INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

The Future of Insurance: New Majesco Report
Majesco's latest research report, The Future of Insurance: Optimization, Growth and Innovation, which highlights critical developments accelerating transformation in the industry. Read more.

Advanced Analytics Open New Frontiers In P&C
The latest sigma report from the Swiss Re Institute suggests that technology advances are enabling P&C insurers to unlock new frontiers in risk assessment and mitigation thanks to advanced analytics. Read more.

The Productivity Imperative: McKinsey
The insurance industry is facing a serious structural challenge. While some lines of business have seen years of steady top-line growth, life insurance carriers in mature markets have been particularly hard hit by the low interest environment. As a consequence, the majority of carriers are not making their cost of capital. Read more.

SMA And The Digital Insurer Partner To Accelerate Digital Transformation
Strategy Meets Action, a leading insurance advisory firm, and The Digital Insurer, the world's largest digital insurance platform, are announcing their partnership in the North American P&C insurance market. SMA and TDI together bring world-class information and actionable insights on the digital transformation that is underway and offer a new set of transformation services geared to accelerating strategies and plans for insurers. Read more.

Grenville Chooses Cognition+ Core Platform
Grenville Mutual, a technology adoption leader, continues its digital evolution and has chosen Cognition+ as its core platform provider. Cognition+ provides a web-based insurance enterprise platform. Read more.

Chubb Introduces CoverPlus, Featuring Expanded Liability Insurance Solutions
Chubb is pleased to introduce CoverPlus, a new platform offering expanded liability-driven products tailored to the evolving risks faced by middle-market manufacturers as they embrace new technologies and processes to remain competitive. Read more.

RIMS Releases 2019 Benchmark Survey
Businesses and organizations paid nearly two percent more in 2018 than they did in 2017 to cover the total cost of risk (TCOR), according to the 2019 Risk & Insurance Management Society Benchmark Survey. Read more.

Defined Contribution Retirement Plans Gaining Popularity: Novarica Report
Providers of defined contribution retirement plans are working to attract new clients while driving down costs and to retain existing clients by improving their investment performance. Achieving these goals means investing in digital capabilities and monitoring changing regulation. In a new report, Novarica provides an overview, data about the marketplace, and examples of recent technology investments. Read more.

Brokerlink Expands With Acquisition Of A-Plus
BrokerLink is pleased to announce that A-Plus Insurance Services has joined BrokerLink, effective August 1st, providing an opportunity for BrokerLink to grow its customer base and support new community members in Alberta. Read more.

CSIO Launches Emerging Tech Advisor Committee
CSIO is pleased to announce the launch of its Innovation and Emerging Technology Advisory Committee, or INNOTECH. The committee will play a pivotal role in evaluating the application of new and emerging technology and digital innovation in the P&C insurance industry. Read more.

Intact, CAA, Sun Life, Manulife Named Among ‘Most Trusted’ Financial Services Brands
Leading market research firm BrandSpark International is pleased to announce the 2019 winners of its BrandSpark Most Trusted Awards program across major e-commerce and services brands. Read more.

BeniPlus, Tia Health Enter Distribution Agreement
BeniPlus Inc., a provider of simple, flexible and affordable group benefits to small businesses throughout Canada, is pleased to announce a partnership agreement with Tia Health to offer virtual medical services to all of their new and existing clients. Read more.

New Partnership To Provide Concussion Testing
ImPACT Applications, developer of ImPACT®, ImPACT Pediatric®, and ImPACT Passport™, and Player's Health, a risk management firm specializing in amateur sports, have announced a partnership to provide concussion testing protocols to help sports organizations and parents monitor athletes for concussions. Read more.

AIG, Player’s Health Partner On Amateur Sports Accident Coverage
AIG, a global insurance company, and Player's Health, a risk management firm specializing in amateur sports, are pleased to announce a new partnership to offer services to sports organizations to assist with risk reduction, along with a simplified and improved insurance buying process. Read more.

Westland Acquires First West Insurance Services
Westland Insurance Group Ltd. is pleased to announce the acquisition of First West Insurance Services, a subsidiary of First West Credit Union, effective September 30th. Read more.

Government Invests In Ont. Flood Mitigation
Flooding is Canada's costliest and most frequent natural disaster, and the Government of Canada has announced federal funding to the Province of Ontario to support updated flood mapping of the Lake Ontario shoreline under the National Disaster Mitigation Program. Read more.

IBC Applauds Alberta Flood Mitigation
Insurance Bureau of Canada commends the Alberta government for providing new funding to help protect communities in southern Alberta from the impacts of flooding. Read more.

Dangerous Driving Behaviors Widespread: Survey
A new ValuePenguin.com survey found almost all drivers – 90% – admitted to dangerous driving behaviors within the past year. And while some of these behaviors – such as eating or changing music – may seem harmless, 94% of car crashes are caused by human error and dangerous driving behaviors. Read more.

“Insurance In The Platform Economy”

Tomorrow on Wednesday, August 28

Explore the new insurance horizon at ICEF2019; discover the imperatives for competing successfully in the platform economy.

Browse the presentation topics; mingle with industry peers and expert speakers.

Register now, or for more details, visit
insurance-canada.ca/icef.

The InsurTech Spotlight features insurance practitioners and InsurTech(nology) providers which are – or are becoming – InsurTechs. In the spotlight this week are:

Bene-FIX
We are competing against the inefficiency of the current business model – with more than 5,000 mostly incompatible systems managing group insurance at an annual cost in the billions. Bene-FIX has created the technology and put together its ecosystem to replace all those systems with a single system providing for input just once. Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.

Featured job opportunities:

RIBO Licensed Account Manager
Stewart Morrison Insurance Brokers
Lindsay, ON

Manager, Policy Processing Services
The Sovereign General Insurance Company
Calgary, AB

From Doug Continuing from last week, what is it that could determine the success of an IoT product by insurance? Matteo Carbone is Founder and Director of the IoT Insurance Observatory and a top-ranked InsurTech influencer. In a new article, “An insurance policy with some kind of ‘magic’ that sends data through the air”, Matteo notes five value creation levers: fees for services, loss control, change of behaviors, risk-based pricing, and risk self-selection. With a defined market segment in mind, the objective is to create a package which features those functions and characteristics. To make the product standout, share part of the value with the policyholders through discounts, rewards, cashback, etc. To go to market, create a storyline which incorporates those features and the shared value proposition. From his research, Matteo notes successes with IoT products to date have incorporated interesting storytelling that justifies additional fees. The successful cases have been able to sell a service to customers, allowing the insurer in broad terms to cover the technology costs. Do this, and you could have a winner. Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca