due by June 30, 2023

Invoices will be made available online through the Law Society of Alberta’s Lawyer Portal in mid-May.

GST is payable on the levy, so the amount of the invoices for those without individual surcharges will be $3,606.75 (Part A + Part B + cyber) including GST.

Visit the Lawyer Portal

Further information:

ALIA does not provide legal advice. ALIAdvisory notices, ALIAlerts and the content on ALIA’s website, notices, blogs, correspondence and any other communications are provided for general information purposes only and do not constitute legal or other professional advice or an opinion of any kind. This information is not a replacement for specific legal advice and does not create a solicitor-client relationship.

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