For the vast majority of the existence of Canada’s property and casualty insurance industry, overland flood was deemed to be uninsurable for Canadian homeowners. While commercial entities have been able to purchase flood insurance for decades, it was only eight…
Read more →To the lay person, it only stands to reason that a business interruption policy would respond to what for many enterprises isn’t merely an interruption in their business, it is quite possibly a death knell. This is certainly the sentiment…
Read more →Someone once asked Ernest Hemingway how he went bankrupt and he responded, “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” This short piece is intended to provide you with strategies to protect your brokerage and position yourself for the recovery that will follow…
Read more →We have written this piece to share our observations on issues that have an impact on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the Canadian Property and Casualty (P&C) Insurance Industry. These observations are based on divestiture processes we have been…
Read more →Let me start by saying that some of the best managed and most profitable brokerages in Canada are employee-owned. We believe that every succession planning process should, at the very least, consider this option. When talking about management buy-ins, a…
Read more →When it comes to Property and Casualty (P&C) brokerage consolidation activity, I think most industry participants would say that it has primarily been driven by underwriters. Their low cost of capital and desire to protect premium revenue has led to…
Read more →While we are always monitoring changes to financial issues related to the P&C insurance industry, we have long stopped trying to predict the future, especially in terms of the valuation of brokerages. Having said that, we are in the unique position to…
Read more →Over the years, we have written several pieces about the state of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the Property and Casualty (P&C) industry and think it is safe to say the market has been, and will continue to be, robust in the foreseeable…
Read more →In a recent online article, Canadian Underwriter magazine asked the question, Is the sun setting on auto insurance in Canada? In my view, it may be late afternoon for the automobile insurance market, but I think it will be a…
Read more →The market for property and casualty (P&C) brokerages continues to be intense. Books of business are attracting prices from 3.5x to 5.0x commissions – and even more for online business. So, are conditions right to start seeing more management buy-outs?…
Read more →The Fort McMurray wildfire will end up costing government (read: taxpayers) and insurers considerably more than the flooding in southern Alberta in 2013. However, it appears to be the flood that is having – and will continue to have –…
Read more →The changes to the Ontario Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule introduced on June 1st, 2016, were complicated enough. Now, to make matters worse, there are mixed messages coming from the industry as to when policyholders are affected by these changes. For…
Read more →As the marketplace becomes ever more digital, it becomes increasingly easy for consumers to engage in comparison-shopping. This is true for a wide range of products and services. It is certainly true when it comes to many types of insurance.…
Read more →Recently, I read a post from CB Insights suggesting that Managing General Agents (MGAs) may become significant players in the digital insurance world. After cleaning my glasses to make sure I was reading correctly, I reflected a bit, and I…
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