Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Columbus, OH (Mar. 17, 2025) – Assurex Global, the world’s largest privately held commercial insurance, risk management, and employee benefits brokerage group, is thrilled to announce the election of Ontario-based Cowan Group Ltd., a leading Canadian insurance brokerage and consulting firm, to its Partnership, effective March 17, 2025. Founded in 1927, Cowan Group Ltd., through its wholly owned subsidiaries; Cowan Insurance Group Ltd. and Cowan Benefits Ltd., provides comprehensive insurance and risk management solutions, spanning commercial and personal insurance, group benefits, and wealth management. The firm is recognized for its Platinum Club Status as one of Canada’s Best Managed Companies, setting a benchmark for excellence in the insurance industry. The addition of Cowan Group Ltd. to the Partnership reinforces the strength of Cowan’s capabilities and complements Assurex Global’s network of best-in-class, independent insurance firms worldwide, fostering unparalleled service and innovation. “We’re thrilled to welcome Cowan Group Ltd. to the Assurex Global family,” said Dean Hildebrandt, President and CEO of Assurex Global. “Cowan’s nearly century-long legacy of excellence, combined with its deep industry expertise and community-first approach, perfectly aligns with Assurex Global’s values, further strengthening our ability to deliver tailored, world-class solutions for clients across North America and globally.” With 565...

First Onsite survey also explores urban flooding, severe rains, and threats to properties Mississauga, ON (Mar. 19, 2025) – As Canadian communities experience record-breaking weather-related insurance losses, almost three-in-four Canadians are now worried about climate change’s effect on their properties and wallets, according to First Onsite Property Restoration’s annual Weather and Property Survey. Canadians believe climate change is driving up insurance rates Commissioned by First Onsite each year, the Weather and Property Survey of more than 1500 adults found that three quarters of Canadians (73%) are worried about being affected by climate change, extreme weather, and disasters. This concern was highest in Atlantic Canada at 79 per cent, followed by Manitoba, Ontario, and British Columbia, all of which were above 75 per cent. Additionally, three quarters of Canadians (74%) are concerned that climate change is driving up the cost of their home or business insurance. This is an eight per cent increase over last year. More than one-third of respondents (36%) report they have already experienced increases in their property insurance rates. 2024 breaks record with $8.5 billion in losses According to CatIQ, 2024 shattered the record for severe weather-related property losses in Canadian history at $8.5 billion. This is...

GreenShield Responds with Free Therapy Initiative to Support All Canadians Toronto, ON (Mar. 27, 2025) – As Canada-U.S. trade tensions escalate and the cost of living continues to rise, new data reveals nearly half of Canadians are experiencing heightened anxiety, with tariffs quickly emerging as one of the top drivers. Last month, GreenShield—a proudly Canadian-owned and operated non-profit health and benefits company—partnered with Mental Health Research Canada (MHRC) to identify key trends and gaps in care for Canadians amidst growing economic and political uncertainty. The data revealed a significant spike in anxiety over the past month, with the rising cost of living and political tensions with the U.S. reported among the top stressors for Canadians. According to this new data: In 2024 there was a declining trend in the number of Canadians reporting negative mental health impacts due to economic conditions; however, the start of 2025 marked a sharp spike, with: 42% now reporting the economic downturn is negatively affecting their mental health, and 39% worrying about the possibility of not being able to pay their bills. Nearly 50% of Canadians reported increased anxiety in the past month, with concerns highest among lower-income households and women. Almost 40% of Canadians...

New York, NY (Mar. 26, 2024) – Accenture is launching new capabilities, accelerators and training to help organizations build and scale generative AI solutions and agents that enhance the impact of the integrations of Google Cloud’s Gemini models and Salesforce’s Agentforce, (see backgrounder). As a leading transformation partner for both Google Cloud and Salesforce, Accenture will help clients capitalize on this strategic moment with packaged accelerators to drive growth and reinvent business workflows and customer experiences in the agentic era. The industry- and function-specific accelerators leverage Accenture’s understanding of customer processes, extensive data and AI engineering skills, and expansive industry and functional experience from across the Accenture and Google Cloud joint generative AI Center of Excellence and the Accenture Salesforce hub for generative AI. The accelerators will help drive more robust and intelligent AI-driven processes by harnessing real-time data insights to help identify operational efficiencies and empower organizations to deliver more personalized and impactful customer experiences faster than ever before. “Accenture is doubling down to bring its extensive ecosystem and customer domain capabilities and deep AI engineering skills together with the collective innovations from Google Cloud and Salesforce to accelerate value for our clients,” said Lan Guan, chief AI officer,...

Governments and insurers must work together urgently to prepare communities and households for wildfires, floods, windstorms and hail while improving Canada’s response to and recovery from these increasingly frequent and severe disasters — By Craig Stewart, Vice President, Climate Change and Federal Issues, IBC — In the last decade, more than 880,000 Canadians and 87,000 businesses have suffered financial losses due to damage caused by severe weather and natural catastrophes, with property & casualty insurers paying out more than $30 billion in claims for these types of events. Beyond these numbers lie the hard-to-quantify costs to society in terms of lives disrupted, homes lost and financial hardship experienced by individuals, families and businesses. In addition, Canadian households pay deductibles and shoulder non-insured losses, while governments absorb impacts to infrastructure and rely on tax payers to fund disaster assistance. The vast majority of those affected are low- and middle-income Canadians and small and medium-sized businesses. Ten years ago, Canada began to take significant action to tackle climate change. As a country, we focused on reducing carbon emissions, and have allocated $41.8 billion since 2016 to fund mitigation measures, such as those that affected or worked toward the reduction of Canada’s greenhouse...