Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is urging Ontario MPPs to vote down an NDP private member’s bill that would ban the use of territory as a rating factor in auto insurance. Any reduction in premiums for constituents in some areas…
U.S. corporations are increasingly being held liable for crashes involving employees using their cellphones while driving, signalling the need for companies to ban cellphone use while behind the wheel, a recent National Safety Council (NSC) study says. Appendix B of…
Frequently formed to ensure sufficient capital during hard insurance markets, captive insurance companies can also be used creatively to facilitate business opportunities, noted Paula Gentile of MGM Resorts International. Gentile, senior vice president of risk management and general counsel for…
How do you establish and operate a multi-year government captive insurance program within the context of a government’s annual budget appropriation cycle? This was the biggest challenge in establishing the British Columbia government’s risk-pooling programs through a captive, said Phil…
Dog bites in the three Canadian provinces in which State Farm operates chewed up slightly more than $1 million in claims costs last year. In 2011, State Farm paid out $917,670 for 25 claims in Ontario, $99,800 for the two…
A Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) arbitrator has ruled a 17-year-old driver who suffered serious injuries in an accident should receive non-earner benefits even though it is alleged he was driving a car without the owner’s consent. The main…
In the wake of a crash in 2010 that killed three cyclists training for a triathlon, Quebec’s coroner is calling on Transport Canada to require manufacturers to equip vehicles with a system for detecting drowsiness and loss of driver alertness.…
A plaintiff does not need to have damages quantified by settlement or judgment before proceeding with an action against his own insurer under the inadequately insured motorist provision of an auto insurance policy, the Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled.…
There would be no need for Ontario to maintain a separate and duplicative solvency regime for the few such companies that remain in the province under a Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) proposal. FSCO’s consultation paper, Improving Solvency Supervision…
B.C. condo unit owners have yet to take a run at challenging the fairness of deductible downloading bylaws of strata corporations, although case law seems aligned for such an opportunity. Krista Prockiw of Alexander Holburn Beaudin & Lang LLP mentioned…
A summary of submissions to the federal government on demutualization shows some important differences in viewpoints on how mutual property and casualty insurers should be allowed to become share companies. The Department of Finance received more than 80 submissions from…
Here’s a quick math question for strata insurance experts: If there is a $50,000 policy deductible for each “occurrence” of illegal drug activity losses, and 29 out of 90 condo units in a single building are damaged because of marijuana…