B.C. brokers face challenging times

Don Ungaro, president of the Insurance Brokers Association of British Columbia (IBABC) for the 2002/3 term remarks, “as for the challenges ahead, there’s certainly going to be some”. Ungaro delivered his presidential speech at the associations annual general meeting and conference which recently took place in Whistler, B.C.

At the top of IBABC’s concern list is the new “accord” entered into with the province’s state insurer, the Insurance Corp. of British Columbia (ICBC). The accord is a five-year contract which outlines exclusive distribution rights of ICBC products through the independent brokerage community, as well as determining commission levels.

Broker concerns lie with the future existence of ICBC as the province’s recently elected Liberal government came into office with a mandate to deregulate and privatize state-controlled industries. “We’ve just ratified a new accord with ICBC, but as we all know, some form of change will be prescribed following completion of the ‘core review’ [government investigation into deregulation of ICBC] and announcement by the government of how they want to fulfil their ‘new era’ pledge,” says Ungaro. Despite the uncertainty of future underwriting control of the basic auto product in the province, he is confident that brokers will remain the prime distribution mode for personal insurance in B.C.

Ungaro also identified new privacy legislation as having a potentially significant impact on how brokers within B.C. conduct their business. “We’ve got issues with new legislation governing our use of data that we obtain from our clients and obtaining their consent to allow us to do our job effectively.”

Other top actions mentioned by Ungaro were the pending launch of the CSIO Internet portal, and use by members of the “broker identity program” (BIP). The CSIO portal will come online shortly, he observes, and brokers in B.C. need to be ready to “jump on board” to benefit from the economic efficiencies widely expected from the online, real-time initiative.

Ungaro also urges brokers to better utilize the BIP symbol in office displays and marketing materials, noting that, “placing ads on the TV and doing national and provincial campaigns is of no use if the rank and file of the membership don’t proudly display the symbol in their offices, on their letterheads and business-cards, and in their promotional material. When the ads invite the public to ‘look for the broker displaying this symbol’, it’s all pointless if they can’t find us.”