INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Pineapple Financial Inc. Launches Pineapple Insurance
Pineapple Financial Inc., a leading Canadian fintech platform, is thrilled to announce the official launch of Pineapple Insurance, a transformative new business vertical that is designed to unlock significant growth potential for the company. Read more.

Major Hailstorm Adds To Crisis Facing Alberta Auto Insurance System: IBC
Insurance Bureau of Canada is warning that the massive volume of auto insurance claims from the recent Calgary hailstorm could create an economic environment that may push even more insurers out of Alberta. Read more.

KatRisk Unveils Revolutionary Storm Model
KatRisk, a premier provider of dynamic catastrophe risk software, is pleased to announce the launch of its groundbreaking Severe Convective Storm model, designed to transform how the insurance industry manages volatile weather risks, such as hail, tornadoes, and straight-line wind. Read more.

Quadient Partnership To Drive Customer Communications Transformation
Quadient, a global automation platform, is pleased to announce a new CAD$9.8 million deal with a leading US-based global insurer to adopt the Quadient Inspire customer communications management platform as a cloud-hosted managed service, streamlining and optimizing customer communications across its global operations. Read more.

Equifax Reports Rise In Automotive Fraud
Equifax Canada is reporting that automotive lenders are seeing a surge in fraud, largely driven by falsified credit applications and the continued prevalence in identity theft. Read more.

Global Automotive OEM Telematics Market
IoT analyst firm Berg Insight has published a new report on the global automotive OEM telematics market which analyzes the latest developments in the connected car market worldwide. Read more.

Sun Life Launches New Retirement Solution
Sun Life is pleased to introduce Sun Life MyRetirement Income, an innovative first for Canadians that provides retirees with a reliable source of income, while maintaining flexibility and the potential for continued investment growth. This fully automated solution can help ease the transition from saving to drawing income in retirement. Read more.

Digital Health & Wellness 2024 Report
Beazley's latest Digital Health & Wellness report reveals that as digital health and wellness businesses around the world ramp up adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), executive concerns over trustworthiness and bias are rising to the top of the agenda. Read more.

Covid Leads To Longest Period Of Peacetime Excess Mortality: Swiss Re
Four years after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries are still reporting elevated all-cause excess mortality compared with pre-pandemic levels, according to a new Swiss Re Institute report. Read more.

Axis Insurance Acquires O’Neill Group
Axis Insurance Managers Inc. is pleased to announce that it has acquired the O’Neill Group, one of British Columbia's premier employee group benefits, life insurance, and wealth advisory firms. Read more.

Axis Insurance Acquires Baker Insurance
Axis Insurance Managers Inc. is excited to announce the acquisition of Baker Insurance, a Property & Casualty brokerage based in Calgary, strengthening its presence in the region and enhancing its ability to provide expert risk management solutions. Read more.

Many Canadians Aren’t Seeking The Preventive Health Care They Need: Blue Cross Study
A new study from Blue Cross suggests that Canadians understand the importance of preventative health strategies and are making lifestyle changes to better their health – but nearly half are not seeking the help they need from health professionals due to perceived limitations or barriers. Read more.

In the InsurTech Spotlight this week:

Dundas Life
Dundas Life combines the best of the digital experience and high-quality insurance advisory. Insurance is complicated and shouldn’t be left to robo-advisors. Our digitally enabled advisors make the insurance assessment process accessible while guiding you through all of life’s hurdles in the decades ahead. Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.

Featured job opportunities:

Bilingual Regional Underwriter
HSB Canada
Toronto/Ottawa, ON

Claims Examiner
Premier
Vancouver, Toronto, London, Cambridge, Laval, or remote

From Doug Digital Twins in Insurance (Cont’d) For a digital twin I visualize computer-aided design – the digital picture of an object (whether a vehicle, a dwelling, a piece of equipment, etc.), consisting of numerous datapoints. A century ago, for auto insurance, little data was needed – perhaps just year, make and model. My first vehicle, a 1968 Ford F150 pickup, cost $2,415 – the $15 was for an in-cab review mirror. The optional features were few compared to today's long list, many of which are recorded in the vehicle identification number (VIN). To stock photos of a year, make and model, add the features of a specific vehicle, and let Gen AI produce a basic version of your car’s digital twin. But a real digital twin already exists. For example, every Tesla sold has its own digital twin. Car manufacturers create one during design, and variants for manufacturing, sales, maintenance and repair functions. Those functions can make use of a digital twin, but what about insurance? More next week. Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca