INSURANCE INDUSTRY NEWS

Growing Demand For Insurance Protection, Positive Outlook For Premiums
Swiss Re expects insurance market premium growth to continue, driven by increased exposures, risk awareness and evolving client needs. According to Swiss Re Institute, non-life insurance premiums are expected to be 10% higher than the pre-Covid level by the end of 2021. Heightened risk trends will increase the need for insurance protection, but also require a greater focus on evaluating and modelling, and ensuring pricing is adequate for the risks taken. Read more.

World InsurTech Report 2021 Released
Capgemini and Efma's newly published World InsurTech Report 2021 reveals that InsurTechs and BigTech players are leveraging significant capital inflows to boost technological development and fuel innovation, turning up the heat on incumbent insurers. New age digital players are offering greater personalization and emphasis on customer experience, thus achieving maturity and customer adoption. In response, incumbents are attempting to strengthen their tech capabilities by partnering with or acquiring InsurTechs and shifting from “doing digital” to “being digital.”
Read more.

Coalition Offers Instant Quoting With Relay Platform
Relay Platform is pleased to welcome Coalition to their lengthy suite of carriers, MGA-MGUs and reinsurers offering instant quotes through the platform. The integration with Relay Platform offers brokers instant quotes, augmented communication and seamless access to Coalition, the largest tech-enabled Cyber Managing General Agent. Read more.

First Notice of Loss Integration Is A Success
Accident Support Services International and Gore Mutual Insurance Company are pleased to announce they have successfully gone live with FNOL Integration
Read more.

How Life & Health Insurers Supported Canadians Through Pandemic
Canadians received more than CAD 97 billion in benefits from life and health insurance products in 2020, a period that included the first nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic economic slowdown. Read more.

Carriers Prioritizing Data & Analytics Technologies To Inform Pricing Decisions
In a new report commissioned by Equisoft, global research firm Celent presents the findings of an executive study aiming to understand how North American insurers are actually creating value from their data, and how they are improving their abilities to expose and use their data for more than administrative purposes, while overcoming the key risks to realizing that value.​ Read more.

Surety: Trends, Opportunities & Challenges
Insurers are increasingly competing for surety business based on the expectations agents and principals have for customer experience. In a new executive brief, Aite-Novarica Group examines surety trends and use cases. Read more.

Independent Study Touts Quadient Accounts Receivable Automation Solution
Quadient, a leader in helping businesses create meaningful customer connections through digital and physical channels, is pleased to announce that it has published a study conducted by Forrester Consulting showing that YayPay by Quadient, an accounts receivable management and automation solution, can help improve the customer experience and reduce lost revenue. Read more.

Gallagher Re Unveils Holistic Next-Generation Reinsurance Analytics Platform
Gallagher Re, the global reinsurance broker, has unveiled Gallagher Automated Insurance Analytics (GAIA), a proprietary and ground-breaking, single, scalable, automated analytics platform. GAIA will provide multiple benefits for clients and markets through the creation of a single integrated platform that houses all analytics capabilities in one place, free of the constraints of legacy systems. Read more.

How Life & Health Insurers Supported Canadians Through The Pandemic
Canadians received billions in benefits from life and health insurance products in 2020, a period that included the first nine months of the COVID-19 pandemic economic slowdown. Read more.

A Personalized Financial Plan For Every Client
Sun Life Canada has tapped Conquest Planning Inc. to provide its best-in-class, digital financial planning tool to empower Clients to live their best life supported by a personalized financial plan. Sun Life is the first Canadian organization to introduce the digital tool across all its wealth and insurance service platforms. Read more.

Westland Acquires Tredd Insurance Brokers
Westland Insurance Group Ltd., Canada's largest independent Canadian-owned brokerage, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Tredd Insurance Brokers in Toronto, ON, and Calgary, AB. Read more.

CBN Announces Underwriters Of The Year
Canadian Broker Network, Canada's leading network of independent insurance brokers, is pleased to announce its 2021 Underwriters of the Year. Read more.

Sun Life Appoints First Chief Sustainability Officer
Sun Life Financial Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Alanna Boyd as Senior Vice-President and Chief Sustainability Officer. This newly created role, solely focusing on sustainability, is a first for Sun Life and reports to President and CEO Kevin Strain. Read more.

Chisel AI Appoints New President & CEO
Chisel AI, a technology provider for the global insurance industry, is pleased to announce the appointment of Jason McDermott to President and CEO; he will also be joining the board of directors, effective immediately. As CEO, Jason will oversee all company operations.
Read more.

Join XRM Vision for a FREE virtual conference this afternoon (Tuesday, Sept. 21) at 1:30pm, with special guest Christine Wyatt, Director of Group Digital Channel at Empire Life.

Explore the different levels of technology adoption among group insurance brokers and learn everything you need to know about the impact of technology on Group Insurance in 30 minutes. Register now.

In the InsurTech Spotlight this week:

Chisel AI
Chisel's purpose-built AI solution for commercial insurance reads unstructured data 400 times faster than a human, with greater accuracy. Our advanced AI platform and intelligent workflows automate high-volume, mundane processes such as policy-checking, quote comparison, submission triage and submission prioritization. By digitally transforming routine activities, commercial insurance carriers and brokers can double their business and deliver a better customer experience without adding staff.
Learn more.

Calling all InsurTechs! Click here to participate.

Featured job opportunities:

Financial Security Advisor
RBC
Laval, QC

Financial Services Specialist
Desjardins/State Farm
Toronto, ON

From Doug A decade ago, when my father-in-law was ill, we were disappointed that the medical clinic had no email, but flabbergasted that there was no telephone voicemail either. Customer service? The Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN), launched in 2006 following a 1998 Ontario pilot offering clinical services remotely within the medical community, now uses two-way videoconferencing to connect most medical facilities in the Province. OTN subsequently introduced Telehealth Ontario for public telephone access to non-clinical medical advice. Amid the tech revolution, innovation has brought numerous digital medical services to Ontario and across Canada. COVID-19 has accelerated the health care transformation. McKinsey recently noted that Telehealth usage spiked 78 times higher in April 2020 over February 2020, but has since stabilized at around 38 times pre-pandemic levels. A range of telehealth platforms are capitalizing on the new normal. Where the insurance and health care system intersect – claims, underwriting, etc. – the improvements in customer service, timelines, quality of care, and more will be beneficial. Doug Grant, CIP Partner Insurance-Canada.ca