Sovereign pulls plug on personal auto, homeowners lines

Focusing on its core strength of commercial insurance, The Sovereign General Insurance Company has announced that it will no longer write personal auto and home insurance in Alberta, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.”The size of the portfolios and their geographic concentration create an unacceptable level of exposure for the company,” the company announced in a press release. “Personal auto and home insurance portfolios are just a fraction of The Sovereign General’s business and represent less than 1% of the total market in each of the affected provinces and territory.”The Sovereign will, however, continue to develop its historically profitable Habitational book in British Columbia and niche personal lines products in other selected areas of the country.”Sovereign’s strength is within the commercial insurance market,” company CEO Peter Parkin said. “To continue along our path of positioning the company for long-term success, it is important that we reaffirm our core strength and focus our energy and resources on commercial lines.”I want to emphasize that service for our brokers and policyholders will be uninterrupted. Brokers will have ample time to place the business with other providers and, of course, all claims will be honored.”Headquartered in Calgary, with 10 offices across the country, The Sovereign distributes a wide range of commercial, marine and special risk products through independent insurance brokers across Canada. Sovereign General is a member of The Co-operators group of companies.