Insurance-Canada.ca Newsletter Archive

Issue 2002-03:   January 22, 2002

This newsletter is for members of the Canadian Insurance Industry, and those who serve it. The newsletter is published weekly, and notes information mostly about the use of the Internet and related technologies in the industry. Some is international, where we feel it is relevant to Canada.




Claims

HB Group Insurance Management Ltd. Selects Castek's InsuroCity for e-Claims Communication Platform. Castek, a provider of software systems for financial services organizations, has signed a Letter of Intent with HB Group Insurance Management Ltd, a member of the Co-operators Insurance Group, for the use of Castek's InsuroCity as its claims-communication platform. InsuroCity allows insurers to automate and streamline claims-adjudication and service-provider management via the Internet. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/claims/announce/CastekHB200201.php

Insurers looking for changes to rehabilitation health care: IBC. Ontario's property and casualty insurers are asking the provincial government to join with the industry to help solve serious problems in the rehabilitation services segment of health care. In a submission to the Health and Long Term Care Minister Tony Clement, the Insurance Bureau of Canada points out that, over the past 10 years, the cost of providing health services to people injured in motor vehicle accidents has increased by 350%. This is despite a steady decline in the number of auto-related injuries during the same period. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/claims/canada/IBCHealth200201.php

Policy Management

Dominion of Canada General Insurance has been successful in its bid to have a discount approved by Ontario's insurance regulator for teen drivers in the "I Promise" Program. Dominion CEO George Cooke, a staunch supporter of the program, had applied to the Financial Services Commission of Ontario for permission to offer a discount to policyholders with teen drivers on their policies who are a part of the safe driving program. Late last week approval was given for a discount equal to the value of the program's cost, to be taken off the bodily injury portion of a policy. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/poladmin/canada/DCGIProm200201.php

Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc. announced an agreement with the Marlborough Stirling group to outsource the administration of Sun Life Financial's closed book of U.K. individual life and pension business consisting of over 800,000 policies. Sun Life Financial's fast-growing group insurance business, which ranks No. 3 in the U.K., will be unaffected by this agreement. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/poladmin/canada/SunUK200201.php

Skills and Careers

A New Training Opportunity for Junior Claims Handlers - The Accident Benefits Claims Training Program: by the Insurance Institute of Ontario. This eight-day program is the first in a series of Skills Shop Training� courses offered by The Insurance Institute of Canada. The Accident Benefits Claims Training Program was created to meet the immediate and long-term needs of the industry and draws on direct input from industry leaders, claims operations managers, and claims consultants. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/humanres/announce/IIOAB200201.php

Manulife Financial Tax and Estate Planning experts 'write the book' on tax planning impacts of life insurance. Canada's key financial advisors can now turn to a single reference tool for comprehensive information on how taxation of life insurance can affect their personal and business financial planning. The 500-page softcover book, Canadian Taxation of Life Insurance, is published by Canada's leading specialized information publishing house, Toronto-based Carswell, and is available through Carswell's Web site at www.carswell.com More at www.insurance-canada.ca/humanres/canada/ManulifeTax200201.php

LIIC and LOMA to merge. The Life Insurance Institute of Canada (LIIC) and LOMA are pleased to announce that plans are underway to merge the operations and activities of the LIIC with those of LOMA. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/humanres/canada/LIICLOMA200201.php

Marketing

Liberty Health finds Canadians value their independence and prefer home-based care. After extensive research, Liberty Health has found Canadians clearly prefer to receive convalescent care at home, including both direct health care services and support for daily living, such as preparing meals, shopping and housework. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/market/canada/Liberty200201.php

Distribution

CAIFA and CAFP Meet to Discuss Single Professional Organization. Representatives of the Boards of Directors of CAFP and CAIFA met in Toronto on January 12, 2002 to discuss the feasibility of forming a single professional association of financial planners and advisors. This group identified a number of issues that warrant further consideration. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/distribution/canada/CAIFACAFP200201.php

CSIO Insurance Portal update: No change this past week in the status of any of the Function Bundles as we have defined them. One vendor has been added to the list of vendors. Insurance Systems Inc. within their WebWriter Portal suite of tools is offering a Quoting Engine which companies could use to process and present quote requests to the CSIO Insurance Portal. As a new CSIO member, ISI is now negotiating dates with CSIO.

from Doug:

  1. My Presbyterian background suggests that I will suffer, but I will nonetheless suggest that we have not yet here suffered from winter - wish it would remain so!

  2. Our newsletter continues to grow in circulation, over 1,600 now. Please do forward it to others whom you think might find value from it and I welcome their subscriptions.

  3. With a flurry of year-end activity, John Wyndham informs me that our online directory, in conjunction with the Stone and Cox General Insurance Register and Life and Financial Services Directory, has blown through 2,000 entries and currently sits just over 2,300.

  4. The web is certainly becoming a more integral part of our society every day.