INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

InsurTechs Join Forces To Sell Life, Property & Casualty Insurance
YouSet, an innovative platform specializing in auto and home insurance, and Emma, a Canadian leader in digital life insurance, are joining forces to better protect Canadian families. Through this strategic partnership, the two companies are making access to simple, affordable and fully online insurance protections even easier for families across the country. Read more.

Canadian Small Businesses Underprepared For Cyber Attacks
Despite cyber crime hitting an all-time high, less than half of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) believe their business is vulnerable to a cyber attack or data breach, despite new research highlighting that nearly three-quarters of small businesses have experienced a cyber security incident. Read more.

Aon Launches Specialist Claims Solutions
Aon, a leading global professional services firm, has launched Specialist Claims Solutions to help insurers navigate the increasingly complex claims landscape to better serve their customers, drive profitable growth and reduce loss ratios. Read more.

The Future of Cybersecurity Is In Preemptive Capabilities, Not Detection And Response: Gartner
By 2030, preemptive cybersecurity solutions will account for half of IT security spending, a tenfold growth from 2024, replacing standalone detection & response solutions as the preferred approach to defend against cyberthreats, according to Gartner. Read more.

Unlocking Resilience & Long-Term Value Through Environmental Action: Capgemini
A new report from the Capgemini Research Institute finds that organizations remain committed to sustainability despite global uncertainty. But the report reveals a gap between perceived preparedness and actual resilience, suggesting organizations are confusing planning with concrete climate adaptation. Read more.

Persistent Gaps In Risk, Adaptation Strategies Remain: Marsh
While there is widespread acknowledgment of climate risks, new research published by Marsh reveals that organizations are not conducting comprehensive cost-benefit analyses to justify further adaptation investments, resulting in significant gaps between the outcome of climate risk assessments and adaptation strategies. Read more.

On Side Restoration Acquires Excellence Rénovation
On Side Restoration Ltd. is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of Excellence Rénovation. The acquisition will allow On Side to add a new Greater Montréal branch, which will serve as the South Shore regional office, marking a pivotal expansion into Québec's dynamic restoration market. Read more.

WINMAR Announces New Opening in Central Newfoundland
WINMAR® (Canada) International, Ltd., is pleased to announce the opening of WINMAR® Central Newfoundland. Located at 150 Main Street in Springdale, WINMAR® Central NL is owned and operated by Mark Hicks, who brings nearly two decades of construction experience and business ownership to the WINMAR® network. Read more.

Acera Partnership Deepens Edmonton Roots
Acera Insurance Services Ltd. is pleased to welcome its newest partner, Merit Insurance Services Ltd., headquartered in Edmonton. Both Acera Insurance and Merit Insurance have a deeply rooted presence in Alberta's capital city of more than 100 years combined. Read more.

Gifford Carr Expands To U.S. With Acquisition
Gifford Carr Insurance Group has acquired Omni One Insurance Agency, a Cape Coral, Florida-based brokerage, marking the Canadian firm's first expansion outside the country. Omni One, founded in Cape Coral, serves individuals and families across Florida. Read more.

EVs Cost More To Insure Than Gas Cars: Surex
A new study by Surex has found that the cost of insuring an electric vehicle in Canada is more than one-third (36.8%) higher than that of a traditional gas-powered automobile. Read more.

ProNavigator Adds Industry Veteran To Advisory Council
ProNavigator, the AI-enabled knowledge management platform built for insurance, is pleased to announce the appointment of Graham Haigh, former SVP and COO at Wawanesa Insurance, to its Strategic Advisory Council. Read more.

Small Business Confidence Crept Up In September: CFIB
The long-term small business confidence reached 50.2 in September, finds the Canadian Federation of Independent Business's Monthly Business Barometer®. Read more.

In the InsurTech Spotlight this week:

CoverGo
CoverGo provides cutting-edge technology to make insurance 100% digital and accessible to everyone. CoverGo's SaaS modular end-to-end no-code core insurance platform enables insurers to increase their speed to market, enable digital omni-channel distribution, improve customer & staff experience, reduce operational & IT costs, and reduce fraud, waste and abuse, all in a fast, efficient and scalable way. Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.

Featured job opportunities:

Personal Lines Insurance Broker
McFarlane Agencies
Okotoks, AB

Property Claims Adjuster
Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc.
Thunder Bay, ON

From Doug Artificial intelligence is everywhere right now, with significant hype around co-pilots, AI agents and agentic systems. Two recent announcements caught my attention. “SUPERAGENT AI, the San Francisco–based InsurTech innovator, announced its ambitious goal to launch the first fully autonomous AI Insurance Agent by the end of 2025. This groundbreaking AI promises to handle every aspect of insurance advisory, sales, and customer service, around the clock, and more efficiently than traditional agents.” And more recently: “Fletch Technologies Inc. (New York) has completed what it describes as the first known insurance policy purchase executed entirely by an agentic AI system in a controlled production environment. The transaction was conducted in collaboration with a prominent insurer and used artificial intelligence to guide the consumer through coverage choices, process payment, and complete policy binding.” Many insurance practitioners – and certainly most InsurTech technology providers – are developing and deploying AI agent technology today. The promises of productivity improvements to insurance processes are huge, especially in manual time and effort. Will that mean fewer jobs? Who knows, but ultimately, somewhere between the two extremes – fewer jobs or applying that resource to being more competitive and/or new insurance programs to fill some of the insurance gaps. Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca