WWW.INSURANCEBUSINESS.CA ISSUE 9.04 | $12.95
CARRIERS 2021
Brokers reveal the carriers that are going the distance in a difficult market NOT-SO-EASY RIDERS
Tips for keeping new motorcycle owners from taking on too much risk
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BREAKING WITH TRADITION
How Billyard Insurance Group is reimagining the insurance brokerage for a new generation
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
What Canada’s recent building boom means for contractors’ insurance
21/07/2021 5:13:06 am
Aviva Enterprise
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Learn more at aviva.ca/avivaenterprise Business Insurance – Property | Casualty | Auto | Equipment Breakdown Aviva, the Aviva logo and Aviva Enterprise are trademarks used under license by the licensor. The Aviva Enterprise policy and Aviva Cyber Suite are underwritten by Aviva Insurance Company of Canada. Aviva Cyber Suite is only available with an eligible Aviva Enterprise property policy. Terms and conditions apply. For more details about our offerings, please contact your Aviva Underwriter.
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ISSUE 9.04
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CONTENTS
twitter.com/InsuranceBizCA facebook.com/InsuranceBusinessCanada
28
UPFRONT 04 Editorial
Inaction on climate change could cost the industry dearly
06 Statistics
Key data that should be on your radar
08 News analysis FEATURES
BOOM TIME
21
Canada’s construction market is seeing a pandemic-prompted frenzy of activity – so what’s in store for contractors’ insurance?
INDUSTRY ICON
2
12 Technology update
An MGA collaboration targets the rapidly changing agriculture industry
PEOPLE
32
MOTORCYCLE MAYHEM
Amid a surge in motorcycle sales, Ronn Calderon is making sure new riders are prepared for the risks
16 Opinion
In an era defined by climate crisis, output-style insurance policies deserve another look
FEATURES 34 Ditch your to-do list
Why endless lists can be counterproductive to getting the most important tasks done
PEOPLE
As head of Billyard Insurance Group, Stephen Billyard is putting a new spin on the insurance brokerage model
18
This month’s big movers, shakers and new products
14 MGA update
5-STAR CARRIERS
PEOPLE
10 Intelligence
New modelling offers a glimpse into the future of wildfire risk in Canada
SPECIAL REPORT
In a market defined by rising rates and reduced capacity, brokers tell IBC which carriers are consistently coming through for their clients
A closer look at the biggest risks for the Tokyo Olympics
40 Other life
Fighting the good fight with broker and martial arts instructor Karim Mouait
38 FEATURES
THE NEGATIVE IMPACT OF AN URGENT CULTURE If urgency is a central theme in your workplace, you could be losing more than you’re gaining
INSURANCEBUSINESS.CA CHECK IT OUT ONLINE
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UPFRONT
EDITORIAL
A ticking stink bomb
C
limate protesters laid a sensory assault on Lloyd’s of London in June, setting off a stink bomb outside the main entrance of the world’s oldest insurance marketplace to protest its ongoing support of fossil fuel projects. Two months earlier, the same group of activists, known as Insurance Rebellion, used a tipper truck to dump a large pile of fake coal at Lloyd’s headquarters. If a literal stink bomb isn’t enough to grab the industry’s attention, how about a stink of a more figurative nature? In what should be a serious wake-up call to the insurance industry, oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil was recently brought to its knees by a tiny activist hedge fund over its climate strategy. On May 26, a little-known investment firm named Engine No. 1, which holds a stake of just US$50 million in the US-based energy behemoth, staged a successful coup in which it managed to unseat two of Exxon’s board members and replace them with nominees who will pressure the company’s leadership to increase its efforts to combat climate change. The successful climate coup, supported by
Simply publishing grand statements about reaching net zero carbon by 2050 will not satisfy the demands of climate-conscious investors British insurer Legal & General Group, which has a US$1.5 billion stake in Exxon, should serve as a stark warning for other public companies, including insurers. Stink bombs aside, the pressure is rising for insurance leaders to ‘walk the walk’ with energy transition. Simply publishing grand statements about reaching net zero carbon by 2050 will not satisfy the demands of climate-conscious investors. They are demanding – through dissident boardroom politics, if necessary – that insurers retract any ongoing support for the fossil fuel industry and cease insuring new oil and gas projects. This puts some insurers in a tight bind. Many have legacy contracts and investments that are perhaps contrary to current demands around energy transition and climate change. It can be challenging to wind down portfolios and shift business priorities at a speed that matches the ever-growing wave of climate change realization around the world. But the one thing insurers cannot do is nothing. When it comes to climate change, actions really do speak louder than words. The team at Insurance Business Canada
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EDITORIAL Managing Editor Paul Lucas Senior Editor Bethan Moorcraft Writers Lyle Adriano, Terry Gangcuangco, Roxanne Libatique, Pete Miller, Gabriel Olano, Jonathan Russell, Ryan Smith, Ksenia Stepanova, Mia Wallace Copy Editor Clare Alexander
CONTRIBUTORS
Gary Koslov, Dermot Crowley, Aytekin Tank
ART & PRODUCTION Designer Joenel Salvador Production Coordinators Kat Guzman, Loiza Razon Customer Success Coordinator Bernz Jalandoni
SALES & MARKETING Senior Business Development Manager Desiree McCue Business Development Manager Jennifer Hudson Head of Insurance – Sales & Marketing Cathy Masek Vice President - Sales John Mackenzie Project Coordinator Jessica Duce
CORPORATE President & CEO Tim Duce Office/Traffic Manager Marni Parker Events and Conference Manager Chris Davis Chief Information Officer Colin Chan Human Resources Manager Julia Bookallil Global CEO Mike Shipley Global COO George Walmsley
Editorial Inquiries paul.lucas@keymedia.com Subscription Inquiries subscriptions@keymedia.com Advertising Inquiries desiree.mccue@keymedia.com
Key Media Canada (Insurance) Ltd. 317 Adelaide Street West, Suite 910 Toronto, ON M5V 1P9 tel: +1 416 644 8740 www.keymedia.com Offices in Toronto, Denver, London, Sydney, Auckland, Manila
Insurance Business Canada is part of an international family of B2B publications, websites and events for the insurance industry Insurance Business America cathy.masek@keymedia.com T +1 720 316 0151 Insurance Business UK gemma.powell@keymedia.com T +44 20 7193 0935 Insurance Business Australia peter.smith@keymedia.com.au T +61 2 8437 47OO Insurance Business NZ alex.rumble@keymedia.com T +61 2 8437 47O8 Insurance Business Asia peter.smith@keymedia.com.au T +61 2 8437 47OO
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Copyright is reserved throughout. No part of this publication can be reproduced in whole or part without the express permission of the editor. Contributions are invited, but copies of work should be kept, as the magazine can accept no responsibility for loss.
21/07/2021 5:14:39 am
ut he
You take the cake Thank you for making us a part of your story, and for being a part of ours. Specialty Insurance • Property & Casualty • Surety • Risk Solutions • Association & Affinity Business
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UPFRONT
STATISTICS SMEs EYE RAPID DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
US 50% 40% 30% 20%
UK
18% 18% 17% 14%
50%
10%
40%
0%
30%
44% 35%
31% 34%
20% 10%
45%
COMPOSITE INSURANCE PRICING CHANGE BY REGION
of SMEs say providing seamless, on-demand delivery of products and services is currently a top priority
Q2 2020
Q3 2020
Q4 2020
Q1 2021
0%
PRICING INCREASES TEMPERED IN Q1
46%
say offering tailored products and services that meet the needs of multiple generations is their top priority right now
75%
of SMEs say adopting artificial intelligence is their top priority over the next three years
Global commercial insurance prices rose by an average of 18% in the first quarter of 2021, according to Marsh, marking 14 consecutive quarters of price increases. However, the pace of the price growth seems to have moderated, falling from 22% in the fourth quarter of 2020. Marsh attributed this trend primarily to slower rates of increase in property insurance and financial and professional lines. Cyber insurance diverged from the trend, however, posting a rate increase of 35% for the first quarter, double the increase from Q4 2020.
LATIN AMERICA 50% 40% 30% 20% 10%
8%
9%
9%
5%
0%
OPENNESS TO CAPTIVE INSURERS GROWS WORLDWIDE The volatile insurance market is prompting more companies to explore the possibility of forming a captive, according to a recent study by Swiss Re. Globally, almost half of companies are open to forming a captive, although the figure is much lower among North American companies.
PERCENTAGE OF COMPANIES OPEN TO FORMING A NEW CAPTIVE Yes
North America
Global
20%
46%
36% 54%
64%
No
EMEA
50%
Latin America
APAC
50%
57%
43%
57%
43%
of SMEs currently have sufficient technology to implement and use AI Source: Digital Business Accelerated, Chubb and Accenture
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Source: “Hard market solutions: captive insurance thrives in tough times,” Swiss Re
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IFRS 17 TO COST THE INDUSTRY BILLIONS
EUROPE 50%
Implementation of the new IFRS 17 insurance contract standard is expected to cost the global insurance industry between $15 billion and $20 billion, according to a Willis Towers Watson study of 312 insurers from 50 countries. However, WTW found that the costs vary greatly depending on insurer size.
40% 30% 20%
ASIA
15% 15% 14% 13%
50%
10%
40%
0%
30% 20% 10%
9% 12% 11%
8%
Large insurers (major multinationals) will pay between $175 million and $200 million
0%
Smaller insurers will pay around $20 million
8% PACIFIC 50% 40% 30%
GLOBAL 50%
20%
40%
10%
30% 20%
19% 20% 22% 18%
31% 33% 35% 29%
0%
92%
10% 0%
Source: Marsh Global Insurance Market Index Q1 2021
COMPANIES LAGGING ON WELL-BEING STRATEGY
CYBER LEADS AMONG EMERGING RISK CONCERNS Cyber was rated as the most important emerging risk by nearly 1,000 organizations recently surveyed by Marsh, underlining the interconnectedness and technological dependence of industries. A combined 92% of respondents identified cyber as an important or the most important emerging risk. Most important
Important
Cyber 45%
47%
8%
Least important
35%
50%
15%
Emerging technology 50%
7%
Pandemic 37%
While the pandemic has motivated a large majority of companies worldwide to recognize the importance of employee well-being, a recent Aon survey found that many lack a strategy to address it, which can negatively impact their culture, talent attraction and performance objectives.
Climate/ESG
Regulatory 43%
Source: Willis Towers Watson
32%
57%
11%
Geopolitical 55%
8%
13% 54%
82%
of companies consider employee well-being a priority
55%
of companies currently have a well-being strategy in place
33% Source: Marsh Risk Resilience Report
Source: 2021 Global Wellbeing Survey, Aon
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UPFRONT
NEWS ANALYSIS
Hurdling the Tokyo Olympics Organizing the Olympic Games is a monumental task even in a normal environment. During these extraordinary times, what risks loom largest over the Tokyo Summer Olympics? “BARRING ARMAGEDDON that we can’t see or anticipate, these things are a go.” Those were the words of senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Richard Pound during a recent interview ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. Ever since the Games were postponed in March 2020, the question on the lips of organizers, sponsors, athletes, insurers and the public has been whether the Olympics would be postponed again or even cancelled. It’s a pertinent question, given the variety
supporting staff. To mitigate against health risks associated with the event, the IOC is working with the city of Tokyo, the government of Japan and the World Health Organization to make the Games as safe as possible. The committee has also issued a series of playbooks with advice on practices like social distancing, mask-wearing, testing, hygiene, etc. Japanese healthcare officials have been promoting these best mitigation practices since the declaration of the pandemic, and they cannot be overstated.”
“The biggest trial, beyond the obvious economic and political considerations, will be maintaining the health and safety of all involved” Robert L. Quigley, International SOS of risks posed by running an international event of this scale during a global pandemic. According to Dr. Robert L. Quigley, SVP and global medical director at International SOS, “the biggest trial, beyond the obvious economic and political considerations, will be maintaining the health and safety of all involved, including the athletes ... and
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Overall, Quigley says, the Games will be smaller and look different from previous years, especially after officials banned all spectators. That last-minute restriction wasn’t a complete surprise, as much of the world remains unvaccinated, including Japan, and variants of COVID-19 continue to spread across borders.
Paul Gilbert, director of McLarens’ global entertainment and contingency practice group, points out that event organizers were able to learn from almost a year’s worth of successful implementations of live sporting events during COVID-19. These include the NBA ‘bubble’ in Orlando, Florida, in 2020; the English Premier League; the Nippon Professional Baseball seasons; and the recent PGA Championship, which was held with more than 10,000 fans and softened social distancing and mask requirements. Because of this, Gilbert says, Olympic organizers have a massive amount of knowledge on how to keep athletes, coaches, vendors and broadcasting partners safe and healthy. “If you told organizers and their insurers, ‘The only risk you have to face is that of COVID-19,’ I think it would be a challenge they could confidently assess and manage,” he says. “Rapid testing is readily available and reliable, athletes and others exposed will be vaccinated at high percentages, and mitigation efforts such as social distancing and face coverings have been proven highly successful. These risk mitigation measures have all been
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THE TOKYO OLYMPICS RISK BY THE NUMBERS
83% Proportion of Japanese residents who opposed the country hosting the Olympics this year
$15.4 billion Official cost of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, up 22% from last year
$25 billion Minimum true cost of the event, according to audits from the Japanese government
in practice throughout sports, broadcasting, food and beverage service, hospitality, logistics, and social gatherings for a long enough time to make sure best practices are followed and the events can continue as planned, although with very important modifications and protocols.”
such as the Olympics provides a venue for. There are political and social justice risks worldwide that cause Olympic organizers concern. And finally, you have a global transportation system that is not yet fully open, and asking nearly every country in the world to send their Olympic personnel to Japan
“Organizers don’t want a situation where every medal platform ceremony comes with an asterisk because the sport’s biggest stars are not present” Paul Gilbert, McLarens However, Gilbert says, COVID-19 is far from the only risk at play – organizers also have to deal with the more traditional risks associated with live events of this scale. “There are weather threats with the Olympics being held during Japan’s typhoon season,” he says. “There are ever-present terrorism threats, which a worldwide stage
while there are travel restrictions in place could cause a problematic absence of marquee Olympic talent.” And there are always other medical and security risks that could affect athletes, support personnel and Japanese residents, Quigley says. This requires individuals to implement certain safety measures, such as
$3.5–$4 billion Estimated amount of broadcast revenue that would have been lost if the Games were cancelled Sources: Asahi Shimbun; Associated Press; all figures in US$
planning trips well in advance and taking sensible security precautions to mitigate against the risk of petty and street crime, especially at heavily congested transportation hubs and in crowded public spaces. Possibly the most pressing risk facing the Games, Gilbert says, is the sentiment among residents, the medical community and the business community in Japan against holding the event. “While this internal risk is the one that stands out as having the greatest likelihood to impact the events, the external concern of countries not sending their athletes, broadcasters and high-value sponsorship partnerships could equally affect the legitimacy and integrity of the 2021 Olympics,” he says. “Organizers do not want a situation where every medal platform ceremony comes with an asterisk because the sport’s biggest stars are not present.”
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UPFRONT
INTELLIGENCE CORPORATE ACQUIRER
TARGET
PRODUCTS COMMENTS
DWF
Barnescraig & Associates
The Barnescraig & Associates team will complement DWF’s existing Toronto-based claims and adjusting business
Gallagher
Excess Underwriting Company
The acquisition of the property & casualty MGA and Lloyd’s broker expands Gallagher’s footprint in Canada
HUB International
Global Credit Risk Management (GCRM); Salvatore Insurance Brokerage
GCRM specializes in accounts receivable and political risk insurance; Salvatore Insurance Brokerage is a family-owned Nova Scotia firm focused on the transportation industry
Mount Logan Capital
Ability Insurance Company
Canadian asset manager Mount Logan Capital spent US$20 million to acquire the US-based long-term care (re)insurer
Westland Insurance Group
HK Insurance; Smith Agencies
The two Saskatchewan-based brokerages provide auto, residential, commercial, agriculture and specialty insurance services
a
Solvenz launches platform for oil and gas operators
The Solvenz Group has launched Assured P&A, an insurance and finance platform for North American oil and gas operators. The platform provides a wide range of services and financial products for the plug and abandon (P&A) process, including financing, insurance, planning and regulatory oversight. Key features of the insurance coverage include fixed cost completion guarantees; protection against subsurface anomalies, mechanical failure and cost overruns; and up to 10 years of coverage for post-P&A completion risk from the potential flow-back of pollutants.
Gallagher scores major Canadian deal
Global brokerage giant Gallagher has expanded its footprint in Canada with the purchase of Markham, Ontario-based Excess Underwriting Company. The P&C MGA and Lloyd’s broker, which was founded in 2008, serves insurance brokers and their clients across the region. The team will stay on in its current location under the direction of David Partington, Gallagher’s CEO of Canadian property & casualty operations. “This signifies a coming together of two like-minded cultures,” Partington said. “Our matching philosophies and ideas around putting our people first by creating fulfilling work environments and providing investment and technology for us to help our clients makes us an ideal pairing in this marketplace.”
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Coalition offers cyber coverage through Intuit
Coalition has formed a partnership with Intuit to help small businesses purchase cyber insurance. Users of Intuit’s QuickBooks accounting software can secure comprehensive cyber coverage from Coalition through a streamlined quoting and purchasing process. Coalition’s offering combines cyber insurance with proactive cybersecurity tools to help organizations manage cyber threats. “Teaming up with Intuit enables us to bring our leading insurance and security solutions to microbusinesses and make them resilient to cyber threats,” said Shawn Ram, Coalition’s head of insurance.
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PEOPLE Chubb debuts automated travel insurance
Chubb has launched a new Pay As You Roam (PAYR) travel insurance offering that uses mobile phone roaming data to identify when customers are outside their home country, activating coverage automatically at a daily premium. A text message or pop-up notification in Chubb’s core app will inform customers that coverage is in place; they then have four hours from receipt of the message to either decline coverage or confirm who needs to be included for cover. Coverage ends when the customer is detected as no longer roaming or if they reach the maximum trip duration of 31 days.
IMS gives brokers, insurers chance to trial telematics
Insurance & Mobility Solutions (IMS) has launched a new telematics product that allows insurers and brokers to test a usage-based insurance (UBI) program before deciding whether to offer it to policyholders. IMS’ new Try Per Mile solution is a highly configurable mileage-based telematics system that allows users to trial a UBI system and then launch it within one month. Once they launch their own UBI programs, brokers and insurers can personalize their policyholders’ experience by offering a choice of payment models and value-added services.
Onlia expands its offering into group benefits
Digital insurer Onlia has expanded its service in Ontario with a new group insurance offering. Employers can now add Onlia’s auto and home insurance products to group benefits packages to extend them beyond standard physical health and mental wellness offerings. Onlia’s new group benefits platform allows employers and plan members to customize and purchase P&C insurance online while minimizing paperwork. To kick off the new offering, Sterling Capital Brokers has signed on to offer Onlia’s group insurance at a discount to both its customers and its employees.
NAME
LEAVING
JOINING
NEW POSITION
Dave Smiley
Unica Insurance
Ecclesiastical Canada
Chief operating officer
Donna Holt
Willis Towers Watson
NFP
Senior vice-president
Igor Bubic
Gore Mutual Insurance Company
Mitchell & Whale Insurance Brokers
Chief marketing officer
Joanne Silberberg
N/A
Marsh Specialty
Renewable energy leader, Canada
Kelly Callachan
Northbridge Insurance
HDI Global Specialty
Strategic relationship manager
Lee Picher
Marsh
NFP
Senior vice-president
Rob Marsh
N/A
Liberty Mutual Canada
President
Terry-Dawn Thomas
N/A
Zurich North America
Head of Claims University
Thierno Bah
Travelers Canada
HDI Global Specialty
National underwriting manager, professional liability
Tiaan Coetzer
Deloitte
Platform Insurance Management
Director of financial services
Liberty Mutual Canada appoints new president
Liberty Mutual Canada has named Rob Marsh as its new president. Marsh has been with the insurer for 10 years in a number of key commercial and specialty leadership roles in both Toronto and Calgary. Most recently, he led Liberty Mutual Canada’s commercial insurance division, which has more than doubled in size under his leadership. “Rob has the vision and leadership necessary to continue Liberty Mutual Canada’s growth as a major commercial and specialty insurer that is the go-to market for Canadian brokers and clients,” said Garth Pepper, president of North America middle market for Liberty Mutual Global Risk Solutions.
Ecclesiastical names new COO
Ecclesiastical Canada has hired Dave Smiley as its new chief operating officer. Smiley has more than 20 years of industry experience; he most recently served as COO of Unica Insurance. In his new role, Smiley will be responsible for driving growth in chosen market segments, coordinating regional operations and building relationships with broker partners and customers. He will also lead Ecclesiastical Canada’s HR, claims and business solutions functions. “I am really pleased to be joining Ecclesiastical at this very exciting time,” Smiley said. “I look forward to bringing my skills and building on the success of the company, working with a great team, and enhancing our broker and customer value proposition.”
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UPFRONT
TECHNOLOGY UPDATE NEWS BRIEFS Howden data analytics division launches new platform
HX, Howden’s data analytics and advisory division, has launched NOVA, a business intelligence platform that helps users better understand the insurance market. NOVA combines unique data sets, including proprietary Howden pricing and placement information, loss trends, regulatory submissions, and broader market financials, to give users an overview of the insurance market and competitive dynamics across business lines and regions. The platform enables users to identify better market opportunities, anticipate trends, evaluate portfolio performance, mitigate risk and make data-supported decisions.
BrokerLift announces integration with Vertafore Canada
Cloud-based insurance e-commerce platform BrokerLift has formed a strategic partnership with Vertafore Canada to allow brokers to send information on sales transactions from their websites straight into SIG, Vertafore’s proprietary broker management system. Using existing office workflows, SIG users can see, manage and report instantly on sales and renewals that take place on their corporate or affinity partner websites. According to BrokerLift, the partnership will help eliminate manual effort for brokers, reducing inconveniences such as double entry of data, rekeying information or waiting for downloads.
Willis Towers Watson updates loss reserving software
Willis Towers Watson has launched a new version of its loss reserving software. The updated ResQ 5.2 delivers
12
a significant upgrade to the functionality of the software’s reserving and IFRS 17 reporting capabilities. It also includes a new drag-and-drop Data Explorer function, which makes it easier to export information from ResQ for a wide range of uses without needing to write code. Users can also export diagnostics to aid analysis and use the results in a variety of other systems.
Applied Systems teams up with SNAP Premium Finance
Applied Systems has welcomed SNAP Premium Finance into its Applied Partner Program, which aims to enhance automation and connectivity across the independent insurance distribution channel. SNAP’s integration with Applied Epic will enable agents and brokers to provide customers with flexible insurance payment options via integrated workflows within their management system. Clients will have the ability to pay insurance premiums monthly from their bank account or credit card.
APOLLO Insurance partners with rate comparison site
Online insurance provider APOLLO Insurance has entered into a partnership with rate comparison site LowestRates. ca to offer site visitors immediate access to digital insurance products. Consumers looking for the best price on renters’ insurance through LowestRates. ca will be able to access insurance coverage and pricing from APOLLO through an API integration. They will also be able to purchase a policy online using their credit or debit card. The partnership with LowestRates.ca follows a similar tie-up between APOLLO and virtual assistant company Virtual Gurus, which is now offering APOLLO products to its 4,000-plus clients.
Examining Canada’s wildfire risk The wildfire risk in Canada might seem different from that south of the border, but the data proves otherwise
Canada is no stranger to wildfires – in fact, the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire is on record as the country’s costliest disaster to date. Canada continues to grapple with the effects of climate change-induced disasters, and many fear that wildfire risk will only grow over time. But how much worse will future wildfires be? Analysts have taken a stab at figuring that out – catastrophe risk management company RMS recently released a new wildfire model for Canada. The model characterizes wildfires as they spark and grow, offering realistic fire footprint data that addresses factors such as surface fuel, topography, weather conditions, moisture and fire suppression efforts. The analytics help quantify the impact of the fire, and even the smoke generated, to allow insurers to make more informed portfolio management decisions. RMS has more than 50,000 simulated years of wildfire activity in its modelling to ensure that the scope of the data can address possible market gaps. While this wildfire model might be new, it’s not the first time RMS has helped project fire risk for the country. The firm used its wildfire modelling technology to create counterfactual events for the 2003 Okanagan fire “to illustrate how sensitive the losses are to urban conflagration,” says Michael Young, the company’s vice-president of model product placement. “That event, in 2018 dollars, is estimated to have caused $1.2 billion in loss,” he says. “Had
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conditions been right for an urban conflagration like some of the neighbourhoods in Fort McMurray, the Okanagan fires could have been 3.5 times larger than they were. RMS’ urban conflagration index can help identify peak accumulation zones, protecting the solvency of primary insurance companies.”
“Insurance companies should be examining the potential impact of physical risk changes in the broader context of enterprise risk” According to Young, the scientific community is “in broad agreement” that wildfire risk is likely to be one of the early indicators of the impacts of climate change. He says that, in general, while the frequency of wildfire events is not increasing, their severity appears to be on the rise, especially in Western Canada. “This increase is expected to continue, and it is becoming more important for business leaders and policymakers to take heed,” he says. “Insurance companies should be examining the potential impact of physical risk changes in the broader context of enterprise risk. Stochastic wildfire models from RMS are extremely useful to make specific forwardlooking projections that enable nimble strategies to be developed to adapt to future conditions as they change.”
Q&A
Kevin McKinnon Vice-president of business development APOLLO INSURANCE
Years in the industry 15+ Fast fact Before moving into insurance, McKinnon was a bar and restaurant manager for Prime Restaurants of Canada
Meeting rising expectations How has the APOLLO Exchange grown over the past year? We’ve certainly grown at a fast pace over the last year and continue to do so. Given the current challenges faced by brokers and small businesses alike, APOLLO has been well positioned to offer a solution that enables brokers to seamlessly adapt and offer their clients a more immediate and digital experience. With APOLLO, brokers can quote and bind policies entirely online in less than five minutes, while also offering their clients the ability to pay with credit or debit cards and even make monthly payments.
Do you think the insurance industry has made progress in terms of embracing digital solutions? Yes and no! It feels like there has been a significant advancement in data-driven analytics, machine learning and certain self-serve customer solutions, but when the industry was years behind other financial services, it doesn’t feel like enough. The bar keeps rising on what the customer expects, and our industry – including brokers, MGAs and carriers – needs to start looking for ways to digitize the experience. This should not only be for the buying experience, but back-end processes need to be streamlined and digitized to allow sales and service teams to focus on delivering excellent customer outcomes. Insurance products are very complex, and the customer is becoming more intelligent, but that doesn’t mean we ignore the need for continuous investment in embracing digital solutions.
How can technology be used to better market commercial insurance during difficult times like the pandemic? It’s hard to imagine anything more complicated than managing commercial clients during a hard market where rates continued to rise, capacity was reduced, and now you introduce a global pandemic. Let’s be frank, this created a lot more time spent on the phone for brokers and agents, trying to explain market conditions and addressing the customer’s concerns about their own operations, rather than trying to provide loss prevention and risk mitigation. The simplest way to look at this issue, regardless of a pandemic, is that any possibilities of using technology to expedite the process and form a proper assessment of the risk are vital to our industry. Technology enables companies like APOLLO to use artificial intelligence and algorithm underwriting to create a simple quotebind-and-issue portal for popular products like builder’s risk, health and fitness, and professional liability.
APOLLO recently attained coverholder status with Lloyd’s. How does this help your small business clients? Getting coverholder status with Lloyd’s has given APOLLO access to an expanded product portfolio and the ability to manufacture unique products to respond even more rapidly to emerging market opportunities. Overall, this is great for our customers and brokers, as we can deepen our relationships at all levels.
www.insurancebusiness.ca
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21/07/2021 5:16:56 am
UPFRONT
MGA UPDATE
Tackling farmers’ growing risks Recognizing the changes sweeping agribusiness, a new MGA has stepped up to serve the industry
analysis, equipment technology is growing exponentially, and autonomous equipment and processes are getting closer to being the norm,” she says. In addition to covering traditional risks like equipment downtime, First Acre can help with emerging threats like political risk. “Government decisions, negotiations and discussions with other countries can affect imports and exports of agricultural products, as well as pricing of those products,” Shufelt explains. “This can mean that farmers’
“Farmers are carrying on a family legacy that may come from generations before them”
Much like the crops they grow, farmers’ insurance needs are ever-changing. On top of worsening weather, farmers must contend with modern issues like political and cyber risk. To address these exposures, The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group and Red River Mutual have joined forces to create First Acre Insurance, a new agribusiness-focused MGA. “Canadian agriculture is changing at a steady pace in regards to demographics, philosophies of business and the emergence of technology to support the farming oper-
NEWS BRIEFS
ations,” says Robin Shufelt, CEO of First Acre insurance. “Red River Mutual and The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group recognized these factors are affecting Canadian farmers and causing those farmers to adapt operations, and so they saw an opportunity for insurance to grow alongside them.” Shufelt likens the changes in the agricultural industry to those in insurance. “For example, farms are merging to create larger entities, they are becoming more technologically advanced with data gathering and
CAMGA welcomes Accelerant as a gold sponsor
The Canadian Association of Managing General Agents (CAMGA) has gained a new gold sponsor: Accelerant Holdings. Based in the UK, Accelerant empowers MGAs to serve SMEs more efficiently by offering its members access to a full-service risk exchange. “CAMGA members are very pleased that yet another international player in the MGA sector recognizes the vibrant and maturing nature of the Canadian marketplace for specialty insurance,” said CAMGA managing director Steve Masnyk.
