What’s New: In brief (June 24, 2005)

Clarification: On June 22nd Cowan announced the future site of its Waterloo Region operations located at Fountain Street North and the 401. This will become the head office of Cowan Insurance Group and house two of its three operating companies, Cowan Insurance Brokers and Cowan Wright Beauchamp. Cowan Insurance Brokers will be keeping a branch office at its current 25 Bruce Street, Kitchener location. The Frank Cowan Company’s head office will remain in Princeton, Ontario.

XN Holdings, parent company of XN Financial Services and XN Risk Insurance Services, today announced that XN Risk will provide a 24/7 1-800 “help line” for Canadian businesses to access in the event of a possible employment practice complaint. The program offers on-the-spot, cost-free telephone advice to guide insureds that are facing an employment practice complaint. Additionally, it will address, early in the process, “pro active” techniques for resolving the dispute short of litigation. When dispute resolution fails and is necessary, XN Risk clients are given professional advice during the early, pre-litigation stages of the complaint. XN Risk has retained Vancouver, BC law firm Dolden Wallace Folick, to furnish proven expertise and specialized counsel to XN Risk insureds.

The Economical Insurance Group recently agreed to adopt and rollout the Symbility mobile claims system a product from Symbility Solutions Inc., which is a subsidiary of Automated Benefits Corp. (TSX: AUT) for all of its property claims across Canada. The product, available for tablet and pocket PCs with integrated Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPRS/1X wireless technology, allows adjusters and contractors to write and process claims on-site with greater accuracy and to settle claims more quickly. Over the course of pilot programs with Economical, Allstate and Gore Mutual Insurance in Canada, Symbility’s mobile, wireless, on-site pen-based system allowed claims adjusters and contractors to process claims on-average six times faster than when using traditional processing systems. The Economical Insurance Group’s testing program was conducted in Southwestern Ontario and was designed to evaluate the Symbility mobile claims application based on several criteria including consistency of estimate data and layout, acceptance and endorsement of system by contractors, accuracy and maintenance of data, ease of transmitting estimate information between contractors and adjusters and cost of system, expense reduction and overall return on investment in the technology. Symbility will begin training adjusters and independent contractors designated by Economical in preparation for a national rollout on July 1, 2005.