Moves and Views

1 Aviva plc has announced Maurice Tulloch [1], current chief executive officer of Aviva Canada, is the new CEO of Aviva U.K. & Ireland General Insurance, subject to regulatory approval. Tulloch joined Aviva in 1992 and was appointed CEO of the Canadian business in 2009. Greg Somerville, executive vice president of broker distribution for Aviva Canada, will lead the Canadian business while a search for Tulloch’s replacement is under way. Robin Spencer, who was CEO of U.K. & Ireland General Insurance, is leaving the group at the end of October.

2 Western Financial Group Inc. has acquired Prestige Insurance Brokers Inc. of North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Originally known as Lewchuk Insurance, Prestige becomes Western Financial’s 24th wholly owned location in Saskatchewan. Keith Bossaer [2], owner and general manager of Prestige, “will remain in his leadership role to guide the Prestige team through the Western transition,” notes a statement from Western Financial. 

3 AIR Worldwide has announced its Touchstone software will now include the ability to account for catastrophe and non-catastrophe risk in a single platform. By adding non-cat analytics, companies will be able to analyze their risk of property exposure using the same exposure data input for catastrophe modelling, AIR Worldwide notes. Touchstone will now include information from Verisk Analytics Inc., AIR Worldwide’s parent firm, such as ISO advisory prospective loss costs and ISO’s Commercial Property Size-of-Loss Database, as well as non-cat information for both insurance and reinsurance pricing analysis. Non-catastrophe risk could include fire, lightning, explosion, vandalism, sprinkler leakage, fallen trees and wind. 

4 George Cooke [4], former chief executive officer of The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, has been named the first-ever independent chair of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) Administrative Corporation (OAC). Rick Miller, current OAC board chair, will remain on the board until December 31, 2013. Cooke’s appointment took effect October 1. Over his two decades at The Dominion, Cooke also was both an executive vice president and director of E-L Financial Corporation, the insurer’s parent company. He has served as a director of the Insurance Bureau of Canada and the Property and Casualty Insurance Corporation, as well as on Ontario’s Auto Insurance Anti-Fraud Task Force.

5 Economical Insurance of Waterloo, Ontario is integrating the management of its personal lines business in British Columbia under Family Insurance Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary. As of September, the distribution, underwriting and policy administration for Economical’s personal auto and property insurance were brought under Family Insurance. “Given the large number of broker partners we have in B.C., we will be implementing this conversion on a staggered basis,” Harry Kloosterhuis [5], president of Family Insurance Solutions, says in a statement. “We will be communicating with each broker three months before their conversion date to facilitate a seamless transition to our easy-to-use policy distribution system that issues policies in real time. We expect to have all our broker partners writing personal insurance business in B.C. with Family by September 2014,” Kloosterhuis adds.

6 The Regroupement des cabinets de courtage d’assurance du Québec (RCCAQ) recently announced it has appointed Guy Parent [6] as executive director, replacing Isabelle Perreault, who held the position for the past three years. Parent has managed non-profit organizations in the university and professional sectors, notes a statement from RCCAQ. His appointment took effect September 3, 2013. RCCAQ represents 4,500 brokers working in 615 firms and branch offices throughout Quebec. 

7 Opta Information Intelligence’s iClarify services have been integrated directly into the Applied CQ Rating Services system under the Applied ITV brand. The latest version of iClarify offers replacement cost values while automatically uploading verified construction features and property valuations directly into the Centre for Study of Insurance Operations habitational application, Opta notes in a press release. That data is immediately stored for Applied brokers within their respective brokerage management system and is then uploaded to the chosen underwriting company selected by the broker, the company adds. Opta claims that Applied ITV with iClarify will reduce the home valuation process from about 15 minutes to two minutes.

8 Lloyd’s syndicate AEGIS London has launched a claims service for Canadian coverholders, in partnership with disaster restoration firm FirstOnSite. The offering, which rolled out as a pilot in Canada, allows for “rapid collection and transmission of information directly from the scene of a loss to a dedicated, specialist office-based claims examiner,” AEGIS notes in a statement. The FirstOnSite team uses tablet technology to transmit inspection reports, photographs and project management information from the loss scene to the examiner. The system supports rapid decision-making and allows immediate efforts to mitigate damages, often without the need for an intermediate field adjuster report. 

9 Mitchell International Inc. has announced the general availability of its RepairCenter Reputation Manager package. It adds online customer satisfaction surveys, and reporting and analytics technology for repair shops to identify steps in their process that can be improved, notes a press release from Mitchell. The product gathers data from open-ended survey questions and “social media chatter,” producing a Customer Sentiment Dashboard. It will also include the RepairCenter Web Status tool, which allows shops to communicate the status of a repair to customers via an online web portal, e-mail or text message.

10 The CIP Society, comprised of graduates of the Insurance Institute of Canada’s Chartered Insurance Professional (CIP) and Fellow Chartered Insurance Professional (FCIP) programs, has named its five National Leadership Award honourees for 2013. Those honoured as established leaders are Ginny Bannerman [10a], vice president, finance west at Intact Insurance, and James Cameron [10b], president of Cameron and Associates. The category is designed to recognize CIP Society members who “have achieved sustained success through their demonstrated leadership qualities and the significant impact they have made on their organization, their community and the industry.” The emerging leaders category recognizes members who, through early achievements and successes, are seen as emerging leaders within their organization or the industry. The honourees for 2013 are Anne-Marie Deschênes [10c], marketer, medium to large-sized companies at Aon Risk Solutions; Lindsay Mackenzie [10d], commercial lines manager at Intact Insurance; and Tammie Norn [10e], CEO of ProFormance Group Inc.