Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Regardless of their personal wealth, Canadian Boomers who are not yet retired share the same concern – that they haven’t saved enough money, according to the RBC Retirement Myths & Realities poll, conducted by Ipsos. The poll also found that Boomers’ savings goals varied widely. On average, those with investable assets of $100,000 or more were aiming to save $949,000 and are falling short by $275,000. Meanwhile, those with investable assets of less than $100,000 hope to save, on average, $574,000 and are more than $500,000 away from their goal. The poll revealed that not-yet-retired Boomers are looking at various options to increase their retirement income, including: downsizing their home or moving (52%); working in retirement (41%); borrowing against home equity ( 25%); relying on an expected inheritance (21%) and hoping to win the lottery (3%). “No-one should be relying on an inheritance or a lottery win. We also don’t want anyone feeling discouraged by unrealistic savings goals or thinking they don’t have enough time. Concerns like these can be overcome by taking control of your finances,” says Rick Lowes, Vice-President, Retirement Strategy, RBC. “There could be some tough choices ahead. A half-hour conversation with a financial planner can help...

Great-West Lifeco Inc. today announced that the boards of its three Canadian life insurance companies have unanimously approved plans to proceed with the amalgamation into company – The Canada Life Assurance Company. Subject to regulatory and policyholder approval, the amalgamation of The Great-West Life Assurance Company, London Life Insurance Company and The Canada Life Assurance Company and their holding companies, Canada Life Financial Corporation and London Insurance Group Inc., is expected to be completed by Jan. 1, 2020. Upon approval, the companies will be combined into a single life insurance company operating under The Canada Life Assurance Company name. This unified insurer will retain all of the amalgamating companies’ current corporate office locations, says Great-West Lifeco, which will remain the parent company. “The move to a single legal entity will align with our move to a common brand and will enable us to further simplify our business, and be more focused in our investments in technology and innovation, creating a better experience for advisors and policyholders,” said Paul Mahon, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canada Life. “The promises we’ve made to our customers on their products with each of the three Canadian companies will continue in the amalgamated company.” Canada...

Transformational insurance software solution Watford, ON (July 15, 2019) — Lambton Mutual Insurance Company (LMIC) ‘goes live’ in production with Cognition+, a web-based insurance enterprise platform.  This represents the initial step in a transformational change project geared towards enhancing LMIC’s support to their members and community through improved access and efficiencies for their sales channels, agents and brokers, and their team. Cognition+ provides a number of immediate benefits: Web-based, anywhere, anytime, any device access Role based workflows, access and task management Best Practice processes and usability Privacy and Security as well as scalability Application Programming Interfaces for extendibility Standardized Document Retention & Creation Cognition+ over the longer term provides heightened access and insight into the company’s data, optimizes data entry and retention, while enabling real time transactions with Third Parties.  The Cognition+ solution works in tandem with LMIC’s current implementation of the Insurance Business Solution (IBS), which has allowed the automobile team to be the initial team members to adopt in production. “We’re pleased with the transition process that the Cognition+ team has introduced to our team, which is leading to overall improved workflow processes,” said Deb Van Eyk, President & CEO of Lambton Mutual Insurance Company. “Their implementation plan...

New series taps into insights, expertise and experience of industry influencers to give listeners a view into key areas that are shaping the future of insurance Morristown, NJ (July 16, 2019) – Majesco, a global leader of cloud insurance software solutions for insurance business transformation, has announced the launch of their Future of Insurance: Industry Influencers podcast series. In each episode, host Denise Garth, SVP of Strategic Marketing and Innovation at Majesco, asks notable guests – including SVIA CEO and cofounder Mike Connor and bestselling author Rob Galbraith (also known as “the most interesting man in insurance”) – questions such as: How has InsurTech changed over the last three years and what has been the impact for insurance?  How are you thinking about the future of insurance? How can insurers create a vision to survive and thrive these paradigm shifts? “At Majesco we continue to identify ways to provide thought provoking, engaging, inspiring and challenging insights on the fast-paced, always-changing insurance industry,” says Denise Garth. “The insurance industry has a community of innovative thinkers and influencers that we are collaborating with to reshape the future of insurance.  Each 15 to 20 minute episode is full of engaging conversation that offers...

The Financial Services Commission of Ontario’s Superintendent of Financial Institutions slapped the four insurance subsidiaries of TD Bank with whopping fines totalling $3.2 million  The offence: charging automobile insurance rates other than those authorized by the Ontario government. In Ontario, auto insurers must comply with a strict pricing framework. They cannot change their rates at will. They must request permission from the government to do so, and it may take a few months to receive a reply, in either case.  TD was informed in January that it had broken the rules. The penalty was handed down on July 6. The subsidiaries will soon receive the bill and will have 30 days to pay the fine. Here are the details of the fines imposed: Subsidiary sanctioned Fine TD Home and Auto Insurance Company $600,000 TD General Insurance Company $600,000 Security National Insurance Company $1,400,000 Primmum Insurance Company $600,000 TOTAL $3,200,000 Source: Financial Services Commission of Ontario Read the original article at insurance-journal.ca

