INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Allianz Risk Barometer 2021
A trio of risks related to COVID-19 top the 2021 Allianz Risk Barometer, reflecting potential disruption and loss scenarios companies are facing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Business interruption and Pandemic outbreak are this year's top business risks, with Cyber incidents ranking a close third. Read more.

The World’s Greatest Threats In 2021
The World Economic Forum has released its Global Risks Report 2021, the 16th edition of the Forum's annual analysis, which looks back at a year ravaged by a global pandemic, economic downturn, political turmoil and the ever-worsening climate crisis. The report explores how countries and businesses can act in the face of these risks. Read more.

Insurance Software M&A Trends: 2021 And Beyond
Insurance software is a fragmented market, and breadth of offerings is key to growth for large vendors, making M&A a feature of the vertical. In a new report, Novarica examines current market dynamics in the insurance software space from the perspective of the potential effect on insurer technology strategies. Read more.

Life Insurance Activity Finishes Flat For 2020
Canadian life insurance application activity finished 2020 flat at -0.3%, according to the Canadian MIB Life Index. December had the strongest YOY growth of any month in 2020 at +12.2%, continuing a growth trend that started in September and offsetting negative patterns during the first 6 months of 2020, peaking in double-digits during April and May. Read more.

Heartland And The Kings Mutual Announce Proposed Merger
Heartland Farm Mutual Inc. (based in Waterloo, Ontario) and The Kings Mutual Insurance Company (based in Berwick, Nova Scotia) are pleased to announce they have reached an agreement to merge. The name of the amalgamated company will be Heartland Farm Mutual Inc. Read more.

Foresters, Dacadoo Partner On Wellness Platform
Foresters Financial™ is pleased to announce that it has teamed up with dacadoo – the Zurich-based InsurTech specializing in digital health engagement and health risk quantification – to create a platform designed to empower and reward Foresters customers who adopt lifestyles that embrace key aspects of overall well-being: physical, mental, and community-mindedness. Read more.

Alert Labs Commercial Leak and Flood Solutions to be offered by Chubb Fire & Security
Alert Labs is pleased to announce that its leak and flood detection solutions will be offered by Chubb Fire & Security to commercial property clients across Canada. The professional-grade, cellular-connected water management solutions from Alert Labs monitor water use minute-by-minute and instantly alert property managers in the event a leak, flood, temperature, humidity and power outage is detected at a building. Read more.

Apollo Welcomes Edwina Mckennon
Apollo Insurance Solutions Ltd. is pleased to announce that Edwina McKennon has joined the Apollo team as Broker Engagement Manager. She will work to engage with brokers and provide support to the Broker Distribution team, further enhancing Apollo's award-winning service. Read more.

Sindy Houle Joins FRISS Team
FRISS is proud to welcome Sindy Houle to their growing team as head of sales in Canada. As a trusted partner in Canada, FRISS serves many insurance carriers, including three of the top five. Read more.

FloodFlash Pays Storm Claims In Record Time
FloodFlash, an InsurTech offering rapid-payout insurance at-risk businesses, has set new catastrophe claims records in the wake of storm damage in the UK. The fastest claim took less than 10 hours from the property flooding to the client receiving the full settlement in their account. Read more.

Player’s Health Closes Series B Round
Player's Health is proud to announce the closure of its Series B financing round, led by RPM Ventures with participation from Greenlight Re, along with existing investors Eos Venture Partners and Will Ventures. Player's Health remains dedicated to providing turnkey risk management and insurance solutions to youth sports organizations and raised this capital to continue evolving its risk management approach and transforming the sports insurance market. Read more.

Manulife Launches Mortgage Protection Plan
With the increasing shift to digital during the COVID-19 pandemic, Manulife is now offering mortgage brokers a new digital application tool for mortgage creditor insurance, in addition to the existing paper-based method. Read more.

Darktrace Solutions Named Marsh Cyber Catalysts
Darktrace, the world's leading cyber AI company, is pleased to announce that two of its core products have been designated Marsh 'Cyber Catalyst' solutions. The program brings together leading cyber insurers to identify the solutions they believe most effective in reducing cyber risk. Read more.

In the InsurTech Spotlight this week:

InsureVue
InsureVue is a technology platform that enables organizations to fully digitize their products and workflows. InsureVue allows your insurance products and programs to be offered online so insureds can quote/bind/issue in a completely self-service manner. InsureVue is a full policy administration system which digitizes all your internal processes. Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.

Featured job opportunities:

Personal Lines Customer Service Representative
Insuranceland
Mississauga, ON

Commercial Lines Marketing & Business Development Manager
Brokers Trust Insurance Group Inc.
Vaughan, ON

From Doug We are all aware of the increasing impacts of severe weather and changing climate patterns. In northern Russia, shrinking ice cover has unbalanced the food chain: their usual diet of seals no longer available, polar bears now barely survive by eating birds, disrupting nesting grounds and leading to cascading impacts on the ecosystem. Translate that to the millions of people worldwide who are dependent upon disappearing glaciers for drinking water and crop irrigation; or threatened by rising sea waters, more frequent and severe storms, and so on. People are obviously aware; awareness of climate change helped drive protests against open pit coal mining in Alberta. The Globe and Mail reported on Monday that government-issued land leases for open pit mining had just been rescinded. Similar to auto and home safety issues, insurance has long lobbied for improvements in regulations which would reduce property loss, injuries and deaths due to climate change. Current challenges like COVID-19, mental health and drug abuse and addiction require our urgent attention. By and large, organizations are responding. Are you also doing your bit to corral climate change? Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca