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February 7, 2017

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INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Aviva Canada Launches Home-Sharing Insurance
With the rise of the sharing economy and peer-to-peer online services, Aviva Canada is pleased to offer insurance coverage for home-sharing across Canada, starting February 1, 2017. Read more.

Bluesun Partner With Desjardins Insurance
Mike Donati, President & CEO of Bluesun, is pleased to announce that Desjardins Insurance has come on board as the latest national insurance company to adopt Bluesun's WealthServ as its insurance operations back-office software. Read more.

Burns & Wilcox Acquires High-Value Homeowner Practice
H.W. Kaufman Financial Group and Burns & Wilcox Canada are pleased to announce they have acquired the high-value homeowner's insurance practice from Quebec-based XN Financial Services, Inc.
Read more.

Reinsurers Face Challenging Market Conditions
Creative technology solutions are increasingly important for reinsurers. In its latest Business and Technology Trends report, research and advisory firm Novarica provides an overview of the reinsurance business and technology landscape for 2017 and beyond.
Read more.

Cost Saving Opportunities for Insurance Services Market: Technavio
The global insurance services market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.9% over the next five years due to the Internet of Things and changes in the operating models adopted (P2P, on-demand), the latest procurement intelligence report from Technavio indicates Read more.

D.G. Bevan Launches Live Chat Customer Service
D. G. Bevan Insurance Brokers Ltd. is pleased to announce the recent launched a new customer chat function on its company website, allowing customers to get answers to their questions from a live broker, even when the local office is closed. Read more.

2nd Highest Insurance Mergers & Acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions of insurance agencies last year were the second-highest ever, according to OPTIS Partners' annual report. The OPTIS database recorded 449 deals in the United States and Canada in 2016, a slight dip from the all-time record of 456 in 2015.
Read more.

Sharp Acquires Rogers Group Home & Auto
Sharp Insurance is pleased to announce the acquisition of Rogers Insurance Group Home and Auto insurance program. Sharp Insurance is part of the Rogers Group of Companies, specializing in digital innovation and multi-channel services. The two companies share a strong collaborative relationship and work together on many projects that seek to modernize the brokerage industry in Canada. Read more.

Beazley Acquires Creechurch Underwriters
Beazley is expanding its presence in Canada with the acquisition of the specialist managing general agent Creechurch Underwriters. Creechurch's team will remain based in their existing offices under existing leadsherip, who will report to Beazley's head of international financial lines. Read more.

Lanoue Insurance Brokers Joins Brokerlink
Lanoue Insurance Brokers Ltd. has announced it is joining BrokerLink, one of the largest Canadian property and casualty insurance brokerages. Terms of the transaction, finalized on February 2, 2017, were not disclosed. Read more.

Financial Horizons Group Acquires Estate Financial
Financial Horizons Group is pleased to announce that Estate Financial Inc. has joined forces with Financial Horizons Group. Estate Financial Inc. is a prominent Managing General Agent (MGA) in Eastern Canada and has been in operation since 1999. Read more.

Celebrating The Relevance Of Insurance Education
Canada's Property/Casualty insurance industry will celebrate National Education Month in February, showcasing the education and professional development of insurance professionals across the country.
Read more.

Chubb Expands Signature Suite in Canada
Chubb Insurance Company of Canada has launched Signature Suite, an array of complimentary services for its high-net-worth and family office customers.
Read more.

Mother Of Four Emphasizes Car Seat Safety
Most fatal collisions where occupants are unbuckled are single-vehicle collisions, most commonly rollovers. Buckling up properly can reduce the chance of injury or death resulting from impact or ejection by up to 50 per cent. Read more.

Wildfire Community Preparedness Day Launched
People in communities throughout Canada have an opportunity to apply for funding to support efforts to strengthen their resilience against wildfire by participating in the third annual Wildfire Community Preparedness Day – May 6, 2017. Read more.


The Intersection: Insurance-Canada.ca Blog

What's going through the Intersection
of insurance and technology?

Is it Possible to Calm the InsurTech Blizzard?
We are experiencing a blizzard of technologies and processes aimed squarely at changing the insurance industry. Early implementations show that there are opportunities to improve the business of insurance – but the new technologies rely on a new business model that can be a bit threatening. Read more.


“Disruption ⇒ New Realities,
New Opportunities”

Insurers and brokers are reacting to the InsurTech threat by innovating, adopting and adapting. That often means adding new to existing functions, not replacing.

Join your colleagues to discover, challenge, and learn at these industry events:

IBM

At the Technology Conference, Feb. 28:
• “Reframing Core Systems
James Barber, Information Builders
• “Architecting an Agile Enterprise
Samir Ahmed, X by 2
• “InsurTech & MatureTech: Blending Old & New
Mark Breading, SMA, and a panel

IBM

At the Broker Forum Mar. 1:
• “Digital Consumer Acquisition
Andrew Lo, Kanetix
• “Chatting With Customers
Amanda Ketelaars, Mitchell & Whale
• “The Future of Customer Engagement
Bill Morris, Navicom

Register today to seize disruption by the horns.



WELCOMING OUR SPONSORS

Gold sponsor Qlik will present speaker John Kelso of Manulife – discussing how to measure customer experience using advanced analytics – at ICTC2017.

• A silver sponsor at the Broker Forum, PolicyWorks showcases technology support for brokers servicing commercial lines customers.

• Innovation, disruption, InsurTech – they all require an agile enterprise. Discuss in depth with X by 2, a silver sponsor for our ICTC2017.

• Visit SAS, a silver sponsor for the upcoming Technology Conference, to learn more about machine learning, analytics, and deep learning in insurance.

• Telematics can bring compelling value to claims management. Explore more deeply with Octo, a Technology Conference gold sponsor.


From Doug

Superbowl LI: The “upstart” challenges; but the perennial champion comes back to life.

Politics: A new leader makes a big change — turmoil. Traditional players react and challenge.

Insurance: For a highly competitive business, the upheaval of rapid changes – in consumer expectations, evolving risks (sharing economy, cyber, etc.), and beyond – opens the door to opportunity for new entrants.

An existing player might take a risk and be the innovator, make an investment to gain an edge, or play catch-up if late to the party.

As an insurer, or broker, who are you? The innovator, the risk-taker, the leader, or one who reacts to change? Is there a third (survivable) option? The jury is still out.

Doug Grant, CIP
Partner
Insurance-Canada.ca

Doug Grant

The Chronicle weekly newsletter features news, events, and general information relating to insurance, technology, and innovation in the Canadian insurance industry and the marketplace. Subscribe here or view past issues.

Please contact [email protected] if you would like to recommend an item for inclusion.

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