INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Sonnet Launches Group Insurance
Sonnet Insurance, Canada's digital home and auto insurance company, is expanding its simplified insurance experience for Canadians through a new Group Insurance offering. Sonnet has already signed on Deloitte to offer a group discount to its employees across Canada in the near future. Read more.

iA Wealth Launches Hybrid Digital Advice Platform
iA Wealth, iA Financial Group's wealth management division, has announced the launch of iA WealthAssist, a hybrid advice platform designed for today's digitally oriented investor. Read more.

“Alexa, What’s My Sun Life Physio Coverage?”
Sun Life is pleased to announce the release of expanded voice technology capabilities, enabling clients to easily access information about benefits coverage – including physiotherapist and psychologist services – through Alexa-enabled devices. Read more.

Quadient Only CCM Vendor Providing Journey Mapping
Quadient, a leader in helping businesses create meaningful customer connections through digital and physical channels, is proud to note that it is included in Ovum's report, Customer Journey Management's Path to Optimization, as the only customer communications management technology provider offering customer journey mapping – through its Quadient® Customer Journey Mapping solution. Read more.

2019 Global Catastrophe Loss Totals
Total economic losses from natural and man-made catastrophes fell to around USD 140 billion in 2019, according to preliminary sigma estimates from Swiss Re Institute. Global insured losses are estimated to be around USD 56 billion, down from 2018 and below the annual average of the previous 10 years. Read more.

Mutual Insurers Continue To Adopt Cognition+
Cognition+ is pleased to confirm that three more mutual insurance companies have ‘gone live’ in production on the Cognition+, a web-based insurance enterprise platform. HTM Insurance Company, Grenville Mutual Insurance Company, and McKillop Mutual Insurance Company completed their projects in late 2019. Read more.

Archway Insurance Expands In New Brunswick
Archway Insurance, one of Atlantic Canada's largest and fastest-growing insurance brokerages, is pleased to announce two new locations in southwestern New Brunswick, where Archway will be working in partnership with Groom Insurance Limited, effective January 1st. Read more.

Deloitte Global Automotive Consumer Study
Interest in electric vehicles is accelerating across the globe, according to the 2020 Deloitte Global Automotive Consumer Study. Highlights include U.S. consumer perspectives on the environment impact of vehicles and the safety issues and costs associated with autonomous vehicle (AV) technology. Read more.

BrokerLink: Announcing One Company
On January 1st, Canada Brokerlink Inc., Canada Brokerlink (Ontario) Inc. and Macdonald Chisholm Incorporated amalgamated. Consequently our legal entity is Brokerlink Inc., operating as BrokerLink across Alberta and Ontario and as MCT, a division of BrokerLink, in Atlantic Canada. Read more.

Blue Cross Life In National Alliance
Blue Cross Life Insurance Company of Canada, Pacific Blue Cross and Blue Cross Canassurance have formed an alliance to bring together local service and insight with national expertise and scale, in order to provide the best Life and Living Benefits products and services across Canada. Both organizations will become shareholders of Blue Cross Life, in alignment with the other members of the Canadian Association of Blue Cross Plans. Read more.

NFP Acquires Elective Benefit Services Inc.
NFP, a leading insurance broker and consultant that provides property & casualty, corporate benefits, retirement, and individual solutions, has announced the acquisition of Elective Benefit Services, Inc. Read more.

Best’s Review looks at the InsurTech sector
The January 2020 issue of Best's Review features a special section on the InsurTech sector, which continues to evolve by working more closely with carriers and learning about the challenges of regulation, raising capital and bearing risk. Read more.

Arthur J. Gallagher Acquires SBW Employee Benefits
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. is pleased to announce the acquisition of Halifax-based Sinclair Billard and Weld Limited, and CJM Solutions + Inc., dba SBW Employee Benefits. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Read more.

MMI ‘Goes Live’ with Cognition+ IBS®
Mennonite Mutual Insurance Co. (Alberta) Ltd. has successfully implemented the Insurance Business Solution as their enterprise insurance suite. This is the first step in MMI's digital transformation project in partnership with Cognition+, which will include implementation of the Online Quoting Solution and the Cognition+ web platform. Read more.

EY Releases 3rd-Gen Zero-Knowledge Proof Blockchain Technology
EY has announced the release of the third-generation zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) blockchain technology to the public domain on the Ethereum public blockchain. The enhancements of the ZKP blockchain technology will help make private transactions on public blockchains more scalable by significantly reducing transaction costs through batching multiple private transfers together in a single transaction. Read more.

Rhodes & Williams Group To Merge With Jarrett Thompson
The Rhodes & Williams Group of Companies have announced that Jarrett Thompson Insurance and Financial Services Inc. has decided to merge with the Group, effective January 1st. Read more.