More than 80% of respondents believe Amazon and other tech giants could become major competitors: NTT DATA Global Study Plano, TX (July 16, 2019) – According to new research findings released by NTT DATA Services, new digital technologies, increased competition, and evolving customer expectations are driving 61% of financial services and insurance companies (FS&Is) to shift away from traditional, vertically-integrated business models of offering customers only their own products. FS&Is are moving toward creating a Digital Business Platform (DBP) that allows them to operate with fintechs, insurtechs and other parties in a global ecosystem to provide consumers unique value, 24/7. As a result, nine in 10 global FS&Is believe in the need for transformational digital change. New technologies, such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, are the top trend impacting FS&Is as identified by 53% of respondents, but the findings also indicate technology giants are a significant concern for leaders. According to the research, 84% of firms report that industries outside of financial services and insurance are providing a significant influence on the direction of the market, and 83% believe new entrants, such as Amazon, Apple and Facebook, could become major competitors in offering financial products. “Platform-driven companies such as Amazon,...

Following two highly successful years, InsurTech startups wanting to get connected, master their market, and rapidly scale are encouraged to apply to Hartford InsurTech Hub’s accelerator Hartford, CT (July 17, 2019) – Hartford InsurTech Hub, powered by Startupbootcamp, has opened applications for the third year of its accelerator program. Insurance Technology (InsurTech) startups that have shown strong traction and are looking to connect with several of the biggest insurance companies in the U.S. are encouraged to apply. Applications will close on October 4th. Having gone through Hartford InsurTech Hub’s Accelerator program, several of the startups in 2018 and 2019 cohorts have begun promising partnerships with large insurance companies, thus demonstrating the increasing InsurTech-Incumbent collaboration trend. Some of the success stories include: Aureus Analytics, a customer intelligence and experience company, has secured pilots with several insurers including several of program partners; Rozie AI has an AI platform that designs personalized customer engagement and robust business intelligence solutions for enterprises. The company has completed a proof of concept; is exploring a pilot with a US insurer and a claims organization. Dream Payments offers a powerful cloud platform of configurable tools that automates claims payments through their digital platform, paying customers and vendors...

Toronto, ON (July 16, 2019) – SSQ Insurance is proud to announce a partnership agreement with nesto.ca, a young company with innovative technology allowing for mortgage transactions to be entirely completed online. This partnership will enable SSQ Insurance to offer its life insurance products to nesto.ca customers. “This agreement with nesto.ca is part of our bid to adapt to the consumer preferences of our customers and offer them relevant insurance solutions at opportune times. With this partnership, we’ll be able to reach people who are in the process of shopping for a mortgage, to offer them insurance solutions for their new property,” said Éric Trudel, SSQ Insurance’s Senior Vice-President, Strategy and Product Management. The details of nesto.ca customers who have indicated their interest in receiving an offer from SSQ Insurance for insurance products will be sent to the insurer securely and confidentially. nesto.ca is part of the Diagram family and supported by Portag3, in which SSQ Insurance invested in 2018. The insurer has already formed a partnership with a firm in the Diagram family, the Dialogue telemedicine platform. “We are very pleased with this partnership with SSQ Insurance, which will simplify the lives of our customers by enabling them to...

Toronto, ON (July 17, 2019) – Apollo Insurance, Canada’s largest online insurance marketplace, is pleased to announce that the Exchange now offers carriers the ability to automatically generate bordereaux. Bordereaux generation has been a major friction point for brokers and MGAs across Canada, as they have traditionally had to be manually compiled for binding authorities or Lineage upload. Through the Exchange, those reports can now be produced with the click of a button. “By collecting digital application forms, we are able to route and create bordereaux on any product, binding authority, or program – including those on Lineage and other upload sites,” says Apollo CEO Jeff McCann. “I’ve met brokerages and MGAs with teams of people doing data entry for monthly bordereau reporting, this is a very costly function with no value add to the consumer. This function saves partners who are on the Exchange many hours of manual data entry. This is transformational, and goes directly to the bottom line” This latest addition adds to the Exchange’s already powerful data analytics and CRM capabilities. Apollo Exchange not only gives brokers more access to products, it also offers a new distribution channel and access to data for brokers and MGAs...

Purchase marks DroneBase’s first entry into software solutions Los Angeles, CA (July 16, 2019) – DroneBase, the leading global drone services company, today announced that it has acquired Betterview’s drone roof inspection software and services, establishing the company’s first foray into analytics and first purchase. The transition will seamlessly carry over both the software technology and customers to DroneBase, while Betterview will solely focus on its risk management platform, which is based on manned aircraft and satellite imagery. “DroneBase’s mission is to provide businesses with fast, affordable, and reliable data to make better informed decisions, and we’ll continue to fulfill that mission by providing drone services to our analytics partners and an end-to-end solution for Betterview’s clients,” said Dan Burton, Founder and CEO of DroneBase. “Having worked with Betterview for almost two years, we have been impressed with their platform and its solutions. We will continue to enhance the technology by pairing our trove of aerial data with analytics and artificial intelligence.” The Betterview drone inspection software, now called DroneBase Insights, aims to help insurers and property managers to assess damage and mitigate risk for commercial properties. The platform is currently used by industry leaders, such as Berkshire Hathaway Homestate...