Executive Outlook 2022: Stéphane Lespérance, Aon Canada

Stéphane Lespérance, President, Aon Canada

While there are signs of improvement, the current state of the insurance market remains challenging in specific classes. Overall pricing continues to improve and insurers are showing more appetite in key areas. The years 2020 and 2021 were challenging for insurance brokers, but above all for clients. After spending a few years in market highs, brokers had to be better prepared before going to market. COVID-19, new emerging risks, cyber threats and workforce dynamics created uncertainty for Canadian businesses, and it made listening to client needs paramount. The only way to be relevant is to listen to client needs and guide them through choices; it’s all about helping clients make better business and risk decisions. This can be achieved by adding innovation, scale and relevance to their industry sector with meaningful data.

Staying relevant also means brokers will have to be more available to clients. We are in a people business and staying connected with clients is instrumental to our successes. Another key factor to broker success is to digitize as many parts of their businesses as they can – providing tools and resources to their employees, and self-service functions to clients. In other words, allowing various key stakeholders to focus on what truly matters to clients: the consulting and advocacy pieces. Insurer information demands have become less burdensome in 2021, however, better information is key to making successful placements.

Don’t expect this to go away completely, as it did in previous market cycles. Insurers are guiding their underwriting decisions with better data. Therefore, the need to digitize wherever possible makes sense. We at Aon Canada started our digitization journey three years ago. And 2022 will be a continuation of our journey and an acceleration of investments to the benefit of our employees and clients.

See all the 2022 Outlooks here.