Corelogic Integrates HOVER Technology
CoreLogic, a leading global property analytics solution provider, has announced the integration of HOVER property measurement and 3D technology into the CoreLogic UnderwritingCenter™ platform for insurance clients. The integration of HOVER provides carriers an opportunity to better manage inspection expenditures while allowing policyholders to digitally participate in securing homeowner coverage on their properties through HOVER's self-service app. Read more.

Reinsurance Markets Diverge At 1.1 Renewal
Reinsurers have been judicious during the 1.1 renewal period, leading to significant pricing and capacity variance depending on geography, product line, loss record, and individual client relationships. As a result, the renewal season has concluded later than in previous years, according to the latest 1st View renewals report from Willis Re. Read more.

Aviva Shares Quirky & Unusual Claims
In the last year, Aviva Canada has handled thousands of property and auto claims – including a few quirky and unusual ones, involving frisky kittens, sneaky snakes, crime fighting, and more. Read more.

Police Disrupt High-End Vehicle Theft Ring
Several residents of Quebec are facing numerous criminal charges following a multi-jurisdictional investigation into hundreds of high-end vehicle thefts throughout Central and Eastern Ontario and into Quebec. Read more.

ICTA NOMINATIONS

Aviva, RBC Partner On A Better “Buy Online”
“Buy Online” gives customers of RBC insurance in Ontario the ability to quote and bind their home insurance online, without any need to speak to an agent. We've halved the number of questions customers have to answer to quote and bind their policy, using external data and sophisticated pricing and underwriting techniques, which has cut average call times by 25%. Read more.

Commonwell Empowers Brokerages With Real-Time Quote & Bind
To drive innovation, The Commonwell partnered with Deloitte InsurCloud, in implementing a core systems modernization project with Guidewire Insurance Suite, Datahub and InfoCentre across all lines of business, under budget and ahead of schedule. As part of the implementation, The Commonwell launched new business upload for residential, personal auto, commercial auto and miscellaneous vehicles, branded Commonwell Connect. Read more.

Crawford Launches Performance Hub Quality Management Tool
Crawford has developed a proprietary quality management tool called Performance Hub to help its adjusters, supervisors and managers view the “health” status of all open files in real time and prioritize employee time and effort. Read more.

LowestRates.ca Quoter Eliminates Pain Points
Our home insurance quoter was designed to eliminate notorious pain points in the quoting process for consumers. And it doesn't just give you a quote — it also compares the market for you, allowing you to quickly and easily find the lowest rate from Canada's top home insurance providers. Read more.

“20/20 Foresight:
Keys To Success in a Dynamic World”

Feb. 25-26, 2020, in Toronto

Explore the ongoing evolution and the next iteration of insurance and risk management at ICTC2020 with industry leaders and experts. One key topic:

“Bringing Other Industry Experience To Insurance” — Dimitrios Argitis, VP & GM - Canada, Keal Technology (A Vertafore Company), will discuss key technology trends, how other industries are responding to rapid changes, and how their best practices can be applied within the sphere of insurance and InsurTech.

See all the confirmed presentation topics or visit insurance-canada.ca/ictc for the latest details.

Mark your calendar now for Feb. 25-26, 2020:

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

Blink
Blink designs data-driven travel disruption insurance solutions and parametric insurance product innovation, transforming clients’ complex offerings into superior service experiences with simple, intuitive, online products in sectors such as Travel, Climate, Energy and IoT. Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.

Featured job opportunities:

Customer Service Representative, Desjardins Insurance
Tullo Insurance and Financial Services Inc., Agent for Desjardins Insurance
Etobicoke, ON

Commercial Client Service Broker
Dan Lawrie Insurance Brokers
Hamilton, ON

From Doug It's a new year and a new decade! First off, here's wishing you a happy, healthy and rewarding 2020. Now a few high-level thoughts for the twenties, with some technology orientation. InsurTech, to me, was never about startups, although the first crop certainly caught everyone's attention and raised the competitive stakes. I side with Matteo Carbone's prediction that “Every insurance business will be an InsurTech” – meaning agile, innovative, and customer-focused, all using modern technology. Data is indeed gold for our industry. Issues include privacy, security, permissions and ownership. Climate change is real – we have a lot to learn and a lot to do. The consumer is the centre of our business. Does a typical customer even read an insurance contract? There's a customer satisfaction challenge. Technology will continue to evolve, faster than anyone can absorb it, leaving us exposed to new entrants. Cyber risk threats and opportunities alike continue to grow. Managing indemnification well is one key, but managing risk with customers to prevent and minimize loss will be equally important. Our people and corporate culture will make all the difference. That is your challenge; enjoy the ride. Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca