What’s New: In Brief (October 18, 2007)

The Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO) honoured CAIB and CPIB graduates, as well as the brokerages that earned the distinction of Best Practices Brokerages, at an awards luncheon on Oct. 18. Elizabeth McIntyre, an Ottawa-based CAIB graduate, took top honours in her class with a 94% average, while Jason Di Reto, an employee of Guelphs Jeffery & Spence Limited, was this years Brian Greenslade Scholarship recipient.Eight brokerages earned the Best Practices distinction, an honour bestowed on those brokerages that meet benchmarks set by the top 30 firms in North America.They are: Burns, Demeyere & Associates (Tillsonburg); Hallmark BRB Insurance Brokers Ltd. (Toronto); Hope and Harder Insurance Brokers Ltd. (St. Catherines); Elliot Nixon Insurance Brokers Inc. (Blyth); Lyons & Mulhern Insurance Brokers Ltd. (Goderich); Sholdice Insurance Brokers (Brussels); Keil-Dadson Insurance Brokers (Gorrie) Ltd. (Gorrie); and Keil-Dadson Insurance Brokers Ltd. (Listowel).

Allstate reported a 15.5% drop in Q3 profits over the same period of 2006, citing a near tripling of catastrophe losses. Net income for 2007 Q3 was US$978 million, an Allstate release says. Underwriting income in the property-liability sector for the first nine months of 2007 was US$2.5 billion, compared to 2006s US$3.5 billion for the same time frame.Cat losses for the third quarter totalled US$343 million, compared to 2006s US$169 million. The company also cited the absence of favourable prior-year reserve re-estimates as a contributing factor.