Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

National Personal Auto and Personal Property premium rates increase in nearly all provinces year over year Mississauga, ON (July 9, 2020) – Applied Systems® is pleased to announce the second-quarter of 2020 results of the Applied Rating Index™, the Canadian insurance industry’s premium rate index. In Q2 2020, average premiums for both Personal Auto and Personal Property lines increased versus the same quarter in 2019. For Personal Auto, Alberta and the Atlantic provinces experienced the most significant increase in premium year over year for the second quarter in a row at 12.3% and 11.5% respectively. For Personal Property, Quebec’s year-over-year premium stayed the highest for the second quarter running at 22.1% while British Columbia’s annual premium rate was the only province with negative change premium rate change at -6.3%. Key findings for Q2 2020 include: Personal Auto: In Q2 2020, Personal Auto premiums increased by 4.7% versus Q2 2019. Personal Auto premiums decreased -1.6% versus Q1 2020. Personal Property: In Q2 2020, Personal Property premiums increased by 5.3% versus Q2 2019. Personal Property premiums decreased -0.5% versus Q1 2020. Provinces: For Personal Auto, Ontario experienced the lowest year over year premium change at 0.8% while Alberta experienced the greatest year...

Staff | July 13, 2020 Firefighters, administrative and infrastructure maintenance personnel at the Saint John Airport are among the newest members to join the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology pension plan’s DBplus. As part of a new collective agreement that was ratified earlier this year, the employees, who are represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada, have joined DBplus on a go-forward basis, effective July 1, 2020. With the change, these employees move from a defined contribution into a defined benefit plan. Read: Canadian law firms to join CAAT’s DBPlus pension plan “CAAT’s DBplus pension offers our valued team members the certainty of a defined benefit plan, while offering us the stable contribution rates of a defined contribution plan,” said Greg Hierlihy, director of finance and administration at the Saint John Airport Authority, in a press release. “It’s a scenario that’s the absolute best of both worlds: employees see optimal returns and employers enjoy predictable costs.” Since DBplus opened to all Canadian workplaces in 2019, more than 15,000 members from more than 30 employers have joined it. It also has members across Canada from nine different industries and 14 different labour unions. Read: SHARE joining CAAT’s DBPlus pension plan Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com

SMB-facing marketplaces, SaaS companies and others can now deliver liability insurance quotes immediately to small business customers, delivering significant value to users while generating a new revenue stream New York, NY (July 9, 2020) – Thimble, the InsurTech startup that helps small businesses succeed on their own terms, has released a new API for partners who serve the small business and professional services communities. Interested parties can sign up for free at www.thimble.com/api. With the Thimble API, partners can offer flexible insurance policies, available monthly or on-demand, to businesses within their own user experience. The API can be integrated at no cost in just a few lines of code, granting immediate access to business insurance quotes for hundreds of professionals– from contractors and electricians to photographers and musicians. It will also generate new revenue streams for partners, either through commission on policies sold and on referral traffic, where allowed. For Thimble partners, offering liability insurance is a core way to help professionals earn the trust of their customers, who are simultaneously interested in home services, yet cautious about letting pros into their homes. The API removes the friction that is traditionally associated with binding an insurance policy, issuing a bindable...

Staff | July 13, 2020 The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is appointing Guillaume Pepy as senior advisor for Europe. In the new role, which started July 1, he’ll engage with multiple European investment teams, providing council on the portfolio for the region. “Guillaume’s deep expertise, understanding and network across the private and public sectors in France brings great value to our investment strategy in the region,” said Alain Carrier, senior managing director and head of international at the CPPIB, in a press release. “All of our investment teams at CPP Investments can benefit from his counsel and we are looking forward to him joining our team.” Read: EMPEA appointing CPPIB’s Suyi Kim to board of directors Most recently, Pepy was chairman and chief executive officer of France’s national railway Société nationale des chemins de fer français, where he began working in 1993 as its chief strategy and investment officer. “Supporting CPP Investments’ long-term strategy in Europe and across the world represents an exciting opportunity for me,” he said. “I look forward to sharing my operating and strategic experience at the heart of Europe with the team at CPP Investments” Read: Ontario Teachers’ appointing Karen Frank as senior managing director of equities Read the full...

Swiss Re Institute’s latest sigma report Global insurance premium volumes will recover to pre COVID-19 crisis levels in 2021 Insurance demand will slow sharply in 2020 due to the pandemic; global life premiums will contract by 6% and non-life by 0.1% In life, saving products will be hardest hit; in non-life, travel and trade related lines will suffer most Led by China, emerging markets will underpin global market strength with total premiums up 1% this year and 7% in 2021 Rate hardening in commercial lines will support profitability in non-life; rising risk awareness due to COVID-19 will support premium growth across many lines of business over the longer term Zurich, Switzerland (July 9, 2020) – The insurance industry is set to overcome this year’s COVID-19-induced global economic recession, the latest Swiss Re Institute’s sigma says. The sharpest economic contraction since the 1930s will lead to a slump in demand for insurance in 2020, more so for life products, with global premiums expected to contract by 6%, than for non-life covers (-0.1%). However, total premium volumes will return to pre-crisis levels in 2021 already, alongside more protracted recovery in the global economy. There will be sector divergence, with non-life premium volumes...

