Insurance-Canada.ca Newsletter Archive

Issue 2004-14a:   April 6, 2004

This newsletter is for members of the Canadian Insurance Industry, and those who serve it. The newsletter is published weekly, and notes information mostly about the use of the Internet and related technologies in the industry. Some is international, where we feel it is relevant to Canada.




Statistics and Reference

Canadian Economic Outlook, March 2004: SwissRe.

Despite some negative economic news, the recovery is still on track. The strong Canadian dollar will continue to dampen growth this year by limiting the benefits of healthy US growth. As a result, domestic demand, business investment and consumer spending in particular, will have to lead the economy to full output.

CSIO Insurance Portal Status Update

Week ending April 2:Portage Mutual is in User Acceptance Testing with Ontario Auto. The alpha/beta test brokers continue with the pilot.

Claims

IBC to focus on auto theft, organized crime.

Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) has announced plans to concentrate its investigative efforts exclusively on auto theft and organized crime. Investigation of individual claims is being discontinued as of April 1st.

Marketing and the Market Place

Homeowners With A Mortgage, and Renovations: Ipsos-Reid survey.

According to a new survey conducted by Ipsos-Reid on behalf of Presidents Choice Financial, two in three (64%) Canadian homeowners with a mortgage do not often plan for home renovations and makeovers when purchasing their home. However, three quarters (74%) of homeowners with mortgages have undertaken renovations or makeovers on their home.

J.D. Power and Associates Reports: Arai Motorcycle Helmets Rank Highest in Overall Customer Satisfaction for Sixth Straight Year.

For the sixth consecutive year, Arai ranks highest in customer satisfaction with motorcycle helmets, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2004 Motorcycle Helmet Satisfaction StudySM released today. With strong ratings from its customers for fit and comfort, color/graphic design, and ventilation, Arai ranks the highest overall among the nine helmet brands included in the study rankings.

Customer Relations and Service

The Office qu�b�cois de la langue fran�aise rewards Standard Life for its VIP Room - Retirement Income Illustrator Web site.

Standard Life received the M�rite-Grande organisation award from the Office qu�b�cois de la langue fran�aise (OLF), during the Francof�te, for the use and promotion of French in information technology in its VIP Room - Retirement Income Illustrator Web site.

KANA Customers Participating in Industry Study Generate High ROI with Their CRM Implementations.

KANA(R), a leading provider of knowledge-powered customer service applications, today announced two of its customers that were evaluated as part of a larger study, The Financial Impact of CRM, conducted by IDC, a leading provider of global IT research and advice, showed impressive return on investment. KANA customers TaylorMade-adidas Golf and HVB Direkt participated in the study.

Business of Insurance

Update on Standard Life's Strategic Review: Canadian Operations will continue to be part of the Standard Life Group.

The Standard Life Group, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, announced today that Standard Life's Canadian Operations, the largest of the Group's overseas businesses, will be retained within the Group and further developed.

Sun Life Financial confirms MFS settlement with SEC on disclosure of brokerage allocation practice.

Sun Life Financial Inc. today confirmed that its subsidiary, Massachusetts Financial Services Company (MFS), has settled administrative proceedings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding disclosure of brokerage allocation practices in connection with fund sales. Under the terms of the $50 million settlement, MFS neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.

GartnerG2 Says Businesses Are Becoming More Tactical as Senior Executives Look Ahead to Growth in 2004.

The business priorities among senior executives worldwide are changing from strategic to more tactical as the economic situation improves, according to a joint survey by GartnerG2 and Forbes.com.

e-Business and Technology

Aviva Canada gets access to management information with SQLiaison's FellowDSS(TM) - a case study.

To support its business decisions, Aviva Canada needed to assemble the data contained in several legacy applications. This kind of information is critical for gaining an edge in the highly competitive Canadian insurance industry.

SAS outperforms competitors in data mining category.

Data mining continues to be a robust growth market, and SAS�, the leader in business intelligence, is at the forefront in the vital area of predictive analytics. Giga, a wholly owned subsidiary of Forrester Research Inc., recently issued a report by analyst Lou Agosta titled Vendor Scorecard: Selecting Software for Predictive Analytics, that assessed software from SAS and three other vendors.

Auto Insurance

Keeping Young Drivers Safer Just Got Easier.....I Promise Program.

The theme for World Health Day, observed April 7th this year, is ROAD SAFETY www.who.int/world-health-day/2004/en/ Just in time, the I Promise Program - teen safe driving initiative, is pleased to announce a significant change. Whereas there was a cost of $49.00 to participate, the program is now available at no cost.

Release of Final Report on Public Automobile Insurance for New Brunswick.

The 12-member committee has been working since September to examine public automobile insurance and come up with a model. Its deliberations lasted seven months and included public hearings in eight communities throughout the province. "The members of this committee traveled the province, they listened to the people and they studied the complex question of automobile insurance," Weir said. "They came up with a made-in-New Brunswick model and produced a comprehensive report describing the model and how to implement it."

Select Committee on Public Auto Insurance recommends spending $82 million to drive private investment out of New Brunswick: Dominion of Canada General Insurance.

"This is nonsense," said George Cooke, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company. "The changes proposed come with a significant cost: substantially reduced benefits, denial of the right to sue for personal injury, higher prices for young females and older drivers and reduced private sector investment in New Brunswick." During the past year, private sector insurance companies have worked closely with the New Brunswick government to fast-track badly needed reforms.

Consumer Information

IBC reminds Canadians to update smoke alarms, CO detectors.

"It only takes a couple of minutes to replace the batteries in smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors," says Mary Lou O'Reilly, Vice-President, Public Affairs and Marketing, Insurance Bureau of Canada. "Sadly, an unfortunate few may lose much more, simply because someone has neglected to invest a few dollars and two minutes to replace the dead batteries."

Most Home-Based Businesses Are Not Properly Insured -- I.I.I. Offers Insurance Checklist To Owners Of Home-Based Businesses.

Whether you're running a home day-care center, preparing clients' tax returns on your kitchen table or writing up wills in your basement office, you need to plan for the unexpected disaster. That's why every home-based business needs to be properly insured, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.).

from Doug:

Thank you for subscribing to our weekly newsletter. The subscription list now numbers almost 2,150. All but about fifty are in Canada and the subscribers are from three roughly equal groups: people from insurance companies, people who are involved in insurance distribution whether brokers, agents or advisors, and vendors of various products and services to the first two groups.
If there is a single measurement of web site traffic which we track and use more than others, it would be page views. Last month visitors viewed over 250,000 pages, a new record for us, surpassing January's 235,000, and up forty percent from March 2003. Traffic to consumer information sections of our site is somewhat greater than to the professional information sections.
If you are targeting either of those groups with your products and services, Insurance-Canada.ca should be part of your marketing program.