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revenues aren’t always what was expected or needed to effectively carry on their operations or pay their bills.” Ultimately, Shufelt says, First Acre wants to help farmers because it recognizes that their businesses are their entire lives. “One thing we want to remember ... is that despite the growth in the size of farms and the changes in operations, they are still primarily family and multi-generationally operated,” she says. “Farmers are carrying on a family legacy that may come from generations before them and that they probably hope to continue in the generations to follow. When handling any risks, we want to keep farmers and those legacies at the heart of our solutions.”
APRIL Canada appoints new leader
APRIL Canada has named Daphné de Vitton as its new CEO. De Vitton, who previously served as the MGA’s director of marketing, innovation and digital, replaced Sébastien Gabez, who has taken on a new role as CEO of APRIL Caribbean. De Vitton has been with APRIL since October 2019 and has overseen the MGA’s future-ready initiatives, including its focus on broker relationship and experience and its digital transformation. In June 2020, she led the launch of the company’s APRIL ON broker platform.
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Q&A
What’s in an MGA rename? David Cook President VICTOR CANADA
Years in the industry 25+ Fast fact Cook originally joined Victor Canada (then known as ENCON) in 1992 as an actuary; after rising through the ranks, he was named president of the company in 2016
It’s been more than a year since ENCON rebranded to Victor Canada. How have things been at the company since the change? Rebranding from ENCON to Victor was a huge undertaking that involved all parts of the organization. It was a necessary step that has allowed us to strengthen our capabilities locally and globally, through broader collaboration and shared expertise within the Victor family. I am proud of our team, who embraced change and helped to make the transition to Victor a seamless one for our brokers, policyholders and carriers. Bringing all MGU and MGA companies under one united brand has given us a solid platform on which to build our business organically and make strategic acquisitions globally.
What are the main areas of growth you’ve seen since the rebrand? A number of factors have contributed to Victor Canada’s growth in the past year. While the rebrand itself was not a growth catalyst, it did not impede our ability to attract business opportunities and was an advantage when helping brokers and their clients navigate through the double hit of a pandemic and increasingly challenging market conditions. We were able to find success across all of our business lines by transitioning quickly to a remote working environment and staying closely connected to our brokers in order to understand their clients’ needs and provide a level playing field on price, coverage availability and service.
How has the pandemic impacted business? Have there been any global opportunities for Victor Canada over the past year since the brand alignment with your parent company? We have seen the benefits of Victor’s brand alignment in tangible ways for our brokers and their clients, through shared broker tools and resources, risk management expertise, and strategic product development collaboration. We have been able to accelerate development of our V Squared commercial broker portal, as a result of collaboration within our Canadian and US technology teams, to more than double the number of insurance products we offer brokers. Our sales and marketing teams across all Victor businesses have also begun to collaborate on best practices, which has produced several opportunities – e.g. the Supporting Clients in a Changing Market guide – to support brokers and help them grow their businesses.
Canopius converts Vave to an MGA
Canopius has relaunched Vave, its algorithmic underwriting platform, as an MGA. Since its debut in 2019, Vave has quoted more than 1.2 million risks, representing US$2.2 billion in premium. “Vave’s vast potential was evident very early on, and as an MGA, it can access the capital required to really set it loose in terms of scale and sophistication,” said Marek Shafer, Canopius’ chief digital officer. “It is hyper-efficient for brokers and, with greatly reduced frictional costs, highly effective from a capacity perspective.”
RAISE Underwriting gets new CEO
Looking back over the past 15 months or so, it was important for us to ensure that we remained fully operational and that we were there for our brokers and their clients during such an uncertain and difficult time. Our teams really stepped up and showed we can adapt quickly to different ways of doing business. Our business is resilient, and the digital transformation we began a number of years ago proved its worth by enabling us to pivot to a virtual business environment without disruption or a gap in service. While we are certainly eager to get back to faceto-face interactions with our brokers, working in a virtual environment has unlocked creative solutions that have strengthened our relationships and brought more value to our brokers. These innovations and others were unexpected during a pandemic but are a testament to our ability to continue thriving through challenging times.
RAISE Underwriting, a boutique MGA specializing in construction, has appointed Matt Baynton as its new CEO. Baynton has almost two decades of insurance experience; he most recently served as senior vice-president of surety at Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company, where he spent about 14 years of his career. He started at Trisura as a senior underwriter and went on to hold a number of leadership roles within the company’s surety business. Prior to joining Trisura in 2007, he was a surety underwriter at CNA Insurance.
CFC Underwriting launches Lloyd’s syndicate
CFC Underwriting’s Syndicate 1988 has begun trading at Lloyd’s, making CFC one of the first independent MGAs of scale to set up a Lloyd’s syndicate. CFC described the new syndicate as “futuristic,” noting that “it will not have a box at Lloyd’s and, through the application of technology, will be operated with a lower level of resources than traditional syndicates.” Syndicate 1988 will write around 20% of CFC’s established portfolio, generating more than $170 million in gross premium.
www.insurancebusiness.ca
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UPFRONT
OPINION
GOT AN OPINION THAT COUNTS? Email insurancebusiness@kmimedia.ca
The benefits of output policies Amid the worsening effects of climate change, insurers should consider a more flexible commercial insurance option, writes Gary Koslov IT’S A TESTAMENT to how severely disruptive 2020’s natural catastrophes were that it took the worst pandemic of the last 100 years to displace them as the year’s major crisis. Consider just a few of the lowlights: California experienced five of the worst wildfires in its history, while Oregon, Colorado and Washington experienced their largest wildfires ever. The Atlantic hurricane season notched more named storms than at any other time in recorded history. Canada saw a devastating flood in Fort McMurray, as well as a hailstorm in Calgary that caused an estimated $1.3 billion worth of damage. Verisk PCS recorded the most catastrophes in its history in 2020 and the most catastrophes exceeding $1 billion in losses. According to AIR (a Verisk business), insured losses in North America hit nearly US$62 billion in 2020. While natural catastrophes are inevitable, most experts agree that their rising frequency and severity is at least partly, if not substantially, attributable to a changing climate. Many climate scientists believe the disasters of 2020 are merely a prelude of what’s to come as the Earth’s atmosphere swells with levels of carbon dioxide last seen 16 million years ago – enough to drive global temperatures as much as 8 degrees warmer and melt enough ice to raise sea levels a staggering 130 feet. We may well look back on the devastating hurricanes, wildfires and
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floods of 2020 not as the worst of times, but as the best of times. As climate-fuelled perils appear to be accelerating, many commercial property insurers might want additional flexibility when setting rates on risks exposed to these perils. They should consider giving commercial output policies a fresh look, as they offer enhanced flexibility in the face of climate-driven losses.
middle-market and larger properties in the crosshairs of ever more destructive storms, fires, floods and other natural perils. As a result, insurers have more flexibility to accurately align the premiums they’re charging to the risks they’re underwriting. In general, commercial output-style policies typically offer a combination of coverages to address a wider range of exposures, including property, crime, business income, equipment breakdown and inland marine. A typical output-style policy might also require fewer forms and endorsements than a conventional commercial property policy, potentially saving resources for insurers. In addition, the optional coverages and endorsements on output policies often carry significantly higher sublimits than you might find on a conventional commercial property policy. This can help insurers market to customers who might not receive adequate limits in standard commercial policies at an acceptable cost. The ability to combine many coverage types within a single policy, along with the potential for higher sublimits, can make an output-style policy very marketable at a time when insurance customers might be seeking alternatives.
“We may well look back on the devastating hurricanes, wildfires and floods of 2020 not as the worst of times, but as the best of times” One of the central virtues of an outputstyle policy in an era of accelerating climate catastrophe is the use of deficiency point rating to help price commercial property risks. This rating method takes a base loss cost and allows underwriters to add or delete deficiency points based on their subjective judgment of the exposures. These deficiency points are typically within a defined range for various defined characteristics of the policy, such as ‘climatical hazards.’ Unlike the approaches commonly used in many conventionally rated commercial property policies, the deficiency point system provides underwriters with wider latitude to account for the unique risk exposures of
While it’s still early, 2021 appears to be off to as disruptive a start as 2020, with just one winter storm, Uri, estimated to deliver more than US$10 billion in insured losses, according to AIR – to say nothing of its significant human toll. As businesses adjust to the reality of more destructive catastrophe events, commercial property insurers would do well to reassess every risk transfer and mitigation option they can offer their clients. They might find that an output-style policy is well suited to these challenging times. Gary Koslov is principal of ISO commercial lines coverage products at Verisk.
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Your business. Your needs. Your way. Unica developed the Contractors Connection® to address the many needs of the Canadian contractor– our largest Commercial Insurance segment. Combining protection for you, your employees, your building materials and your equipment, our Contractors Connection offers best-in-class protection bundled together at a competitive price.
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PEOPLE
INDUSTRY ICON
DREAMING BIG Stephen Billyard, president of Billyard Insurance Group, tells IBC why “the sky is the limit” for entrepreneurs in the insurance industry
BIG DREAMS aren’t often realized when sitting in traffic on Ontario’s notoriously jammed Highway 401. But they were for Stephen Billyard when he hit the road in 2016 with his colleague and friend, Cody Douma, to sell the idea of Billyard Insurance Group (BIG) and bootstrap what would quickly become one of Canada’s fastest-growing independent insurance brokerages. Billyard has always dreamed big – but his dreams weren’t always centred around insurance. He spent the first decade of his working life managing Hunters Pointe Golf Course in Welland, Ontario, where he cut his teeth in business administration and honed his skills as a golfer. He then had a brief stint working in a British Columbia ski town, where he became an avid skier – a passion he holds to this day. Billyard didn’t venture into the insurance industry until his early 30s, taking a role at his parents’ brokerage in 2012. Over the next two years, he learned the ropes of the industry from his mom and sister, gained a Level II RIBO licence, and used his extensive business administration knowledge to create growth opportunities for the firm. “As my parents neared retirement and were looking to exit the business, I had a vision to take over and create something BIG,” Billyard says. “When my sister and I purchased the brokerage off my parents,
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that’s when we rebranded the company as Billyard Insurance Group. Building a business was always on my roadmap. My parents are entrepreneurs, and I always knew that was something I wanted to pursue, so when the opportunity struck and the idea of BIG came to me, I went for it. I truly believe that the sky is the limit for entrepreneurs in the insurance industry.”
