Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Toronto, ON (Sept. 10, 2019) – The Insurance Brokers Association of Canada (IBAC) is pleased to announce that the Data Exchange Working Group has completed the first Reusable Data Service (RDS), demonstrating the efficacy of this approach and setting the stage for future success. Building on the work of the Toronto Insurance Council (TIC) and in conjunction with IBAC brokers, the Working Group has developed the First Notice of Loss (FNOL) transaction as an RDS and placed it in a library hosted at the Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO). This represents an important milestone in the efforts to advance broker-insurer connectivity by enabling the sharing of information between disparate systems. “This RDS allows insurance brokers to enter a FNOL into their broker management system, send it to an insurance carrier, and receive an acknowledgement and claims number back from the carrier in real-time,” said Gina McFetridge, Chair of the IBAC Technology Committee. “Implementation will result in a significant enhancement to the consumer experience, and reduce administration costs for both brokers and carriers.” The rigorous development process began with the creation of a transactional use case utilizing CSIO data standards and IBAC Data Exchange Principles. Customer Software Solutions Inc....

Toronto, ON (Sept. 11, 2019) – SNAP Premium Finance Group, one of Canada’s largest payment solutions providers, has recently partnered with MGA K&K Insurance Canada to give clients in the sports and entertainment space an easier way to pay for their insurance policies. K&K Insurance Canada sought a partner who could provide creative billing solutions to clients in order to drive awareness and maximize retention rates across the country. Helping Brokers, Carriers and MGAs get ahead “We’re pleased to partner with K&K Insurance Canada to help them to give a better service to clients,” says Sumeet Sharma, Senior Vice President, SNAP Financial Group. “The benefits of offering direct billing solutions are two-fold; clients reap the rewards of having less of a financial burden placed upon them when paying for their policies and partners like K&K Insurance Canada can continue to provide a memorable experience to their valued customers again and again.” SNAP, who were recently recognized as one of Canada’s top 50 FinTech companies[1] by the Digital Insurance Institute, have developed custom applications, leveraged existing technologies and offered up easy-to-integrate API’s to assist partners in taking maximum advantage of their suite of payment solutions. “Our mission has always been to...

New study highlights InsurTechs’ opportunities and challenges in partnering with insurers Boston, MA (Sept. 12, 2019) – Insurers are increasingly realizing the benefits of InsurTech partnerships, including access to technical expertise, new talent, and a low-cost way to test new technology. But working with InsurTechs successfully requires insurers to adapt their evaluation, contracting, and project management approaches. In a new report, InsurTech Startup Perspectives on Working with Insurers, research and advisory firm Novarica draws on research on InsurTechs’ experience of working with insurers ranging from early-stage to more established companies to help insurers understand the startup perspective: what’s working, what’s not, and how insurers can take advantage of partnerships. “Insurers tend to be risk averse by necessity and prefer to see a history of successful implementations as a result,” said Jeff Goldberg, Executive Vice President of Research and Consulting and author of Novarica’s new report. “Yet working with startups may mean having to overlook a short track record, especially for more early stage companies. The payoff is that insurers may be able to influence a startup’s direction, and startups may be willing to offer a lower cost in turn.” A preview of the report is available online. Summary Money continues...

Toronto, ON (Sept. 12, 2019) – Apollo Insurance Solutions Ltd. is pleased to announce that through partnership with Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company, it now offers a Liability insurance package for CrossFit instructors through the Apollo Exchange. Like all products featured on the Exchange, brokers can quote, bind, and issue policy documents for their CrossFit instructor clients online and in real-time. This is a multi-line package, which includes Professional Liability, General Liability, Contents & Assets, and Legal Phone Line coverage. Apollo partnered with Trisura to offer many small business packages that brokers are able to purchase on behalf of their clients directly from the Exchange. Brokerages are also able to white label the products and sell them directly from their brokerage website. The entire process, from quoting, binding coverage, and issuing policy documents is immediate,  completely online, and paper free. Some of the other many industry classes that are available include: Accountants Business and Management Consultants Yoga Instructors Nonprofits Barbers and Hair Stylists “Trisura is a great partner of ours, and Apollo’s mission to empower the broker channel is realized through partnerships like this one,” said Apollo CEO Jeff McCann. “With the addition of this industry class, our broker users can...

Applied Systems reveals results of annual Applied Digital Brokerage Survey University Park, IL (June 12, 2019) – Applied Systems has announced the findings of its annual Applied Digital Brokerage Survey, providing an industry-wide benchmark for brokerages to measure their digital technology adoption and progression towards digital transformation. Survey responses provided the data to calculate a digital score for each business and identify baselines for technology adoption. The 2019 Applied Digital Brokerage results indicate that 43% is the average digital technology adoption score at a brokerage – nearly the same as 2018. Key survey findings include: Foundational management system: Ninety-six percent of brokerages leverage a management system, confirming that it is the foundation of business operations and indispensable for day-to-day operations. Mobile: Forty-seven percent of brokerages have mobile access to management system information and even fewer, 18% and 24% respectively, offer client mobile apps and self-service portals. Given 90% of consumers expect an online portal for customer service (Microsoft®), the time is now for businesses to embrace mobile technology for both clients and staff. Insurer connectivity: Ninety-one percent of brokerages receive download directly into their management systems. Use of download services is strong across all regions, with a notable 75% increase...

Yaelle Gang, the Canadian Investment Review | September 13, 2019 As environmental, social and governance issues are increasingly recognized as material factors when considering investments and amid growing stakeholder pressure, many options are available for pension plans looking to incorporate ESG into their portfolios. “Historically, you saw a lot more on the ethical investing end of things — so exclusions, negative screens,” said Eli Angen, principal of responsible investing, strategy and risk at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, during a session at the 2019 Association of Canadian Pension Management’s conference on Thursday. “Over time, you’ve seen more and more variety in the approach. And Ontario Teachers’ takes a responsible investing approach. So that’s about integrating ESG consideration across the investment lifecycle.” Read: Institutional investors increasingly see ESG as a source of alpha: survey The pension fund’s approach to responsible investing includes four pillars: integrate, engage, influence and evolve, he added. It integrates across the investment lifecycle, beginning with governance. Every year, the board of directors approves the responsible investing approach and provides oversight, said Angen. And the executive team is accountable for rolling out the approach. “But then, at the end of the day, the ownership of it really happens with portfolio managers....

Staff | September 13, 2019 Regular exercise does in fact reduce people’s mental-health burden, according to a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry. The study examined the relationship between exercise and mental health to better understand the influence of exercise type, frequency, duration and intensity on people’s mental-health outcomes. It collected data from 1,237,194 Americans aged 18 years or older between 2011 and 2013, including data from a 2015 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention behavioural risk factors surveillance system. Read: One-quarter of Canadians say exercise prohibited by finances: survey The researchers compared the number of bad self-reported days and mental health in individuals who exercised and those who didn’t. The two groups were balanced in terms of age, race, gender, marital status, income, education level, body-mass index, self-reported physical health and previous diagnosis of depression. The study found individuals who exercised had 43 per cent fewer days of poor mental health in the previous month than individuals who didn’t exercise. All forms of exercise were associated with a lower mental-health burden, with a minimum reduction of 12 per cent and a maximum reduction of 22 per cent compared to not exercising. The categories with the highest reduction were team sports and cycling (both 22...

Jennifer Paterson | September 13, 2019 At the risk of cementing my reputation as an unapologetic literary nerd (I opened my last editorial with a George Bernard Shaw quote), I’ve always drawn inspiration from Virginia Woolf’s seminal work, A Room of One’s Own. If you haven’t read the essay, it’s basically an argument for creating both a literal and figurative space for women writers within a literary tradition dominated by men. While the essay, which was published in 1929, specifically addresses gender disparity in the literary world, it also draws parallels to other industries and occupations. But, nearly 100 years later, women are still struggling to find a “room of one’s own” in their careers, workplaces and larger society. Read: Women in Canada’s pension, benefits industry discuss careers, pay equity and mentorship This is certainly the case in the financial services industry — though we’re making gradual progress towards gender equality. Data published in 2018 showed that, among the top 20 global financial services firms, 18 per cent of executive committees were made up of women, up from 13 per cent in 2014. And a 2018 global survey of alternative investment firms found just 13 per cent of chief executive officers were women,...

Benefits Canada | September 13, 2019 While employer-provided wellness programs can include incentives or penalties for members, the industry is divided on which tactic is most effective in encouraging employee participation. Dominic Cole-Morgan, senior vice-president of total rewards at Scotiabank: The reality is the workforce has never been more diverse than it is today. No employee’s needs, preferences or backgrounds are the same, so they should be offered the freedom to choose their wellness offerings based on their own criteria. By incentivizing employees to craft their wellness experience, whether that means allocating more resources towards more fulsome coverage or choosing to invest leftover funds, they’re actively taking ownership and accountability over their own well-being. Read: A creative way to use wellness credits to boost productivity A popular “carrot” approach is employer matching, where an employee is actively contributing to a financial program, such as a share ownership plan, and they’re rewarded for taking an interest in their longer-term financial health with an employer match. These types of programs are successful because employees have a choice in how they’d like to invest their hard-earned money, depending on their own financial circumstances and goals. Active participants make smarter, more informed decisions than passive participants. To...

Kelsey Rolfe | September 13, 2019 In October 2017, De Beers Canada senior management flew to the company’s remote Victor diamond mine near Attawapiskat, Ont., to tell its employees some tough but not unexpected news: the mine was slated to close in the first quarter of 2019. When the fly-in, fly-out operation opened in 2008, the company forecasted it would last 10 to 11 years. Once De Beers reached the decision to shut down, its human resources department jumped into action to prepare employees for the transition. The aim was to enable workers to do “what they intended to do with their careers,” says Eric Ingle, head of HR at De Beers Canada. “If they wanted to work in the industry, they could do that, and if they wanted to retire, they could do that as well.” Read: Wabush Mines retirees to regain portion of cut pension benefits It was also important to the company to share the news with employees as soon as possible, being transparent along the way about any closure-related decisions that would affect them. “There’s some risk announcing a year and a half ahead of closure that you’ll experience a lot of attrition or stress out of your workforce,...