Property and casualty insurance education is adapting to meet the needs of the industry’s desire for ‘plug-and-play’ talent that can hit the ground running, one panelist told a Live with CU presentation last week. More specifically, educational bodies are entering partnerships with industry associations and tech vendors to make sure insurance program graduates have the […]
By David Gambrill | September 21, 2023
3 min read
AM Best delivers a broad overview of the Canadian P&C market, taking a hard look at the property and auto insurance sectors. In our seventh What’s on Dec? podcast, AM Best senior director Greg Williams will look at what the ratings agency sees behind the numbers in property and auto. He’ll look at the challenges […]
By Canadian Underwriter | September 19, 2023
12 min read
Recruiting into the P&C insurance industry has become so urgent that employers are looking for “plug-and-play” hires who can hit the ground running, leading to widespread industry poaching. “What we’re seeing [in our demographic research], and we’ve seen it since 2017, is inter-industry competition — i.e., ‘poaching,’” Brad Neal, vice president of business development and […]
By David Gambrill | September 13, 2023
4 min read
Prospective recruits into Canada’s property and casualty insurance industry are willing to accept a lower salary from employers if it means they can work from home, one insurance recruiter observed during a Live with CU stream Thursday. “To give you an example, there was a local company in Vancouver who hired one of our […]
By Alyssa DiSabatino | September 8, 2023
3 min read
Brokers, underwriters, and claims professionals are all feeling battle fatigue as the ongoing war for talent marches on. P&C insurance industry veterans are retiring and the worker demographic is changing. Senior leaders and managers are feeling the pressure to backfill their talent to keep pace. What’s the best way to recruit and retain fresh, inspired […]
By Alyssa DiSabatino | August 25, 2023
2 min read
If you want ultimate control and are thinking of starting up your own independent brokerage from scratch, you may want to think it through very carefully and not just jump into the deep end with your eyes closed, brokers advised during a Live with CU discussion last Thursday. “There’s no doubt that anyone starting fresh […]
By David Gambrill | May 29, 2023
3 min read
In a world dominated by growth via mergers and acquisitions, Canadian brokerages are operating under a variety of ownership models, making the modern concept of “broker independence” very nuanced, panellists observed Thursday in a Live with CU panel discussion. “I think the challenge is the discussion always seems to be binary — am I independent […]
By David Gambrill | May 26, 2023
4 min read
Senior broker retirements, a labour shortage that’s spurring firms to bring new, inexperienced employees into brokerages, and a hybrid office may be combining to increase a broker’s errors and omissions (E&O) exposure. “It’s very difficult to track [broker E&O] claims as being specifically because people are working from home, but I think there are some […]
By Phil | May 25, 2023
3 min read
Given all of the M&A activity in the broker channel over the past two decades, has the definition of what it means to be an “independent” broker changed? In Canadian Underwriter‘s 2023 national survey of more than 150 brokers, 48% of respondents ranked insurance industry consolidation as the greatest challenge facing the broker channel. It […]
By Alyssa DiSabatino | May 19, 2023
1 min read
MGAs used to be “operating in the shadows” but that has changed since the formation of the Canadian Association of Managing General Agents (CAMGA) two-and-a-half years ago. In our sixth What’s on Dec? podcast, CAMGA executive director Steve Masnyk shares his thoughts on the hard market from an MGA perspective. He also discusses compliance, minimum […]
By Canadian Underwriter | April 25, 2023
17 min read