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Insurance-Canada.ca - Where insurance and technology meet

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

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INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Climate-Influenced Weather Drives Global Damage
Aon plc is pleased to announce the launch of its global Weather, Climate & Catastrophe Insight: 2020 Annual Report, which evaluates the impact of global natural disaster events to identify trends, manage volatility and enhance resilience. Read more.

Blockchain Solution Solves Subrogation Challenge For State Farm, USAA
State Farm and USAA are pleased to announce that auto subrogation claims settled between the two companies will be processed using blockchain technology. The blockchain solution is the first of its kind between the insurance industry leaders. Read more.

Travelers Canada Introduces IntelliDrive®
Travelers Canada is pleased to announce the launch of IntelliDrive®, its usage-based auto insurance mobile app. IntelliDrive provides customers with a better understanding of their driving habits – and rewards them for responsible driving – by collecting and assessing data on driving behaviours. Read more.

Commonwell Mutual, Red River Mutual Partner To Launch Agriculture Insurance Start-Up
The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group and Red River Mutual have created a new joint venture to focus on advancing innovation and digital responsiveness around agri-business and related risks through a new Managing General Agent (MGA) structure. Read more.

Allianz Partners Joins Forces With InsurTech Blink
Irish InsurTech Blink is pleased to announce a major rollout of its travel disruption insurance platform in the UK this month. The partnership between Blink and Allianz Partners is the first UK deal of this scale for Blink, demonstrating how world-class InsurTech innovation is pivotal for the future of insurance solutions amid the challenges triggered by COVID-19. Read more.

Foxquilt InsurTech Partners With Digital Partners
Foxquilt has partnered with Digital Partners, a Munich Re company, to enable the company to operate as a full-service insurance provider and co-creator of new, end-to-end insurance products/programs for small businesses. Read more.

Koïos Intelligence Launches Olivo Robo-Advisor
Koïos Intelligence, a developer of artificial intelligence, is pleased to announce the availability of Olivo, one of the most intuitive robo-advisors on the market. Olivo can advise on life, P&C, funeral, mortgage and travel insurance. Olivo can identify your needs, answer your questions, and quote you a price for your policy within minutes. Read more.

Apollo Welcomes Bryan Kinney As New VP
Apollo Insurance Solutions Ltd. is pleased to announce that Bryan Kinney has joined the Apollo team as Vice President of Product Development. With nearly 20 years of Canadian insurance industry experience, Kinney will contribute to the development of new products, further expanding Apollo's wide-ranging suite of digital products. Read more.

Record-High InsurTech Funding In 2020
Despite the challenges faced by the (re)insurance sector in 2020 and the relatively slow start to InsurTech funding for the year, global investment in the sector reached a new accumulated annual high of $7.1 billion for 2020, through 377 deals, the most in any year to date, according to the new Quarterly InsurTech Briefing from Willis Towers Watson, a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company. Read more.

Bobtrak Partners With Lakehead University On New Distributors Module
BobTrak™, the Artificial Intelligence Engine for Insurance Distribution Management, is proud to partner with the Business Analytics and Information Systems group at Lakehead University's Faculty of Business Administration in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, to define and build a minimally viable product ("MVP") for a new module – BobTrak for Distributors. Read more.

Mutual Insurance Company Limited Launches ISI Enterprise
Insurance Systems Inc. is pleased to announce that Mutual Insurance Company Ltd. has rolled out ISI Enterprise for its insurance operations. Headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, MIC is a leading provider of media professional liability insurance products throughout North America. Read more.

Tractable, Mitchell To Offer Combined Solution For AI Vehicle Repair Estimating
Tractable, the artificial intelligence company for accident & disaster recovery, is pleased to announce a new partnership with Mitchell, a leading provider of technology solutions to the Property & Casualty claims and Collision Repair Industries. This allows North American automotive insurers to produce collision repair estimates automatically from photos. Read more.

Eddy Teams With AXA XL Construction Insurance
AXA XL Insurance, the world's largest provider of property and casualty insurance has included Eddy Solutions as part of their newly introduced construction ecosystem, a digital platform that connects innovative construction technology to AXA XL's clients to help manage and reduce overall risk. Read more.

Connected & Automated Vehicles: Issues Paper
The Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR) has released an Issues Paper on Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAV) and their impact on the automobile insurance market. Read more.

Guidewire Ecosystem Celebrates Partner Milestone
Guidewire Software, Inc., the platform P&C insurers trust to engage, innovate, and grow efficiently, is pleased to announce that its global PartnerConnect Solution Alliance Program now includes over 100 Solution partners. Read more.

Augmented Reality May Hold Promise for Insurers
Insurers are increasingly interested in the potential value of augmented reality (AR), which involves overlaying digital displays of information onto video of the physical world. In a new executive brief, Novarica provides insurers an overview of AR and the role it can play in insurance, with profiles of prominent providers. Read more.

The Co-operators Unveils 24/7 Virtual Healthcare
The Co-operators is pleased to announce that it will provide virtual healthcare services to its group benefits clients across Canada, available 24 hours per day, seven days per week in both official languages. Through an agreement with EQ Care, recently acquired by TELUS Health, The Co-operators is providing remote support to plan sponsors in managing the health and well-being of their plan members. Read more.

SGI Reports Fewer Road Fatalities In 2020
Preliminary statistics from SGI show 87 people lost their lives in road collisions in 2020 on Saskatchewan roads. To put that number into perspective, it's the second-lowest number of road fatalities recorded in a single year in the past six decades. Read more.


The Intersection: Insurance-Canada.ca Blog

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

Battling Health Insurance Claims Fraud
By CaseWare RCM, Inc.
Insurance companies and health care benefits providers lose hundreds of millions of dollars yearly due to fraudulent claims for health benefits. Some of these are bogus claims that originate from insured persons, while others are payments for insured services that are not needed but are wrongly prescribed by providers who stand to make illegal profits. Fraud costs everyone through higher premiums, and benefits fraud is a serious crime. A new white paper by CaseWare RCM, Inc. outlines common schemes and case studies to help your organization prevent or uncover fraud ahead of it being paid out. Read more.


Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Awards (ICTAs)

Nominations are now open for the 2021 Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Awards.

Reward your team; highlight your achievements.

Start your ICTA nomination today!

The deadline is Wednesday, March 10.

Start Your Nomination!

For details, visit insurance-canada.ca/icta.


InsurTech Spotlight

In the InsurTech Spotlight this week:

Alessa
Alessa is a solution designed to help insurance companies to review claims to ensure they comply with policies, detect those that require further investigation and track key performance indicators of programs – all to ensure that insurance companies can effectively manage operational costs and reduce losses due to fraud. Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.


Insurance Works

Featured job opportunities:

Licensed Insurance Advisor - Insurance of Persons
Optima Insurance Services Inc.
Whitby, ON

Technical Insurance Assistant, Operations
Totten Insurance Group
Oakville, ON


From Doug

Just a few years ago, when the term InsurTech emgered from the FinTech umbrella, the media hype anticipated major disruption, with new startups replacing incumbents .

Instead, the threat triggered the dramatic changes we have seen since. Insurance incumbents and technology providers alike adopted the InsurTech mantra – focus on the customer, an innovative culture, evaluation of new technologies and an agile approach to change.

The articles just in this issue illustrate change, and how insurance is transforming:

• Koios launches robo-advisor;
• Allianz Partners & Blink transform travel;
• Tractable & Mitchell offer AI estimating;
• Travelers Canada introduces IntelliDrive;
• Foxquilt partners with Muncih Re;
• Guidewire exceeds 100 partner solutions;
• CCIR looks at connected/automated vehicles;
• State Farm and USAA deploy Blockchain.

The pace of change is startling to see in what has traditionally been a staid industry.

And it appears more is to come as pundits anticipate growth in:

• Insurance embedded into the purchase of a product or service;
• Insurance on demand – when and where you need it;
• Partnerships between insurance and other industry participants.

Pandemic aside, we are in exciting times. Be part of the change; enjoy the ride.

Doug Grant, CIP
Partner
Insurance-Canada.ca

Doug Grant

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

If you would like to recommend an item for inclusion – with a focus on technology in insurance relevant to the Canadian Property & Casualty insurance industry – please contact [email protected].

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