INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Manulife Delivers Faster Life Insurance Approvals With AI Integration, Enhanced Digital Application
Manulife has introduced a redesigned electronic application and an enhanced version of its proprietary AI underwriting engine, MAUDE (Manulife Automated Underwriting Decision Engine). Together, these innovations enable automatic approvals in as little as two minutes for qualified applicants, helping Canadians access coverage faster and with less complexity. Read more.

Equisoft A.I. Life Platform Earns xCelent Award
Equisoft is pleased to announce that its AI-native policy administration system Equisoft/manage has been recognized for its integration capabilities, agentic AI innovation, and comprehensive functionality spanning from illustrations through claims, earning top-tier “Luminary” status in Celent's North American and LATAM Policy Administration Systems Editions. Read more.

TD Insurance Successfully Sponsors Second Cat Bond
TD Insurance is pleased to announce that it has successfully sponsored its new catastrophe bond, Series 2026-1, which will provide the TDI insurance companies additional reinsurance capacity through a multi-year risk transfer of C$115MM aggregate protection against named storms, earthquakes, severe convective storms, winter storms and wildfires. Read more.

The Institutes RiskStream Collaborative Launches RAPID X
The Institutes RiskStream Collaborative is pleased to announce the U.S. production launch of a blockchain-powered auto claims data exchange platform that enables insurance carriers to instantly share critical accident information – dramatically reducing claim costs while accelerating customer support. Read more.

Homeowners Add Coverage As Climate Concerns Shift: LowestRates.ca Survey
Canada's climate is changing fast, and homeowners are feeling the impact; for example, Ontario home insurance premiums climbed 5.7% in the first quarter of 2025. Meanwhile, the number of people who are concerned about specific climate threats continue rising, according to a new survey from LowestRates.ca. Read more.

Alberta Auto Insurers Paid Out 18% More Than Collected In 2024: IBC
In its annual report, the Alberta Superintendent of Insurance notes that property & casualty insurers lost more than CAD$ 1.2 billion on the sale of auto insurance in 2024. Read more.

Aon Expands Data Center Lifecycle Insurance Program
Aon is pleased to announce a billion-dollar expansion of its proprietary Data Center Lifecycle Insurance Program, strengthening resilience for AI-driving digital infrastructure in response to accelerating global investment in cloud computing and artificial intelligence and the increasing complexity of risks across the data center lifecycle. Read more.

CBN Welcomes Morison Insurance Brokers
CBN, the exclusive peer advisory group for high-performing brokers in Canada, is pleased to announce the addition of Morison Insurance Brokers, serving all of Ontario through six office locations. Read more.

BrokerLink Starts 2026 With Triple Acquisition
BrokerLink has kicked off the year with three new acquisitions in Alberta and Ontario, consisting of Spruceland Insurance Brokers, Spriggs Insurance Brokers, and William G. Waters Insurance Brokers. Read more.

Axis Acquires Treasures Insurance Edmonton
Axis Insurance Managers Inc. is pleased to announce its acquisition of Treasures Insurance Edmonton Inc., further strengthening its footprint in Alberta. Read more.

In the InsurTech Spotlight this week:

Onlia
Onlia was built to help make Canada safer by rewarding Canadians for safer driving behaviours. We believe in motivation over penalties, and we have integrated this philosophy into our suite of tech-driven safety products – developed and driven by data and behavioural economics. Using proprietary and award-winning technology, Onlia is rethinking the way Canadians approach safety and insurance.
Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.

Featured job opportunities:

Insurance Broker
Univesta Assurances & Services financiers
Montreal/Brossard/Boisbriand, QC

Financial Security Advisor, Insurance
RBC
Montreal, QC

From Doug Artificial Intelligence vs. Jobs Andrew Coyne discussed the “promise” of AI to eliminate jobs in the Globe and Mail last week (Feb. 12), showing how previous comparable technology innovations threatened significant losses which did not ultimately materialize. For instance, the spreadsheet was a threat to accountants who laboured to manually correct records when one datum changed. But automating this enabled new uses and better analysis – the number of accountants actually increased. My early career working for a technology vendor was mostly about hardware. Getting customer, policy and claims data into the system took many steps, just within the insurance company – a clerk transcribing to a coding sheet, then keypunched, verified, sorted and into the system. Today, a single entry by a customer into a broker's system can be communicated to the insurer's system and back, almost instantaneously – a tremendous productivity improvement. And yet the insurance industry still employs roughly the same number of people. Population growth, regulatory requirements, product complexity, customer service improvements, better quality customer experience, new products, and new trends such as predict and prevent have all increased the workload. Andrew's argument posits that going forward, these added workloads could offset AI-induced job losses. Will they? Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca