For the vast majority of the existence of Canada’s property and casualty insurance industry, overland flood was deemed to be uninsurable for Canadian homeowners. While commercial entities have been able to purchase flood insurance for decades, it was only eight years ago that overland flood cover was made available for private residences. Numerous Canadian insurers now offer an overland flood/comprehensive water product, to the point where many (maybe all) provincial disaster financial assistance programs now warn residents that they may not receive disaster assistance for flooding because it ..read more

Insurance needs Real-Time now to benefit from lower costs and immediate confirmation between all stake-holders in the insurance distribution vertical. However, Real-Time transactions are too rare in insurance. The most obvious example is D2C insurers who have stepped up their game with customers. Real-Time is More Than Quote and Buy But what about Real-Time transactions for other participants in the insurance distribution vertical? Reinsurers, brokers, agents? Real-Time in this article is truly Real-Time, not Real-Time Quote OR Quote and Buy. This is Real-Time Quote-Buy-Change-Renew-Cancellati ..read more

A perfect storm is an event in which a rare combination of circumstances drastically aggravates an event. We are in a 4th industrial revolution. A technology driven revolution which led to the term “Insurance 4.0”. Insurance 4.0 is defined as a collaboration among insurance value chain stakeholders in a real-time environment using internet and networks automating manual tasks. These collaborative platforms can cut insurance costs (as much as 75% off) from insurance distribution and deliver a better customer experience. Thus, we have the fundamental elements for a Perfect Storm for Insurance ..read more

Another direct-to-consumer insurance platform has launched in North America claiming that “unmet demand for simple and fast digital insurance services in today’s connected world. Savvy insurance customers want the option to research, compare, and buy easily online”. A growing segment of customers want the option to buy easily online. However, as with any direct insurer, there will not be much to compare. Surprisingly, they don’t mention the obvious, customers pay less for insurance in direct-to-consumer distribution models. In fact, direct insurers have taken about half of the personal lines m ..read more

Risk management in the insurance business is a bit of a head scratcher. On the one hand, insurance companies are selling what many people consider to be a risk mitigation. On the other hand, insurance companies themselves face a variety of risks they need to mitigate. Let’s briefly consider a misconception about insurance as it pertains to risk management. Too often, people think insurance is a sufficient, catch-all control activity. But while insurance is a perfect way to protect a business from many risk scenarios, there are other scenarios insurance just can’t cover. Oftentimes, insura ..read more

Without a crystal ball it’s hard to know whether any technological innovation will live up to the early hype. Such is the case with blockchain technology. While some insurance industry analysts see great promise in this emerging technology, others have yet to be convinced. Until it becomes clear whether or not this technology will live up to its early promise, insurers are well advised to at least monitor where things are heading. Insurers that ignore this technology risk putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage. So what is blockchain technology? Fundamentally, it is a secure way to re ..read more

When the CEO of the largest insurance company in the country warns of a risk that could take down the industry, it’s time to take notice. In an article published in the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business, Charles Brindamour, CEO of Intact Financial Corp., commented, “We sailed through the financial crisis with no issues. And this led us, at the time, to say: ‘What is a big issue for us? What is the systemic risk for the industry?’ There was one in my mind. And it was quake… As far as I’m concerned, this is the risk that could take the industry down, and could have a significant macroeconomic ..read more

A small city that wasn’t designed to burn was put up in the middle of the Boreal forest that was designed to burn. Are we simply going to put Fort McMurray back the way it was? Fortunately for insureds in Fort McMurray (but unfortunately for the industry) Canadian insurers have gotten quite good at managing large catastrophe losses, including the processing of large numbers of claims, dealing with customers that will be out of their homes for long periods, and managing the process of rebuilding. Though the process could never be fast enough for those who lost their homes in Fort McMurray, at t ..read more

Unlike the 2013 flood in southern Alberta, the Fort McMurray wildfire is a heavily insured event. Considering that property insurance got its roots in fire (indeed it used to be widely known as ‘fire insurance’, still is in certain circles, and many insurers still have the word ‘Fire’ in their names) most policies will respond. Wade Wilson talks on the phone by his burnt up truck at his home in Saprae Creek near Fort McMurray Alta., on Friday June 3, 2016. Members of the community are now being allowed back into their homes. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson Giving this fact and the sheer siz ..read more

ICLR has been successful in gaining official authorization to allow a noted wildfire researcher behind police cordons to investigate the resilience to wildfire of certain homes in Fort McMurray, Alberta. The devastated neighbourhood of Abasand is shown in Fort McMurray, Alta., on Friday, May 13, 2016. A wildfire left a swath of destruction last week. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson Alan Westhaver is looking into the reasons why clusters of houses were left standing in areas that were otherwise decimated by fire, and is the only insurance industry-related researcher that has been allowed unf ..read more