Prolific insurance executive and author John (Jack) A. Bogardus Jr., 92, died June 28 in Scottsdale, Ariz. Bogardus’ entire business career was spent with Alexander & Alexander Services (A&A) where he helped take the company public in 1969. He subsequently served as president and CEO and ultimately, chairman. Including time as a director of the company (1963-95), his career with A&A spanned 45 years. A&A became part of AON Corp. in 1996, creating the world’s largest insurance brokerage. Bogardus served as a director of the Insurance Brokers Association of New York and a director and chairman of the governing committee of the National Association of Insurance Brokers. He was a member of the US Chamber of Commerce Insurance Committee; a board member of the American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters and of the Insurance Institute of America. Bogardus also served on the boards of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc.; United States Surgical Corp.; and Security Capital Corp. After retirement, Bogardus relied on decades of business experience to co-author Spreading the Risks: Insuring the American Experience. This seminal book details how the insurance industry evolved through disasters and economic transformations into the twenty-first century. Advertisement Bogardus spent 13 years researching...

PDA Virtual is the company’s no-touch estimating solution that turns all smart devices into an estimating tool, allowing the end-user to complete their claim at their convenience Fort Worth, TX (July 7, 2020) – Property Damage Appraisers Inc. (PDA), the leading U.S. independent damage estimating firm, provides clients with the fastest cycle times in the industry. Now, as COVID-19 has resulted in a 60% increase in virtual estimates industry-wide, the firm is proud to announce PDA Virtual, its customer-driven, no-touch, virtual estimating tool. “To further support our position as the nation’s leader in cycle times, PDA Virtual is another option that we provide our clients and their customers to get a speedy auto or heavy equipment damage estimate in an easy, safe manner,” said Executive Vice President, Tom Slimak. “PDA Virtual will let the claimant choose how they want to interact with us. This is a convenient, do-it-yourself option for people who are trying to get back to normal as quickly as possible while also avoiding physical human contact amid the pandemic.” While only 20% of industry claims were virtual before COVID-19, the firm expects that at least half of all auto claims will be virtual moving forward. With PDA...

Kelsey Rolfe | July 13, 2020 The Federal Court has upheld reforms to the Patented Medicines Pricing Review Board that updated the board’s reference countries for drug pricing and required it to review three new economic factors when determining whether patented medicines are excessively priced. The court ruled against an argument by Innovative Medicines Canada and 16 pharmaceutical companies in their application for judicial review that the changes fell outside the scope of the Patent Act, which governs the PMPRB. “I find the purpose of the amendments related to the new mandatory factors . . . and the [reference countries] under section 6 . . . [are] sufficiently connected to and consistent with the purpose of the patented medicines regime in the context of the Patent Act: protecting consumers from the abuse of excessive pricing,” wrote Judge Michael Manson in his decision. Read: What will PMPRB drug pricing changes mean for plan sponsors? The reforms will update Canada’s reference countries for comparing its prices internationally. They’ll remove Switzerland and the U.S. — the only two countries in the world with higher patented drug prices than Canada — and add Australia, Belgium, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain, which all have lower drug prices. They also make it mandatory for the board to consider the pharmacoeconomic value...

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled in favour of a federal law that prohibits third parties, including insurance companies, from requiring individuals to submit genetic information. The law, Bill S-201, was introduced in 2017 as a private member’s bill by the retired Liberal senator James Cowan, and sponsored in the House of Commons by Liberal MP Rob Oliphant. It aims to offer valuable protections to Canadians’ genetic information, including a prohibition on life insurance companies’ use of genetic tests as a condition of coverage. It also includes exceptions for medical, pharmaceutical, and scientific purposes. Aside from amending the Canadian Labour Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act, the legislation introduced the first nationwide penalties against genetic discrimination, including a fine of up to $ 1 million or imprisonment for five years, reported CBC News. According the news outlet, Cowan and Oliphant were encouraged to push the legislation after being told by geneticists at a Toronto hospital that parents were choosing not to get genetic tests done out of fear that it would have impact their future prospects for employment and insurance eligibility. “It’s the key to precision medicine, personalized medicine,” Cowan told CBC News. As the bill was being...

The Life Insurance and Annuities Committee voted unanimously over vociferous objections to adopt language proposed by the American Council of Life Insurers to shore up Actuarial Guideline 49. Regulators conceded that the changes might not be ideal, but expressed a desire to do something to bring IUL illustrations more in line with actual returns. “This is something that is going on in the marketplace now,” said Doug Ommen, Iowa insurance commissioner. “Our work as regulators, to be frank, is never done. I would support the idea of continuing to work through the life illustration group to address the all of these concerns.” The changes are expected to rein in the illustration of policy crediting rates, said Minnesota regulator Fred Anderson, through a series of changes to the calculation methods. A second big change to add “more conservatism” to the illustration of policy loans, he added. “A general concept behind these issues is selecting a point on the spectrum of, on one side, allowing innovation and on the opposite side, preventing loopholes,” Anderson explained. “If there were 40 people active at (Life and Actuarial Task Force) meetings, and calls on this topic, there are probably 40 different opinions.” Advertisement The background: AG...