Issue 2009-28 -- July 14, 2009
This newsletter is for members of the Canadian Insurance Industry, and those who serve it. The newsletter is published weekly, and notes information about the use of the Internet and related technologies in the industry, insurance products and the marketplace. Some is international, where we feel it is relevant to Canada.
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Claims
Reining in runaway legal costs: Allegient Systems.
When Ontario's harmonized tax kicks in on July 1, 2010, insurance companies doing business in that province will be hit with an additional 8% for legal costs. Legal fees are currently subject only to the 5% federal goods and services tax. But harmonization will combine the provincial sales tax with the federal GST to create a single rate of 13% – and plenty of headaches for insurance companies already struggling to monitor and control the costs of legal counsel.
Protect your company's bottom line with Markel’s new loss reporting guide.
June 26, 2009 - Introducing Markel’s new publication, Creating a Loss Reporting Plan: Your Guide to Effectively Managing and Reporting Claims. Written by our claims experts, this guide was designed to equip our small- to mid-size fleet policyholders with the tools to most effectively manage a loss situation and the subsequent claims reporting process.
Distribution
Custom Software Solutions Announces Integration to SGI Canada and Its Subsidiary Broker Websites.
July 2009 - Virden, MB - Custom Software Solutions is pleased to announce the following expanded integration services to SGI Canada and its subsidiary websites (Coachman, ICPEI, and SGI Canada Insurance Services, Ltd.) through use of The Broker’s Workstation WebConnect tool.
RSA broker tool could save hundreds of trees.
TORONTO, ON June 15, 2009 - RSA is making it "E Z" and faster for brokers to do business while providing them with an opportunity to save paper and bring new trees to their community. RSA's EZ-Docs is an efficient and environmentally-friendly tool that allows brokers to receive their copies of personal insurance documents such as renewals, new business and amendments, electronically instead of on paper.
Product Announcements
Leading insurer RSA launches easy and affordable pet insurance product.
TORONTO, ON July 6th, 2009 - From swallowing shoelaces to playing fetch with a fly fishing lure, leading home, car and business insurer RSA searched the country for the most hare-brained pet mishaps. Based on the research conducted by RSA, swallowing foreign objects was "paws down" the most common silly injury for dogs and cats.
Truly affordable health and dental benefits with significant tax savings: Maclagan.
MARKHAM, ON, July 8 2009 - Maclagan Inc. is pleased to announce the availability of the new enVia Benefits Program to meet the benefit protection needs of self-employed individuals, as well as employer groups of any size. It is also available to Contract or Part-time employees.
Managing Relationships and Customer Service
KANA Introduces New Era of Customer Service with KANA 10.
Menlo Park, Calif. - June 30, 2009 - KANA Software, Inc., a world leader in innovative customer service solutions, today announced availability of KANA 10, the industry’s first service experience management (SEM) platform for managing the entire customer service experience. This new solution, which gives major corporations and institutions the control needed to help ensure their customers receive exceptional service, has been selected by online travel service provider priceline.com.
Progressive Wins Voice Of The Customer Award.
MAYFIELD VILLAGE, Ohio - June 25, 2009 - Customers with opinions aren't hard to find. Companies who listen can be. But listening and responding to customer feedback is precisely what earned car insurance company Progressive one of Forrester Research's Voice Of The Customer Awards. The awards recognize initiatives that enable companies to dramatically improve how they collect, interpret, and react to customer feedback. Forty companies representing leading brands in financial services, retail, health care, technology, and travel submitted entries for the awards. The awards were presented to three winners at Forrester's Research Customer Experience Forum in New York.
Business of Insurance
PartnerRe Ltd. To Acquire PARIS RE.
PEMBROKE, Bermuda -- Jul. 5, 2009 -- PartnerRe today announced that it has entered into definitive agreements to acquire PARIS RE, a French-listed, Swiss-based diversified reinsurer. PartnerRe will exchange 0.30 of its common shares for each PARIS RE common share outstanding in a stock-for-stock transaction.
Consumer Information
Manitobans to pay less as Manitoba Public Insurance holds the line on rates in 2010.
For the 11th year in 12, Manitoba Public Insurance has filed a rate application that holds the line on Basic Autopac rates - helped in large part by continued declines in auto theft. In its application to the Public Utilities Board (PUB) today, the corporation is requesting no overall increase in revenue for Basic Autopac rates, beginning March 1, 2010.
Impaired driving cases a growing challenge: TIRF survey.
OTTAWA, June 30, 2009 - A survey of Canadian lawyers by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) reveals that challenges with Canada’s impaired driving system, although not new, now appear to be growing.
Marketing and the Market Place
Most Sponsors of Defined Benefit Pension Plans Remain Committed to Plan Viability Despite Tough Economic Climate, According to Towers Perrin/CFO Research Study.
STAMFORD, CT, July 9, 2009 - While the financial crisis has negatively affected the financial health of most defined benefit (DB) plans, most executives of U.S. firms with DB plans remain committed to the financial viability of their plans, according to the third CFO Research Services study conducted in conjunction with professional services firm Towers Perrin.
Reference and Statistics
Annual Eastbridge study finds voluntary short-term disability leading voluntary sales for 2008.
AVON, CONNECTICUT, USA (June 23, 2009) - Voluntary short-term disability led the field in terms of sales of voluntary products in 2008, according to Eastbridge’s annual U.S. Worksite Sales Report. Sales for the year were over $800 million. Term life came in second with about $778 million in sales. Disability (VSTD plus VLTD) and life insurance (term plus UL/WL) held an almost identical market share in overall product market share (22 percent each).
Individual Long Term Care Insurance Continues To Decline in First Quarter of 2009, LIMRA Reports.
WINDSOR, Conn., June 8, 2009 - For the second consecutive quarter, individual long-term care insurance (LTCI) premium experience double-digit declines, falling 34 percent in the first quarter, according to LIMRA’s Individual Long-Term Care Sales survey.
Total Cost of Risk Plummeted in 2008, According to 2009 RIMS Benchmark Survey™ Book.
NEW YORK (June 18, 2009) - Economic turmoil and the second worst year on record for insured natural catastrophe losses did not deter falling commercial insurance prices in 2008, according to the 2009 RIMS Benchmark Survey™ book, the annual guide to the cost of risk for commercial insureds in North America. Lower average premiums in almost every line of business contributed to a 9.4 percent drop in average total cost of risk (TCOR) per $1,000 of revenue.
from Doug:
My wife's trip to the European WWI and II battle sites and memorials was good. Of a tour group of 35, she was surprised how many had not been previously to Europe, and several who had not been on an airplane before. She found all the markers she sought, and was surprised at how wonderfully well kept the sites are. At one site, a group of school children performed a memorial service, specifically for this small group of visitors. A small landowner showed them live munitions that they still uncover today. Although they are supposed to report each one, they just store them and report them about four times a year; they are taken away and exploded. A small entrepreneur near Ypres - a friend's grandfather who fought there pronounced it "Wipers" - still makes mementoes for sale from old munitions, but has a mission to photograph every soldier's grave marker in the area and put it on the internet. She found it a wonderful trip.
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