Insurance News, Then and Now

We’re not quite 150 years old yet, but within the thousands of pages of Canadian Insurance Top Broker lies 112 years of news coverage that tells the incredible story of Canada’s insurance industry…

	1905 Office & Field first published. In the same year, the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta were created, opening Western Canada to settlement and agriculture; and 146,266 immigrants arrived at Canada’s inland and ocean ports.
	1913 Office & Field magazine becomes Canadian Insurance (CI) magazine
	Feb. 1931 Canadian Insurance rounds up fire losses in Canada for the period between December 1930 and January 1931: the 26 fires across the country amounted to about $689,400 in losses.
	March 1931 A spread with motor accident images and subsequent insurance claims warns readers about the dangers of not having auto insurance…
	1932 “Licences of 4,351 Motorists Suspended in 16 Months” is the main headline in the Casualty Insurance section, highlighting the effect of the newly implemented Ontario Financial Responsibility Law.
	1947 We offer some fundamental selling advice to brokers in the form of Sell-agrams. Our favourite: “One emotional appeal is worth a dozen cold facts.”
	1950 “Successful Life Underwriter Describes Changing Status [of women], Suggests special approach when selling to the Ladies.”
	1952 The Insurance Institute of Canada is born
	1954 Hurricane Hazel marks Ontario’s worst natural disaster up to that time, claiming about 100 lives and losses of up to $100 millions of property damage.
	1959 An increase in the employment of married women, and inflation are the main topics of an Editorial comment.
	1960 “Protection against an atomic bomb attack on the Toronto area is being offered by Record Security and Reproduction of Rexdale, Ontario.” In other news, the Travelers Insurance company pays out a $907 claim for medical expenses after a client got thrown off a mechanical horse in Newark.
	1974 “Specialization: a key to profit and survival,” makes headlines. “In this age of conglomerates and multiple-enterprises, it is often the ‘specialty’ company or agency which makes the profit,” reads the article.
	1989 – 1994 Brokers struggle with automation. Also making headlines: “Reaching out to the next generation: if the industry is to recruit its share of promising young people from a shrinking labour pool, it will have to overcome their perception of it as ‘dull, boring, and ethically suspect’.”
	2002 Insurance Bureau of Canada’s chief economist Paul Kovacs tells Canadian Insurance Congress delegates he expects 2002 to be the second worst year on record, following 2001’s poor returns.
	2010 CI becomes Canadian Insurance Top Broker (CITB)
	2013 Insured losses from weather events in Canada break records. CITB announces its first Top 10 Under 40 candidates.
	2016 In the aftermath of the Fort McMurray wildfires, we recounted the flood and storm losses that were devastating the globe.
	2017 Cyber, InsurTech, disruptors, directs and talent become some of the top emerging issues affecting the industry today.

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Copyright © 2017 Transcontinental Media G.P. This article first appeared in the June/July 2017 edition of Canadian Insurance Top Broker magazine

This story was originally published by Canadian Insurance Top Broker.