Optimum closes Atlantic offices

Montreal-based insurer Optimum General is shutting down its Atlantic offices following unacceptable losses in the region’s auto market. The company will cease to write new business and stop renewing policies as of July 1, 2002. Current policies will be honored, with a minimum staff at the Moncton office to handle claims. The Halifax office will close completely.The company’s recent financial results showed stiff losses from its Atlantic auto business, a situation mirrored throughout the industry, according to an Optimum press release. A study of p&c insurers’ Atlantic auto results shows that “insurers lost money in Atlantic Canada during nine of the last 12 years”, the company says.”We very much regret having to take this measure,” says Jean-Claude Page, president and Chief COO of Optimum General. “We sincerely appreciated the quality of our working relationship with our brokers and clients in this region. To our 20 employees, I want to offer my sincere thanks for their services over the past years.”