in gross written premium. Most of that growth has happened in the last four years. “Our growth has been completely organic; there’s been no acquisitions up to this point,” Billyard says. “We’ve driven this growth by aligning with Canada’s top insurance professionals and entrepreneurs. There are so many talented agents and brokers out there who want to take control of their careers,
“The broker value proposition has always been the most compelling value proposition in the insurance industry. As we close the technology gap compared to the directs, they can’t touch us, because we’re able to offer so much more to our customers than they can” Rapid growth A lot has changed since the early days of BIG, when the brokerage operated out of a modest office in Welland and three of the six employees were members of the Billyard family. Today, BIG has more than 60 offices across four provinces (Ontario, Alberta, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick), with 500-plus employees handling $250 million
establish themselves in their communities and build something BIG, and we’ve facilitated that by providing the tools, technology, training, branding and business support they need to be successful.” Billyard first positioned BIG as an insurance technology company, but the team quickly realized that, as a full-service insurance brokerage, they were a people company
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PROFILE Name: Stephen Billyard Title: President and principal broker Company: Billyard Insurance Group Based in: Welland, Ontario Years in the industry: 9 Fast fact: Outside the office, Billyard is a golfer, an avid skier, and a canoe and camping enthusiast
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PEOPLE
INDUSTRY ICON
first. As the business has developed, its technology focus has been on building tools to support people and to make the process of buying and selling insurance easier for both brokers and customers. “This has enabled us to close the gap with some of the direct-to-consumer groups that have taken market share simply because they had an early technology and brand advantage over most brokers,” Billyard says. “I think the broker value proposition has always been the most compelling value proposition in the insurance industry. As we close the technology gap compared to the
it’s pretty rare for an insurance brokerage. However, Billyard feels insurance companies can be just as attractive and exciting for young professionals as tech firms. “Younger generations want to work for exciting companies that are doing interesting things,” he says. “I don’t think we need to focus so much on the product that we’re selling, whether it’s insurance or anything else; it’s about building an exciting company, creating opportunities and doing something that people want to be a part of. It’s funny – you hear all the time that millennials don’t want to work in insurance, or millennials and
“You hear all the time that millennials don’t want to work in insurance ... My answer to that is, if millennials don’t want to work in your firm, perhaps it’s not a problem with the millennials; perhaps it’s a problem with your firm” directs, they can’t touch us, because we’re able to offer so much more to our customers than they can.” Lots of BIG’s most talented and entrepreneurial brokers have joined the company from the direct channel – a fact that Billyard says he’s quite proud of. “We’ve trained and licensed hundreds of people to join our firm who were holding OTL licences or other licences,” he says. “We’re disrupting the direct channel – and we’re doing it by creating opportunities for entrepreneurial individuals who want to get out there and build their careers on their own terms.”
Reaching the next generation The average age across all 500 employees at BIG is less than 35 years old. Such a stat might be common among tech startups, but
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traditional brokerage operators don’t seem to know how to work together. My answer to that is, if millennials don’t want to work in your firm, perhaps it’s not a problem with the millennials; perhaps it’s a problem with your firm. Maybe it’s just not a compelling place to work. “I started my career selling home and auto insurance, and I found it thrilling,” Billyard adds. “Being in sales is always exciting, whether you’re selling insurance or anything else; it’s a rewarding career. In the insurance industry, we’re really helping people. We’re out in our communities, talking to people, solving their problems and protecting them – talk about selling a product that you can believe in. That’s what makes our industry great, and that’s why there will always be opportunities to thrive in the brokerage distribution channel.”
BILLYARD INSURANCE GROUP AT A GLANCE
HEADQUARTERS Welland, Ontario
OTHER LOCATIONS More than 60 offices in Ontario, Alberta, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
PRODUCTS Home, auto, travel, life and business insurance
CHARITABLE WORK The BIG Hearts foundation raises financial support for vulnerable children in Canada
AWARDS Named a Top Brokerage by IBC in 2019, 2020 and 2021
www.insurancebusiness.ca
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SPECIAL REPORT
CARRIERS 2021
Brokers name the carriers that have continued to deliver superior products, service and expertise, even in a hard market
CONTENTS
PAGE
Feature article .............................................. 22 Methodology ................................................ 23 Profile ............................................................ 25 5-Star Carriers 2021 ................................... 26
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SPECIAL REPORT BUSINESS STRATEGY
5-STAR CARRIERS 2021
BUILDING PREMIUM PARTNERSHIPS “It’s always about the partnership and collaborating with our brokers to ensure they have what they need and tools to take care of their customers”
IN INSURANCE, the relationship between brokers and carriers is vital. Some brokers seek out carriers with a proven track record and global capabilities, while others put a high priority on a carrier’s ability to pay claims and maintain a long-term relationship with the broker and the client. The latter point is the one that sticks out to Kathy Corbacio, AVP of business development at CAA Insurance, one of this year’s 5-Star Carriers. “It’s always about the partnership and collaborating with our brokers to ensure they have what they need and tools to take care of their customers,” she says. Chris Sekine, president and CEO of Trisura
Kathy Corbacio, CAA Insurance
Guarantee Insurance Company, agrees that his company’s service to brokers helps it stand out from the competition. As a specialty insurer focused on collaborating with brokers, Trisura
WHAT’S MOST IMPORTANT TO BROKERS WHEN CHOOSING A CARRIER? Competitive rates 65% Overall service level 64% Underwriting expertise 56% Range of products 32% Claims processing 27% Quick quotes 25% Appetite for niche and emerging risks 22% Broker communication 20% Product innovation 18% Online platforms and services 11%
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has been able to achieve industry-leading results over the past few years. “It’s about listening, providing great service and treating others the way we like to be treated,” Sekine says. “For Trisura, our brokers are not just our customers but also our partners.” Product innovation is one of the key categories where CAA was recognized by brokers as a 5-Star Carrier; Corbacio notes that the CAA MyPace program, which the insurer launched a few years ago, was able to give auto policyholders critical choice and control during the COVID-19 pandemic. “You only pay after you use the first 1,000 kilometres, and then you reload and pay for the next 1,000 kilometres,” she explains. “So, with more cars in driveways and garages, this program really became an opportunity for consumers to save money.”
Market challenges On the broker side, Kevin Neiles, chief marketing officer at Gallagher, believes carrier capacity and appetite, combined with stellar service, is the most important factor in the broker-carrier partnership. Depending
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on the sector, he says, the market has been extra difficult for brokers over the past 24 months – and he doesn’t expect that to change until early 2022. “There seems to be a little bit more capacity coming back into Canada in certain areas, but with certain types of businesses, it’s really still a very challenging market,” he says. To counter that, Sekine says Trisura has spent the past year focusing on facilitating business for brokers. “For brokers, market conditions have been and remain very challenging,” he says. “We expect this trend to continue in the near future. In an effort to alleviate some of the challenges, we have paid extra attention to service and responding to our brokers in a timely fashion. We are listening to our brokers
stay in touch with brokers when travel wasn’t possible. She believes communication will continue to be a hybrid of traditional meetings and virtual platforms. Neiles says he’s traditionally done business with carriers face-to-face, and he appreciates working in an office environment where collaboration is easier. That said, “I think both brokers and insurers have done a very good job of making remote communications and online business work,” he says. “Quite frankly, there’s been some fun events that carriers have done just to keep that relationship going. This business is about relationships. There’s been some fun events to kind of take the work hats off for an hour and just get a chance to socialize a little bit, which I think is an important part of business.”
“In an effort to alleviate some of the [market] challenges, we have paid extra attention to service and responding to our brokers in a timely fashion” Chris Sekine, Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company
and working with them to develop viable solutions. In fact, one of our key initiatives has been to partner with offshore capital and to provide our brokers with capacity in certain lines where it has been scarce.” On top of the hard market, insurers have also had to face the challenge of adapting to COVID-19 restrictions. “All of us have adopted videoconferencing as a collaboration tool, but we’ve discovered it cannot replace in-person interaction,” Sekine says. “People are now feeling videoconference fatigue, and we’ve all experienced the frustration of technical glitches like dialling in and connection difficulties and latency in audio and video.” However, Corbacio lauds the technological innovations that have helped carriers
What brokers want most As part of IBC’s survey to determine the best carriers in the Canadian insurance market, we asked hundreds of brokers to name the top three aspects they consider when looking for a carrier partner. Unsurprisingly, given the hard market, competitive rates ranked as brokers’ number-one priority. Brokers complained that some carriers have lacked sympathy for customers and their financial constraints amid the ongoing pandemic – and they had a few suggestions for mitigating dramatic rate increases. One suggested carriers ask for broker input on how rate changes will affect distribution channels, while another wished carriers would stick to a steady 2.5% year-over-year increase and then use discounts to stabilize pricing.
METHODOLOGY For the sixth year in a row, Insurance Business Canada asked brokers to name the top carriers in the industry by rating how well they performed in 10 categories. Brokers evaluated carriers on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) in the following areas: • competitive rates • overall service level • underwriting expertise • range of products • claims processing • quick quotes • appetite for niche and emerging risks • broker communication • product innovation • online platforms and services Carriers that received an average score of 4.00 or higher were named a 5-Star Carrier for that category. One company earned 5-star ratings in all 10 categories, earning the title of All-Star Carrier.
61% of the brokers IBC surveyed consider themselves a specialist
60% have been in the industry for 20 years or more
75% work for a firm with at least $10 million in annual revenue
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SPECIAL REPORT BUSINESS STRATEGY
5-STAR CARRIERS 2021 HAS CLAIMS PROCESSING IMPROVED OR WORSENED IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS?
12%
27%
Improved
Worsened
61%
No change
“I think both brokers and insurers have done a very good job of making remote communications and online business work” Kevin Neiles, Gallagher Almost equally important to brokers is the service they receive from carriers; 64% of respondents named overall service level as one of the top three things they look for in a carrier. Some brokers were generous in reviewing their carriers’ performance in this area, describing service levels as acceptable in light of the pandemic. Others weren’t as charitable, pointing out that with adjusters and others working from home, there’s little accountability for service quality. “Work from home has been a disaster for most insurers from a service level standpoint,” one respondent said. The third most important criteria for brokers is a carrier’s underwriting expertise – and many respondents were feisty about this category. Brokers grumbled about insufficient underwriting expertise and long waits to talk to an underwriter. “Improve call wait times to get through to underwriting and more straight-through processing,” one
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broker suggested. Another complained that “important changes or underwriting rules are buried in broker bulletins surrounded by fluff. No one communicates directly anymore.” Product range came in fourth on brokers’ list of criteria when choosing a carrier, but only 32% of brokers named it a top-three consideration. Around half of the brokers who commented were satisfied with their carriers’ product range, while the other half said product lines were lacking. And some took issue with the way products are distributed to brokers: “Give the brokers access to all of the products instead of trying to restrict our access,” said one respondent. Another wanted their carrier to focus its attention elsewhere: “Fix service times and stop coming out with new products or new underwriting criteria until service levels are back to standards.” Claims processing ranked fifth among brokers’ priorities when choosing a carrier. Although 73% of brokers told IBC they’d
seen either no change or an improvement in claims service over the past year, many were still unhappy with the state of their carrier’s claims processing, and quite a few mentioned that claims teams in Canada need more staff. Others cited the importance of improving service quality and streamlining the claims process. “Stop paying claims that should be denied and taking too much time on simple claims,” one broker advised. Twenty-five per cent of brokers said they consider quick quotes a top priority when choosing a carrier. Brokers called out carriers for lacking timeliness on commercial quotes and noted that some carriers’ online quoting portals are too slow to be truly useful. Carriers’ appetite for niche and emerging risks ranked seventh on brokers’ list of priorities. Some lauded their carriers for covering niche risks that conventional markets won’t touch – but not all carriers are willing to go that route. “Actually have an appetite for emerging risks. Stop playing it too safe,” one broker advised their carrier. Another noted that “time to get to market to deal with emerging risks could be accelerated.” Rounding out the bottom of brokers’ priority list when choosing a carrier are broker communication, product innovation, and online platforms and services, all of which were deemed important by 20% of respondents or fewer. In the area of broker communication, brokers wished for more personalized communication instead of mass marketing. “Better collaboration will lead to much better communication,” one respondent noted, adding that “brokers are tired of being told what they want. They want to be heard!” In terms of product innovation, brokers generally wanted more creative options: “Be a leader, not a follower,” said one respondent. However, at least one broker urged their carrier to scale back on product development, saying, “Stop trying to be all things to all people.” Finally, when it comes to carriers’ online platforms and services, brokers are simply looking for intuitive, easy-to-use portals; many described their carriers’ current platforms as clunky, cumbersome or confusing.
www.insurancebusiness.ca
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Matthew Turack, group president, insurance
CAA INSURANCE COMPANY
C
AA Insurance Company is a subsidiary of CAA Club Group and is a standard property & casualty insurance underwriter. Headquartered in Thornhill, Ontario, with employees across Ontario, British Columbia, Manitoba and the Atlantic provinces, CAA Insurance strives to exceed client and broker expectations by listening and acting as we continue to grow our broker network. “The past year and the pandemic have confirmed that flexibility and consumer choice are extremely important,” says president Matthew Turack. “Consumers want products that provide options and can be
flexible in time of need and available to meet the consumer’s various life stages while providing solutions for those that work from home and drive less.” “It has also shown how important it is for insurance companies to pivot and be agile when things change and be flexible to align with what is going on around us,” Turack says. “I think we’ll see more distinction between carriers, with areas of innovation being a focus throughout 2021, along with a continued focus on digital improvements to make customer and brokers’ lives easier.” “When I look back, I am proud of how we stepped up and provided both rate reduc-
tions and financial relief benefits at a time it was most needed. The total give back to our customers in 2020-2021 is estimated to be over $130 million.”
CAA INSURANCE AT A GLANCE
1974 Year founded
1 Number of offices
525+ Number of employees
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SPECIAL REPORT BUSINESS STRATEGY
5-STAR CARRIERS 2021
CARRIERS 2021
COMPETITIVE RATES CAA Insurance CNA Canada Ecclesiastical
OVERALL SERVICE LEVEL CAA Insurance Chubb CNA Canada Ecclesiastical
Pembridge Insurance Company Portage Mutual Insurance The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group The Mutual Fire Insurance Company of British Columbia Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company Unica Insurance
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Chubb CNA Canada Intact Insurance
Pembridge Insurance Company Portage Mutual Insurance The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group The Mutual Fire Insurance Company of British Columbia
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Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company
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CLAIMS PROCESSING CAA Insurance Chubb
QUICK QUOTES CAA Insurance Chubb
Ecclesiastical Pembridge Insurance Company Portage Mutual Insurance The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group
Pembridge Insurance Company Portage Mutual Insurance The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group
The Mutual Fire Insurance Company of British Columbia Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company Unica Insurance
BROKER COMMUNICATION CAA Insurance
Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company Unica Insurance
APPETITE FOR NICHE AND EMERGING RISKS Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company
Chubb CNA Canada
PRODUCT INNOVATION
Ecclesiastical
CAA Insurance
Pembridge Insurance Company
CNA Canada
Portage Mutual Insurance
Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company
The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group The Mutual Fire Insurance Company of British Columbia
ONLINE PLATFORMS AND SERVICES
Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company
CAA Insurance
Unica Insurance
Trisura Guarantee Insurance Company
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FEATURES
SECTOR FOCUS: CONTRACTORS’ INSURANCE
Boom time IBC checked in with experts in the construction sector to learn more about the many factors driving growth in the contractors’ insurance market ‘BOOM’ IS the word Jennifer Ronca, VP of personal and commercial insurance at Unica Insurance, uses to describe the construction market and the contractors’ insurance sector. “People are not travelling and are spending more time at home, and therefore are redirecting their budgets towards home renovations and/or cottage teardowns,” she says. “Infrastructures are changing at a rate where cityscapes include construction cranes everywhere. Condominium projects are very
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popular. Roadwork seems to be happening at every turn – perhaps as a result of lower traffic volumes – and finally, demographics are shifting to suburbia and placing greater demand on subdivision projects.” Average annualized housing starts in Canada have been breaking records lately, even besting the booms of the 1970s and 1980s, according to Robert Kavcic, a senior economist at BMO. What’s more, nearly half of all Canadians have either already
completed or are planning to undertake home renovations during the pandemic, according to Abacus Data. Gary Hirst, CEO of CHES Special Risk, says there are two factors fuelling the construction market at the moment, one of which is immigration. The federal government has set a target of 400,000 new immigrants per year over the next three years. “The rate of growth in Canada, in terms of immigration and the number of new Canadians coming in, is fuelling a lot of the home building,” Hirst says. “And as a result, there is a lot more frame construction flying around the market and the insurance market. At the same time, capacity has reduced. Domestic insurers’ appetite has also reduced, which unfortunately means that prices on insurance products have gone up. “It’s a basic supply-and-demand curve, in that when demand is high and supply is low, prices go up, which is what’s happening at
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the moment. And I don’t see that changing for at least another 12 months, because we’re not seeing any new insurers coming into the marketplace.” The other factor, Hirst says, is infrastruc ture. Infrastructure Canada has approved nearly $27 billion in projects since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Canada is still a new country and a growing country,” Hirst says. “And I know that the government has earmarked billions of dollars of investment in infrastructure. That, of course, is more of a general market appe tite. The markets, as well as MGAs, still have appetite to write more traditional construc tion methods – concrete and steel frame construction. That market still has quite a lot of capacity. Loss ratios have been very good in that particular segment, and I think that capacity is still pretty strong in that area.”
non-frame – have been delayed because the government has perhaps mandated closure of construction sites or because of a lack of availability for labour. The other is supply of materials. We have seen, towards the end of last year and the beginning of this year, a huge reduction in the availability of wood and also gypsum or plasterboard.” Ronca and Mastrodonato agree that labour has been and still is difficult to acquire but emphasize contractors’ entrepreneurial persistence in weathering the pandemic.
“People are not travelling and are spending more time at home, and therefore are redirecting their budgets towards home renovations and/or cottage teardowns” Jennifer Ronca, Unica Insurance
Current challenges Gabriella Mastrodonato, team leader for contractors’ insurance at Cansure, says the market for this segment has been relatively stable over the past year, particularly in comparison to other lines of insurance. “There have been specific types of contractors where we have seen a contrac tion in the market,” she says. “But as a class, overall, there is still lots of opportunity, and we have had great success in placing business.” Of course, prosperity can also lead to problems. The construction and renovation boom, for example, has caused shortages of construction materials – especially wood – and skilled labour, which Ronca says can lead to rushed workmanship and artificially inflated project costs. Mastrodonato says it’s also been difficult to secure market capacity for high-frequency claims such as hot roofing, snow removal, plumbing and forestry, as the market isn’t tolerating the necessary premiums and deductibles. Then there’s the pandemic, which has caused its fair share of problems, too. “It has had two effects,” Hirst says. “One effect is a loss; existing construction projects – it doesn’t matter whether it’s frame or
“COVID did not have as large of an impact as was initially anticipated for contractors,” Mastrodonato says. “Some contractors did see a slowdown in the early days of the pandemic due to public health restrictions that were put in place, but most have been able to rebound and progress through these times. We have even seen many of the contractors we work with have record-breaking years and continue to grow. This is especially the case in BC, where construction was deemed to be an essential service.”
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES INVESTMENTS IN BUILDING CONSTRUCTION April 2020
April 2021
$3bn
$2.5bn
$2bn
$1.5bn
$1bn
$500m $0
Industrial
Commercial
Non-residential
Institutional
Single-family homes
Semi-detached
Row homes
Condos and apartments
Residential Source: Statistics Canada
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FEATURES
SECTOR FOCUS: CONTRACTORS’ INSURANCE “Capacity has reduced. Domestic insurers’ appetite has also reduced, which unfortunately means that prices on insurance products have gone up” Gary Hirst, CHES Special Risk As for other COVID-19-driven trends, Ronca says auto is performing well due to a dearth of cars on the roads; however, she’s concerned about the possible use of substandard materials in COVID-era construction projects. The pandemic aside, Hirst has
seen a trend of local planning authorities allowing buildings to have a greater number of stories, while Mastrodonato has noticed small contractors breaking away from larger companies to start up their own operations. When it comes to loss trends, “I haven’t
seen any increase either in loss frequency or severity,” Hirst says. “And I haven’t seen incidents of claims focused on particular types of claims. Forest fires are still a concern – they’re still happening. Weather-related risks have an impact, as well as flooding. But I can’t say that those have shown a particular impact in the last 12 months.” Mastrodonato says Cansure has also had very few losses in this segment. “We have really improved our loss ratios on the equipment side,” she says, “and we haven’t really seen any large liability claims, aside from a few shock losses – but nothing that would show a trend.” Ronca, however, warns that “job-site thefts are a serious trend arising from materials
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shortages, cost-prohibitive supplies and lockdowns [that] are preventing contractors from accessing retail hardware.”
Beyond the pandemic Once COVID-19 is fully in the rearview mirror, the general consensus is that things will only
get better in the construction segment. “I think with the increase in vaccinations, we are going to see an increase for availability of labour,” Hirst says. “I think that has curtailed a lot of labour going into the market, depending on your age group. It depends on whether you can get the vaccination … and
“As long as construction and the economy continue to boom, I don’t foresee any slowdown with contractors, as there will be no shortage of work” Gabriella Mastrodonato, Cansure
that is, I think, now widely available. So, your younger professional – and it is usually the younger professionals who are working in these construction projects – actually working on the construction site, we’re seeing a greater availability of workforce.” Ronca believes the construction sector will have a lot to learn in the post-COVID-19 world, including process improvements, analyzing things like expediting of permits, supply chain preparedness, policy/coverage enhancements and labour incentives. But, Mastrodonato says, “as long as construction and the economy continue to boom, I don’t foresee any slowdown with contractors, as there will be no shortage of work.”
Source: Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, January 2021
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PEOPLE
BROKER INSIGHT
Motorcycle mayhem Ronn Calderon, head of NFP’s motorcycle division, explains how brokers can influence new riders as they realize their two-wheeled dreams
MOTORCYCLE SALES have been booming in Canada over the past two years. According to the Motorcycle and Moped Industry Council, sales across the country were up 41.8% through the end of May, accounting for an increase of 10,895 units compared to the same period last year. The COVID-19 pandemic especially has prompted a host of new riders to hop into the saddle, as many had the spare cash to make their motorcycle dreams come true. While this influx of new riders is great for the motorcycle community, there’s a lot of misinformation out there with regard to the demographic of the modern-day rider, the best type of bike to start on, training courses and insurance rates, according to Ronn Calderon, business development manager at NFP. “I don’t know anybody who has bought a car without a driver’s licence, but people do this with motorcycles all the time,” says Calderon, who has been riding motorcycles for 16 years and has spent the past six years as a motorcycle risk specialist. “They buy the bike, they get the licence, and only then do they think about training and getting insured. It’s completely backwards – and that’s due to the huge amount of misinformation out there for new riders. People are buying bikes completely uninformed, and that’s where the problems start.” Calderon is a huge advocate of motorcycle training and emphasizes that all riders – regardless of experience – can never have enough. But during the pandemic, it became
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difficult for new riders to find training, which led to an increase in people buying bikes and seeking insurance to get on the road without training. Some insurers are willing to allow this, but they charge extremely prohibitive rates in order to do so. “It’s dangerous [enabling] new riders to get on the road with no training,” Calderon says. “There’s a learning curve to being out on a motorcycle in traffic. If [the only prerequisite to getting on the road] is a multiplechoice written test, that’s an accident waiting to happen. Even though we have the ability at NFP to get new riders insured without any training, we won’t do it, because it’s people’s lives that are at risk. There are companies that will say yes, but the premiums are ridiculously high – and for good reason.” As the head of NFP’s motorcycle division, Calderon gets calls on a daily basis from new riders who don’t understand why their motorcycle insurance premiums are so high. Most of them, he says, have not completed a
training course. Others have fallen into the trap of buying the biggest, shiniest, most powerful sport bike possible for their first motorcycle. This, according to Calderon, is like learning to drive in a Formula 1 race car, and it equates to much higher risk than learning on a more appropriate starter bike. “Nobody should be learning to drive in an F1 car – and likewise for motorcycles,” he says. “The manufacturers have started to take note of that. Because of the prohibitive insurance rates on [super] sport bikes, their dealership sales for these bikes have dropped significantly. So, manufacturers have started making motorcycles that still have that sporty look or feel, but they’re actually functional for the real world – the engine’s tuned down a little bit, the ergonomics are more comfortable, and the bikes are more usable. The companies that haven’t switched to that type of model are losing sales.” When it comes to offering advice about motorcycles, Calderon treats all customers
THE MOST COMMON MOTORCYCLE CLAIMS Three to five years ago, the most frequent and severe claims involving motorcycles were bodily injury claims. “That’s why the protective gear is so important,” Ronn Calderon says. “It costs more to replace somebody’s hip than it does a $40,000 Harley Davidson, so the person is always still the most expensive part, and those are the biggest claims.” However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Calderon has seen an increase in bike thefts, especially from condo parking lots. “But again, we’re talking about replacing a $5,000 or $10,000 bike, versus what could be a $50,000 bodily injury claim with extensive rehabilitation needs and so on. Bodily injury is always the bigger part of the coverage on a bike, no matter how expensive the bike is.”
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FAST FACTS: RONN CALDERON
CURRENT ROLE Business development manager and head of the motorcycle division at NFP
PREVIOUS ROLE Account executive at Dalton Timmis Insurance Group, which was acquired by NFP in 2017
YEARS RIDING MOTORCYCLES 16
YEARS SPECIALIZING IN MOTORCYCLE RISK 6
“I don’t know anybody who has bought a car without a driver’s licence, but people do this with motorcycles all the time” as if they’re friends and fellow riders, and his focus is always on education, training and rider safety. “Typically, the best advice we can give people is to start small,” he says. “Smaller is always cheaper, smaller is better to learn on, riders progress quicker, small bikes are easier to manage, and then you can start to
move up to something bigger and maybe more powerful as you gain more experience. Rather than making a quick sale, we really focus on getting new riders informed about how all this works, and we want to ensure they have the right training and equipment to get out on the road safely. That is always our number-one priority.”
STREET BIKES OWNED Ducati Monster, Triumph Street Triple, Buell, BMW S1000R
TRACK DAY BIKE Suzuki GSXR600
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FEATURES
PRODUCTIVITY
Ditch your to-do list Feeling buried under a to-do list that will never be done? You’re not alone. Aytekin Tank explains why you’re better off without it THERE’S A horror story out there. Man is feeling overwhelmed, begins compiling a to-do list. Three bullets turn into 10. Ten bullets turn into 20. Moments later, he finds himself in hand-to-hand combat with a to-do
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list so long and so vast it resembles the spiralling tentacles of a giant squid. He loads himself up with enough caffeine to fuel an entire city and begins his slow, tedious descent to the bottom, crossing each
line off the to-do list one at a time. Shortly into his battle, he makes a terrifying realization: The to-do list is like a regenerating monster right out of a terror flick – for each line he crosses off, another three lines appear at the bottom. He screams. He jumps out of his office window. Thankfully, he is on the first floor, so he essentially just steps into a large shrub, scaring a small family of opossums. As he begins to sob hysterically, he hears the unravelling of the wretched to-do list drawing ever closer. He turns, it envelops him, then pulls him back into the deep, dark depths of his office. He is consumed by a monster of his own creation.
Race to the bottom Nearly all of us have fallen victim to the endless to-do list at least once in our lives.
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After all, the go-to piece of advice we’ve been given since grade school when we’re feeling overwhelmed is to “make a list and start crossing things off.” While it sounds lovely in theory, once we set off on our to-do writing journey, we quickly discover a major problem. In our race to the bottom of the list, we realize there is no bottom. This fascinating phenomenon, along with a handful of others, is what makes to-do lists so incredibly unproductive. Let me explain. We are terrible at estimating how long tasks take. Elon Musk is arguably one of the most brilliant minds alive today, yet even he has an issue with underestimating how long a task may take. Time and time again, he has
With to-do lists, what happens is that we optimistically assume most of the day’s tasks will take less time than they’ll actually take. And, in our caffeine-fuelled to-do-list scribbling, we load up the day with lengthy tasks we think we can get done in a few minutes. This, of course, causes the to-do list to roll into tomorrow … which brings me to my next point: When was the last time you actually crossed everything off your to-do list? In addition to horrible time estimation, the reason to-do lists roll into the next day is they place us into a mindset where everything must go on the list, regardless of the level of impact it has on our day – or how much value it adds. In many ways, to-do lists cause us to be
To-do lists place us into a mindset where everything must go on the list, regardless of the level of impact it has on our day – or how much value it adds set a date for the release of a new model or a production number. And time and time again, he has missed the deadline. In an interview with The Washington Post, Musk said, “I think I do have, like, an issue with time … I’m a naturally optimistic person. I wouldn’t have cars or rockets if I wasn’t. I’m trying to recalibrate as much as possible.” If you ask his brother, Kimbal, this complicated relationship with time has been present since childhood. When they were children, Kimbal Musk (who currently sits on Tesla’s board) would actually lie to his older brother about the time the school bus would arrive, knowing that Elon would show up late. Elon Musk isn’t the only adult alive today who grew up missing the bus and still suffers from lingering time estimation problems. A recent study found that only 17% of the population can accurately estimate the time something will take.
overly proactive in our thinking. Which, in turn, causes us to put a greater emphasis on tasks that, in the broader scheme of things, aren’t that important. In addition, they also hinder us from feeling a sense of completion with our day and our work. Nobody who trudges home with a half-completed to-do list feels like they owned the day. Instead, they feel like the day owned them. To-do lists also allow us to avoid the most important tasks of the day – they aren’t unlike email in that way. Take a look at the to-do list I put together below as an example. Let’s pretend it belongs to a sales professional who works for a technology startup. • Get email inbox to zero • Catch up on Slack messages • Follow up with Paul about lunch tomorrow • Stop by the grocery
• Meet with the marketing team for a brainstorming session • Make 50 cold calls to potential leads • Do a couple loads of laundry • Clean the house Now, it doesn’t take a productivity guru to recognize the most important task on the list above is to “make 50 cold calls to potential leads.” Sure, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, grabbing groceries, following up with Paul and managing your email inbox might be nice, but they aren’t going to create the most impact for the day. If you’re a sales professional (where you get paid to make sales), you better make sure you’re knocking out your 50 cold calls for the day. Many times people use to-do lists to avoid doing the things they don’t want to do. Which is unfortunate, considering that the things we don’t want to do tend to be the things we actually need to be doing.
