Tech

This is how savvy commercial underwriters are getting ahead of the competition

In a fiercely competitive and increasingly challenging commercial lines marketplace, Opta Information Intelligence’s Commercial Perils Solution can now display an unparalleled scope of risk related insight to a particular piece of business. Allowing savvy underwriters to better manage their existing portfolio while ensuring they are growing their book profitably. The Commercial Perils Solution is the […]

By Ian Portsmouth | June 25, 2018

4 min read

Tech

Your clients may be aware of voice-activated tech, but are they buying it?

Canadians’ awareness of voice-controlled, connected home devices such as Google Home or Amazon Echo is growing, but consumer interest in acquiring such a device is not keeping pace, a new study shows. Canada’s Internet Factbook 2018, released on June 20 by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), shows consumer awareness of voice-controlled, connected home devices […]

By Jason Contant | June 25, 2018

2 min read

Operations

The thinking behind BFL’s ‘turnkey solution’ for cyber clients

Brokers looking to sell cyber insurance to commercial clients should be looking to partner with non-insurance firms specializing in security and risk assessment, one Quebec-based broker advises. “Brokers need to look at not just selling insurance but partnering, and how they can provide clients with more of a turnkey solution on cyber risk,” Brian Kelly, […]

By Greg Meckbach | June 25, 2018

2 min read

Tech

Former Zurich Canada CEO elected to claims software vendor board

Robert Landry, a former president and CEO of Zurich Insurance Company’s Canadian branch, was elected Thursday to the board of directors of Symbility Solutions Inc., a claims software maker. Calgary-based Symbility held its annual shareholders meeting Thursday. The vendor’s products include Symbility Property, a claims processing and estimating software product for property and casualty Insurers. […]

By Greg Meckbach | June 22, 2018

1 min read

Human driver distracted before fatal autonomous Uber crash

PHOENIX – The human backup driver in an autonomous Uber SUV was streaming the television show “The Voice” and looking downward just before fatally striking a pedestrian in suburban Phoenix, according to a police report. The 300-page report released Thursday night by police in Tempe revealed that driver Rafaela Vasquez had been streaming the musical […]

4 min read

“Hey Broker, I need a quote.” Voice technology for brokerages arrives.

Alexa, ask Excalibur Insurance for a car insurance quote. That possibility is just around the corner, as Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company announced Thursday that it had opened an Innovation Outpost lab in Kitchener, Ont. that will connect customers with brokers through voice technology. One of the first projects out of the lab is a new […]

3 min read

Intact reports ‘world of difference’ with telematics

Hard numbers showing the impact of telematics remain elusive, but Canada’s largest property and casualty insurer says the technology does separate the good risks from the bad. Telematics is a vehicle diagnosis technology that collects data such as distance travelled, where a vehicle was driven, and potentially risky behaviour such as speeding, hard braking and […]

2 min read

How a $3-million brokerage increased its premium volume by 2,133% in five years

Fear of technology is preventing many brokerages from reaching their strategic objectives, a digital broker said last week at Gore Mutual’s Fast Forward event in Toronto. And it’s a myth, he added, that only large companies can afford to use the latest tech wizardry. Lance Miller, CEO of digital broker SurexDirect, told delegates Thursday that […]

3 min read

Why this broker takes exception to usage-based auto insurance app

Usage-based insurance has raised the profile of insurers on consumers’ electronic devices, and this could be bad news for some brokers. Several auto insurers are using UBI to offer discounts based on data gather from telematics. That technology lets insurers gather data from the insured vehicles, such as distance, location, speed, sudden acceleration and hard […]

2 min read

Is the slow pace of regulatory change putting the industry at risk?

The insurance industry is at risk if regulators don’t recognize that consumer expectations are changing and allow consumers the choice of receiving their policy documents electronically, the president and chief executive officer of the Centre for Study of Insurance Operations (CSIO) said last week. Speaking at Gore Mutual’s Fast Forward event in Toronto on Thursday, […]

3 min read