HR
Valérie Lavoie, President, Chief Operating Officer, Desjardins General Insurance Group Family responsibilities and unconscious biases are among factors that can hold women back from advancing into the C-suite, says Valérie Lavoie, a senior executive with Canada’s second-largest P&C insurance carrier. “Often women are the only ones mostly taking care of the family at home,” said […]
By Greg Meckbach | March 10, 2021
2 min read
Tech
For the P&C industry, one of the biggest challenges of going digital is the relatively few times a client interacts with an insurer provider, a fintech webinar speaker suggested Tuesday. When the financial industry started offering electronic cheque deposit, “it was a little bumpy” at first, but eventually consumers got good at it because they […]
By Greg Meckbach | March 9, 2021
Operations
Some brokers are entering into mergers or partnerships so they can more easily place hard-to-find coverage, according to one brokerage executive. “We just feel that some brokers who do not necessarily have our volume are struggling to find market support and being able to provide solutions to customers who come and see them,” Kenny Nicholls, […]
By Greg Meckbach | March 4, 2021
Western Financial Group is taking a non-controlling interest in Saint John, N.B.-based Huestis Insurance Group. The exact terms of the deal, announced Feb. 23, were not disclosed, other than it will give the High River, Alta.-based Western Financial a “significant” non-controlling interest in Huestis. “Huestis will continue providing great service to its communities under the […]
By Greg Meckbach | March 1, 2021
Underwriters of the future are going to look a lot more like technology trailblazers, data pioneers, dealmakers, portfolio optimizers, and risk detectives, according to a new report by Deloitte. “To remain competitive, insurers should accelerate underwriting transformation,” Deloitte states in its new paper, The Rise of the Exponential Underwriter, released Feb. 25. “They can do […]
By David Gambrill | March 1, 2021
4 min read
Canada’s property and casualty insurance providers are not likely to be affected by aggregators to the same extent as their British counterparts, although brokers could certainly face disruption from technology firms, Intact Financial Corp.’s chief financial officer says. “The biggest threat [to traditional P&C providers] is a strong technology player that has extremely strong customer […]
By Greg Meckbach | February 26, 2021
3 min read
If your brokerage is bogged down dealing with the new ways your carrier partners are doing business, you aren’t alone. As insurance companies improve their products, introduce paperless initiatives, and upgrade from legacy systems, their broker partners often need to learn new workflows, Steve Earle, president of Bedford, N.S.-based Bauld Insurance Ltd., observed in a […]
By Greg Meckbach | February 23, 2021
Home insurance policies may be so long that consumers won’t read the entire thing, but it doesn’t mean that brokers should selectively highlight certain policy terms to clients, a brokerage leader warns. “For us, there are things we need to point out to customers — when coverage changes [on renewal], in particular,” said Steve Earle, […]
By Greg Meckbach | February 22, 2021
Lundgren & Young Insurance is forming a new Alberta brokerage, Excel & Y Insurance Services, as a result of a partnership with Excel Insurance Group Inc. “We remain an independent brokerage wholly owned by myself and my family,” said Robyn Young, CEO of Calgary-based Excel & Y. Young is also president-elect of the Insurance Brokers […]
By Greg Meckbach | February 12, 2021
Videoconferencing brokers shattered sales records in top-tier brokerages across the country during the pandemic, senior brokerage executives reported in a recent Canadian Underwriter webinar. The results suggest virtual sales are at least as effective — if not sometimes more effective — than generating new business by making in-person sales calls to clients and prospects. But […]
By David Gambrill | February 11, 2021
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