Issue 2004-18: May 11, 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.
Customer Service and Relationship Management
Great-West Life and Acquaint Financial offer independent plan member financial education and counseling services.
Group Retirement Services, a division of The Great-West Life Assurance Company, London Life Insurance Company and The Canada Life Assurance Company, today introduced independent third-party financial educational services for members of its group savings plans. Through an exclusive partnership with Acquaint Financial Inc. at nominal additional cost, Group Retirement Services now offers iAcquaint, a financial planning and education website, and financial planning seminars led independently by Acquaint.
Allstate Insurance Launches Customer Telephone Assistance.
Allstate Insurance Company of Canada, Quebec operations, in collaboration with FBA Consultants, today launches a strategic business partnership with Sigma Assistel to provide Allstate customers with emergency and beneficial telephone assistance information and referral services. This is the first comprehensive telephone service with a human voice offered on the other end for both property and casualty insurance policyholders in Canada.
Distribution
Eastbridge Study Finds Little Impact of Rising Health Care Costs on Employee Purchases of Other Insurance.
A surprising number of employees say that, despite increases in medical insurance costs, they have not cut back on the purchases of other types of insurance. These were the findings of a recent study of 400 employees nationwide by Eastbridge Consulting Group, Inc.
CSIO Insurance Portal Status Update
Week ending May 7: (I was away and unable to arrange an update...dwg)
Claims
FirstService Completes Merger Of Its Business Services Units Into One New Company: Resolve Corporation.
FirstService Corporation (Nasdaq: FSRV; TSX: FSV), today announced the launch of Resolve Corporation. Effective immediately, the four business units within the Business Services division of FirstService, namely DDS Distribution Services Ltd., BDP Business Data Services Ltd., Watts NCH Promotional Services Ltd., and Watts Communications Inc., have been merged into one company under the new brand "Resolve".
Marketing and the Market Place
Insurance industry honours community disaster prevention initiatives: IBC.
Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) today announced the names of four communities and one organization from across Canada that have made exemplary efforts to protect their residents from the risk of extreme weather, weather-related events or earthquakes. The five recipients were cited under the auspices of Foundation for the Future, a national program that recognizes leadership in disaster loss prevention.
Hurricane Juan insurance tab tops $113 million - points to need for preventive measures: IBC.
Total insured losses from Hurricane Juan continue to add up, and to date the insurance industry has paid out $113.4 million in claims throughout the Atlantic provinces. Losses are up by nearly 40% since initial reports were provided in November 2003.
RBC Financial Group 11th Annual Housing Study.
Canadian homeowners my be missing the opportunity to take advantage of the equity in their homes, says an Ipsos-Reid/Royal Bank survey prepared for Royal Bank's 11th Annual Homeowners Survey.
Seminar
Much focus is placed upon improving the pace and accuracy of underwriting, issuance and delivery, currently bogged down by manual processes, resulting from information requirements from multiple sources. Mark Fowler, principal of Xerox Global Services - Insurance & Financial Services, will focus on breaking apart these processes, simplifying the channel by which information is received, retrieved, and utilized. He will show how electronic document management, when combined with structured process improvement, provides the gateway to identify and measure steps in the process for ongoing improvement and return on investment at the next Insurance-Canada.ca seminar Policy and Document Management Systems: Developments and Trends - a half-day on Thursday May 20 in Toronto - Register now.
Statistics and Reference
2004 Special Insurance Markets Directory is now on sale! Stone & Cox Limited.
Are you looking to obtain coverage for your hard-to-place business? Now find suppliers for over 700 unique lines of insurance quickly with this easy to use book, the Special Insurance Markets directory.
Canadian Economic Outlook, April 2004: SwissRe.
The Canadian economy is already reaping benefits from interest rate cuts by the Bank of Canada (BoC). After a miserable first two months of the year when output fell by 0.2% in January and was flat in February, the 75 basis point (bp) reduction of interest rates is improving consumer spending and housing activity. The Ivey Purchasing ManagersIndex rose to 64 in March, indicating substantial growth.
e-Business and Technology
Top Financial Institutions will Increase IT-related Offshore Outsourcing Investments 34% Annually: TowerGroup.
Offshore outsourcing has quickly evolved into one of the foremost polarizing economic debates of our time. While the offshoring of US jobs is nothing new, lawmakers are currently focusing significant attention on the future of the American knowledge worker. And as debates intensify, many financial institutions are hesitant to talk openly about current or future outsourcing initiatives.
New IBM Portable Storage Products Give Users Flexibility in How They Tote Their Data.
IBM Canada announced a new portable storage device packing a whopping four gigabytes of storage space into a package that's less than one square inch in size and weighs less than an AA battery.
Consumer Information
ICLR unveils their Disaster Resilient Home
To mark National Emergency Preparedness Week, the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) has completed a non-structural retrofit on a Halifax home to illustrate the simple steps Canadians can take to reduce our vulnerability to natural disasters. This home now meets or exceeds the rigourous ICLR disaster resilience standards.
from Doug:
Three of us from the heritage organization I belong to thoroughly enjoyed the western hospitality provided by members of the Association this past week in Edmonton, Calgary, Regina and Winnipeg. Workshops, banquets, snow flurries, warm sunshine, discussions, plans - what a wonderful country we live in. More than ever the sense that we are increasingly appreciating our heritage.