INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Apollo Launches SME Subscription Service
Apollo Insurance Solutions, Canada’s largest online insurance marketplace, has officially launched an industry-first monthly small business insurance subscription available in Canada through the groundbreaking Apollo Exchange, an e-commerce marketplace that enables brokers and their small business clients to instantly quote and purchase insurance products entirely online. Read more.

Building a Digital Advisory Business: Finaeo
At Finaeo, we believe the future of advice is “bionic” – a combination of automated technology to handle tedious paperwork, and the required human touch to elevate the client experience. As we encourage advisors to “be bionic”, it’s important that we discuss what can be automated and digitized. Read more.

La Capitale, Breathe Life Partner On App
La Capitale Insurance and Financial Services has signed a partnership agreement with Breathe Life, a Quebec startup, for the development of its digital application. This agreement will give La Capitale brokers access to a digital app that they can use to submit life insurance applications. Read more.

FIRST Canada Enhances First Connect Platform
FIRST Insurance Funding of Canada, the industry leader in payment solutions, is pleased to announce an enhanced First Connect® platform for their MGA and carrier partners.First Connect® is the market-leading payment solution designed specifically for MGAs, carriers, and their brokers. Read more.

OneConnect Launches Intelligent Solutions
Ping An OneConnect, a leading technology service platform for the entire financial industrial chain, has launched four InsurTech solutions targeting three areas: insurance risk control, operation and marketing. Read more.

Foundational Technologies In Commercial Lines
SMA's latest research report, Foundational Technologies in Commercial Lines Insurance: Investment, Adoption, and Business Areas, investigates the state of the foundational technology landscape in commercial lines insurance (those technologies that insurers have been investing in for decades, for example, technologies that support or enhance BI, core transformation, new products and services, and workforce transformation). Read more.

Insolvency Risk Rising In Canadian P&C
Insolvency risk, or the risk that an insurer becomes insolvent, has been rising in Canada's property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry since 2015. One measure of insolvency risk is the percentage of companies within the industry that report losing money. Read more.

Canadian Insurers Fall Short of Expectations
Property & casualty insurance companies in Canada are falling short of customer expectations, according to J.D. Power's 2019 Canada Insurance Digital Experience Report, and this lack of digital maturity on the part of P&C insurers leaves the door open to competition from alternative, digital native companies such as Amazon, Google and Uber. Read more.

Globe & Mail Insurance Trends Report
The Business section in the June 27 edition of the Globe & Mail features a special report on trends for the Life, Health and Financial Security Insurance industry in Canada. Read more.

Climbing The Power Curve In Insurance: McKinsey
Every year, at insurance companies around the world, strategic planning processes unfold. They aspire to set bold new direction but frequently yield incrementalism and strategic inertia. In fact, research by our colleagues shows that economy-wide, in multidivision companies, the amount of capital allocated to each business unit from one year to the next is nearly identical; the mean correlation is 92%. Read more.

Policy Admin Systems Top Priority In Life & Annuity
Interest in new policy administration systems remains strong at life and annuity carriers. In a new Market Navigator report on Life/Health/Annuity policy administration systems, Novarica profiles 24 vendor solutions to help insurers understand and compare these complex systems. Read more.

Risk Managers Failing To Make The Leap
Risk managers want to develop their data management and analytics skills to transition from a technical asset to a strategic business partner, but many are unable to determine the effectiveness of their risk management team at using data and analytics for risk planning and analysis, suggesting they may not be utilising available data or they haven't fully developed the skill set to turn it into usable information, according to new research by QBE and Airmic. Read more.

CSIO Welcomes Two New Vendor Members
CSIO is pleased to announce its latest new vendor members: Indio Technologies and Ernst & Young LLP. Indio Technologies provides a workflow management platform that delivers a suite of web-based solutions for insurance businesses to improve their client experience. Ernst & Young provides assurance, tax, consulting and advisory services to its clients, including P&C insurers in Canada. Read more.

League Launches HBX Benefits Platform
League Inc., North America's leading Health Benefits Experience platform, has introduced HBX™, a next-generation digital platform designed to provide a single access hub for employees to engage with their health, lifestyle and benefit programs. Read more.

Chubb Launches Small Business Insurance For The Food Service Industry
Chubb is pleased to announce it has introduced small business insurance to cover the unique risks faced by the food service industry. Coverage is available through Chubb's expanding and award-winning digital platform, the Chubb Marketplace. Read more.

CMIC Launches ISI Enterprise Accounting
Insurance Systems Inc., a provider of P&C enterprise software solutions, is pleased to announce that Connecticut Medical Insurance Company has successfully launched ISI Enterprise Accounting as a standalone solution. Read more.

Ontario Launches Disaster Recovery Pilot
The Ontario Government is funding a new pilot program to help ensure communities across the province are protected from future extreme weather damage. The Municipal Disaster Recovery Assistance (MDRA) program provides financial assistance to eligible communities that face extraordinary emergency response and repair costs after a natural disaster. Read more.

Aviva Canada Launches Social Impact Platform
Aviva Canada has launched its new social impact platform – Take Back Our Roads – which is focused on tackling dangerous roads and school zones through community projects, innovation and strategic partnerships, and leveraging claims data externally. Read more.

Travelling Canadians Under-Insured
While nearly three-quarters of Canadians had some form of medical coverage through travel insurance for recent trips, the majority leave their family under-insured, according to a new survey by InsuranceHotline.com. Read more.

Old Age Security To Increase In July
Canada's Minister of Seniors has reaffirmed the government's commitment to Canadian seniors to ensure they have a safe and secure retirement.This year, single seniors who have little or no income other than the Old Age Security (OAS) pension will be more financially secure than ever. Read more.

The InsurTech Spotlight features insurance practitioners and InsurTech(nology) providers which are – or are becoming – InsurTechs. In the spotlight this week are:

FRISS
FRISS is 100% focused on automated fraud and risk detection for P&C insurance companies worldwide. Their AI-powered detection solutions have helped 150+ insurers grow their business. FRISS detects fraud, mitigates risks, helps you stay compliant and supports digital transformation while helping lower the loss ratio, grow profitable portfolios and improve the customer experience. Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.

“Insurance In The Platform Economy”

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

One week left for early-bird rates! If you are taking vacation for Canada Day or Independence Day, don't forget to register for ICEF2019 before prices increase on Wednesday, July 10!

Explore the new insurance horizon and learn about the imperatives for competing successfully in the emerging Platform Economy. Hear about success stories, case studies, and lessons learned from industry thought leaders.

Register now, or for more details, visit
insurance-canada.ca/icef.

Featured job opportunities:

Customer Service Representative
Vince Ippolito Desjardins Insurance
Burlington, ON

Commercial Lines Account Manager
BST Insurance Brokers Ltd.
Pickering, ON

Free Webinar: “Automating the FNOL
to Improve Customer Satisfaction”

Wednesday, July 17, at Noon

Aviva Canada and Accident Support Services International pioneered a real-time claims First Notification of Loss (FNOL) integration service for customers reporting their vehicle collisions at Collision Reporting Centre locations across Canada.

This new service leverages multiple data sources to start the Aviva’s FNOL process in Guidewire ClaimCenter – automating the creation of a new claim if one does not already exist.

Jonathan Spinner, AVP of Claims Transformation and Strategy at Aviva, and Rick Yates, VP of Insurance Programs at Accident Support Services International, will discuss their collaboration, a first in Canada.

Register now or learn more.

From Doug (On climate change – continued from last week.) Dramatic action is needed. We have seen pledges to act, but commitments on paper can be ignored as easily as the paper can be discarded. Politicians should take note: according to a poll this weekend, two of the key concerns of voters are personal economic well-being and climate change, often seen (rightly or wrongly) as conflicting. In fact, many political leaders would do well to take a page from the insurance industry, which on the climate risk file is proactive at all levels: • Front-line industry reps offer advice to help customers manage risks at the personal and business levels. • Organizations are investing in R&D, from individual researchers to national initiatives to clarify issues and develop meaningful action plans. • Canada's P&C insurance industry formed the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction back in 1997. • Participation in the UN Environment's Principles for Sustainable Insurance. It's a good start, but we have only begun to address the problem. Are you up to the challenge? Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca