Recently added articles from Canadian Underwriter:
Canadian Market
Jul 01, 2008; Anonymous ... IBC RECOMMENDS 36.9% INCREASE FOR AUTO PREMIUM GRID RATES IN ALBERTA The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is recommending a 36.9% rate increase for auto insurance in Alberta, to be applied only to the province's grid rates. The suggested rate hike is to compensate for the court's ...
Call for Help
Jul 01, 2008; Gambrill, David ... Call centres allow insurers and brokers to sell their products more efficiently and economically, but serious issues relate to the quality and consistency of their service. Responding to the ubiquitous consumer expectation that financial services must be available to consumers 24/7, the ...
Regulation
Jul 01, 2008; Anonymous ... INSURERS' USE OF PRIVATE INVESTIGATORS PROMPTS COMPLAINTS TO PRIVACY COMMISSIONER Complaints against the insurance industry filed with the federal privacy commissioner increasingly involve the covert collection of personal information by private investigation firms, the commissioner said ...
Shaking Up the Status Quo
Jul 01, 2008; Mariga, Vanessa ... As Reno Daigle prepares to take the reins of the CIAA, he stresses the importance of continuing education and training to adapt to the everchanging demands of the profession. You can take the man out of the Maritimes, but you can't take the Maritimes out of the man. When Reno Daigle ...
Canada's Black Swans
Jul 01, 2008; Fredette, André ... A 'black swan' is an unpredictable event with a massive impact. Will guaranteed replacement cost (GRC) prove to be such a creature in Canada? While reading the April 2008 issue of Reinsurance recently, I came across a brief article by the editor, Mark Geoghegan, on a book by Nassim ...
Singing the Blues
Jul 01, 2008; Smith, G S (Steve) ... The reinsurance industry needs to carefully consider emerging pricing disparities, as loss severity trends continue to escalate The words of the Moody Blues album of the same name resonates loudly as the soft market continues in Canada, almost obscuring a very concerning trend shift in ...
Insurance-Linked Securities: Here to Stay?
Jul 01, 2008; Blumberg, Francis ... The use of insurance-linked securities is a hot topic in both the United States and Europe, but it has received less attention in Canada, in part because of a lack of clarity in regulatory guidance for ILS in Canada The convergence of the capital markets and reinsurance is currently a ...
How to Survive The Soft Market
Jul 01, 2008; Spensieri, Matthew ... Reinsurers need to price their product with volatility uppermost in their minds It may not be immediately obvious, but competition is alive and well - and quite prevalent - in the Canadian insurance market. One need only look at the size of the market and the sheer number of insurers ...
Not in Kansas Anymore...
Jul 01, 2008; Niedzielski, Joe ... Bigger, stronger and costlier tornadoes have emerged as a new reality facing the Canadian insurance industry Property and casualty insurers in Canada and the United States posted solid profitability and underwriting results in the past two years despite recurring losses from severe ...
Defying Gravity
Jul 01, 2008; Gambrill, David ... One distinguishing aspect of the current insurance market cyle is that reinsurers are attempting to defy the common gravitational pull in a soft market towards lowering premium rates. Reinsurers have thus observed an widening gap between their own rates and those of primary insurers. It ...
Nuclear Insurance Proliferation
Jul 01, 2008; DeMerchant, Colleen ... A nuclear insurance pool has existed in Canada since the mid-1950s. Although the pool is well-capitalized, an optimum spread of risk calls for more insurers to participate Nuclear insurance pools have existed since the mid-1950s as part of the insurance fabric of most jurisdictions that ...
Pulling the Parametric Trigger
Jul 01, 2008; Stroughair, John; Brookes, Ben ... The use of parametric indices in catastrophe bonds could address the fundamental tension between transparency in the bond structure and the hedging of basis risks Last year was another record-breaker for catastrophe bond issuance, with more than US$7 billion in 27 publicly disclosed ...
Updated Weather Forecasting
Jul 01, 2008; Mariga, Vanessa ... Enhancements to tornado, hail and earthquake models are on the horizon, but whether or not Canada will ever have an overland flood model remains to be seen When it comes to natural catastrophes, especially weather-related events, history will not only repeat itself, researchers warn, but ...
Correcting the Record
Jul 01, 2008; Boutilier, Donna ... Re: Canadian Underwriter, May 2008, "Need for Speed" I am writing to address information reported in the May 2008 cover story, "Need for Speed" with respect to the Nova Scotia Insurance Review Board (NSIRB). In particular, the article reported that due to slow turnaround times, "an ...
Contamination Revealed
Jul 01, 2008; MacPhee, Nadia M ... As claims for environmental contamination increase, insurers would do well to mitigate their exposure to litigation by paying close attention to reporting requirements Plaintiffs are increasingly seeking damages for injuries to land arising from contamination. Environmental litigation is ...
MOVES & VIEWS
Jul 01, 2008; Anonymous ... UPCOMING EVENTS: FOR A COMPLETE LIST VISIT www.canadianunderwriter.ca AND CLICK 'MY EVENTS CALENDAR" ON THE HOME PAGE 1 In the most recent Canadian Underwriter online poll we asked: "Have insurance companies managed the market cycle well over the past 12 months?" Only 29.41% are ...
CLARIFICATION
Jul 01, 2008; Anonymous ... In the May 2008 issue (Page 70), we reported Allstate Insurance Company of Canada had expanded its presence in Eastern Canada. The company has in fact restructured and rebranded its existing ...