To-do lists’ better-looking brother Scheduling works differently for everyone. If to-do lists work well for you, keep making them. However, I would like to offer an alternative. I call it the ‘hunter’ strategy. Long ago, before we had a fridge full of food within arm’s reach at all hours of the day, people survived by hunting. If the hunter made a successful hunt that day, his family would eat. If not, they wouldn’t. It was that simple. He didn’t have time to check email, attend time-sucking meetings or send follow-up emails. And he certainly didn’t have time to make to-do lists. No, he had to wake up every single day with one goal in mind: to make a successful hunt. When it comes to scheduling, this is a great mindset to have. Instead of writing down dozens of tasks that you need to get done each day, choose one that must get done and will deliver the most impact. In Gary Keller’s best-selling book, The One Thing, he argues that “long hours spent checking off a to-do list and ending the day
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FEATURES
PRODUCTIVITY
Instead of writing down dozens of tasks that you need to get done each day, choose one that must get done and will deliver the most impact with a full trash can and a clean desk are not virtuous and have nothing to do with success. Instead of a to-do list, you need a success list – a list that is purposefully created around extraordinary results.” While this concept might seem a bit abstract, executing it is simple. You begin by thinking about the one thing you can accomplish today that would have the most impact. If you’re having trouble thinking of something, I’ll give you a hint – it’s usually the
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thing you least want to do. Once you’ve thought about this thing, I recommend buying a fat stack of sticky notes and keeping them in your desk. When you walk into your office, pull one of those sticky notes out and write down the one big high-impact goal you would like to achieve for the day. Put the sticky note somewhere on your laptop and start working. Anytime you feel your mind start to wander or the urge to mindlessly check email
well up inside of you, stop. Look at your sticky note. Then refocus on the day’s hunt. You can always go back to executing other low-priority or operational tasks once you’re done with the day’s hunt. Practice this strategy for a few weeks with the goal to cross off the one thing on your sticky note each and every day. Once those few weeks are up, stop and reflect. Do you feel more fulfilled? Do you feel like you’re making more of an impact? If the answer is yes, keep on hunting. Aytekin Tank is founder and CEO of JotForm, an online form creation software with millions users worldwide. A developer by trade but writer by heart, Tank shares stories about how he exponentially grew his company without receiving any outside funding. For more information, visit jotform.com.
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FEATURES
CULTURE
The negative impact of an urgent culture Over the years, people have become busier and everything more urgent – but there can be a heavy cost for both you and your team, writes Dermot Crowley
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UNPRODUCTIVE URGENCY, and the resultant reactivity it creates, has become an acute and chronic issue in many modern organizations. We all seem to be moving at a million miles an hour, running from meeting to meeting and dealing with email after email. When did everything get so busy and become so urgent? Urgency is a reality in our workplaces, but it’s important that we don’t become victims of it. We need to take control and learn to manage it. If we don’t, we will pay a high cost when it comes to our productivity. You might see urgency as just part of the territory of working in a fast-paced, customer-
But unlike in manufacturing, knowledge workplaces might not see the wastage, downtime and rework that is created because of unnecessary urgency. Too much reactivity can lead to avoidable mistakes due to wasting time and resources on redoing work.
An increase in stress levels In a 2018 white paper on workplace anxiety, Bonnie Hayden Cheng and Julie McCarthy cite research indicating that 40% of Americans feel anxious during their workday, and 72% of these people say they believe this anxiety affects their work and personal lives. Of course, there are many factors that
While organizations may be able to operate through periods of high reactivity in short bursts, if working in the reactive zone becomes a long-term part of the culture, then burnout and attrition will surely follow driven organization. You might not realize the cost of unproductive urgency to you and your team. So let’s explore the cost of urgency to ourselves and our businesses.
Avoidable rework Rework is a hidden but very real cost to businesses. In manufacturing organizations, a lot of effort goes into reducing wastage and rework in the manufacturing process. If a part is not manufactured correctly the first time, there is a very measurable cost to the bottom line for that product. So factories will have systems and processes in place to reduce the error rate. In fact, this is one of the key stats that is measured daily. The efficiency of the manufacturing process is measured constantly to maximize productivity and profitability.
might contribute to workplace anxiety, including cranky bosses, unhelpful colleagues and unrealistic workloads. But urgency is definitely a major part of the picture. Increased anxiety is bound to affect performance and well-being. We don’t think as clearly when we are anxious, we don’t feel as motivated, and sometimes we just opt out because of it.
A drop in quality of work Whether we are reacting blindly to incoming urgency or leaving things until the last minute ourselves, the quality of our work suffers. We make mistakes because we rush things. We compromise the finished product because we run out of time. And in the knowledge workplace, we lose the time to stop and think.
A KPMG Global CEO survey found that 86% of global leaders have struggled to find time to think about two of the most critical drivers in their businesses: disruption and innovation. When you consider the role a leader plays in steering the organization in the right direction and navigating the challenges of a complex and volatile environment, not having enough time to think is very problematic.
Burnout and attrition This is the big one for me. If urgency becomes the norm in a team or organization, it becomes part of the culture. While organizations may be able to operate through periods of high reactivity in short bursts, if working in the reactive zone becomes a longterm part of the culture, then burnout and attrition will surely follow. People might not be able to name it as a reason, but they will have feelings that have built up over time – feelings of increased stress, agitation and frustration. They might not mention chronic urgency as an issue, but they may say that they can no longer cope with the hectic pace. They may suggest that they would prefer a role that gives them more control over their work. I believe that most people want to do meaningful work that makes a difference. But working in a reactive culture can feel like constantly walking into a headwind. It is hard work. I believe we need to take the issue of unproductive urgency seriously and put measures in place to minimize it as much as possible. We will never totally eradicate urgency – nor should we – but we can learn to use it in a more mindful and purposeful way. Dermot Crowley is a productivity thought leader, the director of Adapt Productivity and the author of Urgent!: Smart Work and Smart Teams.
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PEOPLE
OTHER LIFE
TELL US ABOUT YOUR OTHER LIFE Email insurancebusiness@kmimedia.ca
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Mouait with his martial arts hero, Da n Inosa nto, one of Bruce Lee’s teachers a nd conte mporaries
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ALWAYS LEARNING In the world of martial arts, insurance broker Karim Mouait is both a student and a teacher A PRACTITIONER of several martial arts disciplines, with a blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and a black belt in the Filipino martial art of arnis, Karim Mouait has keenly honed his mind, body and spirit. Outside of his work as vice-president of Edmonton-based Cornerstone Insurance Brokers, Mouait is also a martial arts instructor, teaching private classes for up
to two students. “I have received great mentorship in insurance and in martial arts, and I strive to pay it forward,” he says. “If I can add value to someone’s journey in life, I am happy with that.” Mouait was introduced to martial arts by his father, who practiced judo. From his training, which also included taekwondo,
muay Thai and grappling, Mouait says he’s learned empathy, patience and humility. “Whether in business or in martial arts, everyone processes and unpacks information differently – you have to convey and tailor communication to the individual based on their abilities,” he says. “I think a black belt just means you know the basics well. I am a lifelong student.” Photo credit: Sean Stewart Photography
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1 (855) 482-5001 50 West Wilmot St #6 Richmond Hill, ON L4B 1M5 myinsurancebroker.com
CENTRALIZED SERVICES
12 STANDARD LINES INSURANCE CONTRACTS
MIB believes that brokers should be responsible for two things, delivering the best value to Canadian for their insurance needs, and being there when they need you most. That’s why our team of dedicated processors and admin staff handling everything from billing support, policy changes, and commission reconciliation for your entire team.
MIB presently represents 12 of the largest and most competitive markets when it comes to finding insurance solutions for your customers. With partnership and facilities through select markets, and facilities in our call-center to help support all your group customer needs, we’ve got your Personal Lines needs covered.
COMMERCIAL SUPPORT FOR MARKETING NEW & PROSPECTIVE CUSTOMERS
DEDICATED BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
We also provide the same facilities for your commercial clients including an Open Market Correspondence (OMC) license for all those hard-to-place commercial risks direct into the Lloyd’s of London marketplace floor. With marketing experts on staff to help assist on your commercial training and development, let us help grow your business.
Our executive team values each relationship we onboard. Today we help over 100+ broker provide for their clients and families alike. As a family oriented facility, we understand that needs are dynamic and ever changing. As such, we have a dedicated representative working on your side to ensure that your agency is working for you. After all, without you, there can be no MIB. Contact us to see how we can help find solutions for some of your current challenges.
Rishi Jaitley VP of Sales (647) 996 - 8691
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It’s cruising a wide open road easy Once you start working with us, the journey is easy. Value your client’s classic and collector vehicles online with Hagerty Valuation Tools, enjoy no production quotas and our online quoting tool is simple. Your car-loving clients will appreciate getting coverage tailored to fit their specialized needs. It’s never been easier to give your clients great coverage.
888-338-7972 | hagertybroker.ca
Policies are underwritten by Elite Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Aviva Canada Inc. Some coverage not available in all provinces. This is a general description of coverage. All coverage subject to policy provisions, exclusions, and endorsements. All third party makes, models, and vehicle names are property of their respective owners. Their use is meant to reflect the authenticity of the vehicle and do not imply sponsorship nor endorsement of Hagerty nor any of these products or services. Hagerty determines final risk acceptance. Hagerty, Hagerty Valuation Tools & Hagerty Drivers Club are registered trademarks of the Hagerty Group LLC, ©2021 The Hagerty Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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