Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Collaboration between insurers and InsurTechs is key to address customer demand for add-on services, personalization, and flexible offerings Paris, France (Oct. 7, 2019) – The insurance industry is facing a structural shift where effective collaboration with InsurTechs is essential in order to meet rising customer expectations, according to the World InsurTech Report 2019 (WITR) published today by Capgemini and Efma. “As the insurance marketplace evolves, insurers will move beyond their traditional role as payers covering customer losses to partners that identify and forecast risk, helping with insurance and related non-insurance needs,” said Anirban Bose, CEO of Capgemini’s Financial Services Strategic Business Unit and Group Executive Board member. “To deepen customer relationships, insurers will have to collaborate more with InsurTechs who are already mastering the customer experience by leveraging the most innovative technologies and use of data.” “Insurers will benefit from partnerships with InsurTechs as the marketplace becomes more crowded,” said Vincent Bastid, Secretary General of Efma. “The data shows that insurers and InsurTechs are eager to partner with each other, which will ultimately benefit the customer in the form of more advanced products and services.” The World InsurTech Report 2019 outlines a new insurance ecosystem with an open marketplace, based...

Utrecht, Netherlands (Oct. 7, 2019) – FRISS, the market leader in AI-powered fraud and risk solutions for the P&C insurance industry, today announced to have extended their partnership with Munich Re, one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance, primary insurance and insurance-related risk solutions, to now globally support insurers in their fight against fraud. Extension of the contract follows on the successful cooperation in Latin America and Iberia, where both parties work extensively together to fight fraud and mitigate risks at P&C insurers. The parties now agree to support insurance companies worldwide. Munich Re’s Global Consulting Unit is driving transformative change in the insurance industry through the application of data science and digitalization. The unique FRISS solutions provide a fully integrated hybrid combination of powerful AI, predictive models, network analysis, and text mining and over 600 out-of-the-box risk and fraud indicators, that are used by insurers for real-time risk assessment at underwriting, fraud detection at claims and investigations at the special investigation unit. These will be part of Munich Re’s consultative portfolio to bring value to the customer besides traditional reinsurance services. Munich Re and FRISS will combine industry best practices and come up with practical solutions to help...

Ninety-four per cent of respondents believe financial literacy should be a higher priority in schools: national survey from Rates.ca Toronto, ON (Oct. 1, 2019) – Canadians give themselves dismal grades when it comes to their understanding of common financial products, according to a new national survey by insurance and money product comparison site Rates.ca. Specifically, when considering financial literacy about credit cards and mortgages, 44 per cent and 62 per cent of Canadians – respectively – assessed their skills at six out of 10 or below. Financial literacy as it relates to credit cards is more evenly split down gender lines (48 per cent for women vs. 41 per cent for men), while more women than men rank themselves at six or below when considering their knowledge of mortgages (67 per cent vs. 55 per cent). An overwhelming majority of Canadians surveyed (94 per cent) believe that schools should place a greater emphasis on teaching financial literacy. Close to half (46 per cent) of respondents said that children should be independent and in charge of their own credit cards by age 18, while over one third of Canadians feel that 21 is the appropriate age for this responsibility. Moreover, 15...

Ottawa, ON (Oct. 1, 2019) – A new study by Canadian Water Network (CWN) and Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) highlights the potential to improve the accuracy of flood hazard maps by incorporating richer data. Governments, insurers and investors use flood hazard maps to determine the flood risk to neighbourhoods and individual properties. Large-scale flood risk models currently rely on low-resolution (30-metre) topographical data of mixed quality that give limited consideration to municipal flood defences. Working with two renowned global flood risk-modelling firms, and five municipalities, the study found that 5-metre grid spacing provided the optimal resolution to evaluate flooding from intense rain events. “The study’s conclusions are important for insurers wanting to expand flood coverage for consumers, particularly in areas identified as high risk on traditional flood hazard maps,” said Craig Stewart, Vice-President, Federal Affairs, Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). “Improving access to richer information is a significant opportunity for Canadian municipalities, insurers and homeowners to better understand flood risk and to take action.” Flooding is a costly issue for Canadian homeowners, municipalities and the insurance sector – and these costs have been growing. Property and casualty insurance payouts from extreme weather have more than doubled every five to...

Staff | October 4, 2019 The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is making a US$50 million equity investment in San Francisco-based electric scooter share firm Bird Rides Inc. The organization operates electric scooters in more than 100 cities around the world. It’s currently expanding into Canada, with launches in Calgary and Edmonton earlier this year. And it undertook a 10-day pilot in Toronto’s Distillery District in early September. Read: Caisse invests in Quebec venture capital tech firm In a press release, the Caisse said the investment falls within its strategy of investing in disruptive technology sectors. “This new partnership also supports our commitment to take part in the transition toward a less carbon-intensive global economy,” said Jeffrey Smith, the Caisse’s senior managing director of digital investment strategy. “We look forward to continue building a business which provides micromobility solutions in cities around the world.” Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com

Staff | October 4, 2019 Equitable Life Insurance Co. of Canada is expanding the services it offers to plan sponsors through its partnership with Homewood Health Inc. While the insurer has worked with Homewood Health for seven years to provide plan members on disability with specialized return-to-work support, it will now make the latter organization’s employee assistance program and online health and wellness services available to plan sponsors. Read: EAP use results in positive workplace outcomes: study “Expanding our partnership to include our EFAP and online mental-health and wellness resources will further help our customers meet the mental-health and wellness needs of employees and their families,” said Dave Bennett, senior vice-president of group at Equitable Life, in a press release. “Mental health is at the core of what Homewood does. They offer comprehensive and integrated services across the mental-health continuum. So they bring a wealth of clinical experience and expertise to their programming, products and services.” With a national network of more than 4,500 counsellors and clinical professionals, Homewood Health offers face-to-face, phone, email, chat, video counselling and self-directed treatment programs. Its work-life services and tools are developed and delivered by psychologists and experts. Read: What you don’t know about your employee assistance program Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com

Digital brand of Top 5 Canadian insurer introduces Event and Rent-My-Stuff on-demand insurance New York, NY (Oct. 2, 2019) – Slice Labs Inc., the first on-demand insurance cloud platform provider, is pleased to announce that Duuo, an on-demand digital insurance brand from The Co-operators Group, has launched on-demand Event and Rent-My-Stuff insurance offerings built on the Slice Insurance Cloud Services (ICS) platform. “Slice ICS enables Duuo to reimagine Canadian insurance by meeting the emerging expectations of consumers and businesses for flexible, affordable insurance solutions,” said Robin Shufelt, managing director of Duuo. “We are passionate about being a progressive brand that offers convenient, high-quality customer experiences. Our first product has been very well-received across Canada, and we expect these two offerings to further fuel our expansion into other sharing and gig economy segments.” Introduced less than a year after Duuo launched on-demand homeshare host insurance as its first sharing economy product, Duuo on-demand Event Insurance provides coverage to protect event hosts which can be purchased in minutes, starts as low as $6/event, and provides $5M in event liability (bodily injury and property damage) with optional liquor liability coverage for non-sporting events. Additionally, Duuo on-demand Rent-my-Stuff Insurance removes the risk of renting...

Added simplicity, flexibility help Canadians protect what matters most to them – and help advisors offer peace of mind to business owners Toronto, ON (Oct. 1, 2019) – Sun Life has announced its offer of simple and flexible options for guaranteed protection with the addition of two new permanent life insurance solutions, SunUniversalLife Pro and Sun Permanent Life. SunUniversalLife Pro is the ideal corporate insurance solution. With guarantees, cash accessibility and a wide variety of optional benefits, SunUniversalLife Pro helps business owners with their long-term planning, allowing them to focus on the day-to-day challenges of running their business. “We’ve listened to business owners share their stories,” says Vineet Kochhar, Senior VP, Insurance Solutions, Sun Life. “They want to protect shareholder value and maximize their estate. Primarily, they want to focus on growing their business without worrying about outgrowing their insurance. SunUniversalLife Pro gives them that peace of mind.” Sun Permanent Life provides lifetime, guaranteed protection to Canadians with the simplicity they’ve asked for. Guaranteed premiums and death benefits ensure that protection is available to our Clients, when they need it most. The policy also provides a guaranteed cash value starting in year three, which can be used in case of...

Contest kicks off to encourage participation Winnipeg, MB (Oct. 1, 2019) – Great-West Life has announced the launch of Health Connected®, a mobile-friendly health and wellness platform that draws on strategic features to encourage users to take charge of their health. And when they do, from now until December 31, 2019, they can enter for a chance to win wellness prizes from Great-West Life. Prizes include $4,000 cash the winner can use on whatever wellness means to them. “Many of us struggle to practice self-care, be it through exercise, nutritious food, good sleep, hygiene or stress-management techniques,” says Ryan Weiss, Vice-President, Group Customer Product & Experience, Great-West Life. “Health Connected has a built-in engagement strategy – our wellness prizes – that reward taking steps to improve health and get at the heart of this challenge.” Weiss says the platform is accessible to virtually all members of Great-West Life group health and benefits plans, at no extra cost to plan sponsors. “We’re making this investment in our customers’ organizational wellness because we believe it will help improve employee morale and engagement and reduce disability claims,” he explains. Strategic features include: Digital health coaching: Users complete a comprehensive, personalized health risk assessment...

Toronto, ON (Oct. 3, 2019) – Navacord Corp., a leading insurance and risk management brokerage, is pleased to announce their strategic expansion in Saskatchewan with the addition of Hoffmann Kool Insurance and Life Line Insurance, effective October 1st. Both Hoffmann Kool and Life Line have proudly served the business, personal and life insurance needs of Saskatchewan communities for over thirty years. Located in Saskatoon, both offices will remain under the management of their current leadership teams. “With eleven partnerships announced so far in 2019, we have tripled our business in five short years,” said T. Marshall Sadd, Executive Chairman of Navacord. “We are pleased at how our business model resonates with brokers and consider 2019 to be a banner year.” “We are tremendously excited about the opportunity to join Navacord,” said Darryn Knibbs, President and CEO of Hoffmann Kool and Life Line Insurance. “Our desire was to remain an independent business but have the benefits of being part of a bigger, national broker. This is exactly what we are achieving by joining Navacord.” This marks the second Broker Partner announcement in one week, following the addition of Vancouver Island-based Waypoint Insurance Services. “Navacord is excited to be expanding in Saskatchewan...