Message From the President

It has been a busy start of 2012 for the CIAA executive as well as myself. Pat Battle has kept us on course leading up to our mid-year meetings held in Toronto, the first week of February. The week began with a meeting of the CIAA National Insurance Industry Advisory Board. This high profile board made up of senior claims officers from national insurers, along with executive members of CIAA, discuss national issues of importance that have a bearing on our organization.

Carol Jardine, senior vice president claims services, TD Insurance, provided an informative presentation on insurance fraud. With losses estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually, fraud continues to become more organized and sophisticated. A coordinated approach in detection, prevention, deterrence and reduction is critical and we can learn from models developed in the US and UK to assist in building a solution in Canada.

Also joining us by video link were two members of the Canadian Insurance Services Regulatory Organizations (CISRO) to discuss the temporary licensing of adjusters within jurisdictions impacted by catastrophe claims. CIAA is the lead proponent within the industry to promote the use of a standard adjuster licensing process across all jurisdictions in Canada. Our efforts continue and we are meeting with CISRO at their June meeting to further promote the seamless mobility of adjusters in the event of catastrophe losses.

Our mid-year meeting was well attended by members from coast to coast to coast. Our constitution was changed to allow retired members access to membership as well as to students studying in the field of insurance. Hopefully this will impact on our membership by retaining seasoned retired members as well as generating some interest by students to our organization.

The Ontario CICMA/CIAA Annual Joint Conference was sold out and quite informative in the area of accident benefits which is the hot topic in Ontario right now. This is an event not to be missed given the large number of claims managers in attendance that have involvement with claims across Canada. I strongly urge members to consider CIAA’s mid-year meeting and the Ontario Joint Conference every year as events not to be missed. The opportunity to meet with such a dynamic group of claims managers is certainly of value to most independent adjusting firms in Canada.

Executive members of CIAA, CICMA and Canadian Defence Lawyers (CDL) discussed methods where education can be shared between our organizations. David Porter of Granite Claims Solutions is our point man liaising with CDL and CICMA and in the next few months joint educational seminars will be offered to members across Canada.

A strong core group of individuals have agreed to participate on our education committee under the guidance of Santo Carbone from Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc. Courses and examinations are currently being reviewed in preparation of our new CLA designation, which should be rolled out, hopefully, by the end of this year. We are always looking for volunteers in this endeavour and if you would be interested in assisting, please give Santo a call at Crawford’s Toronto office.

Finally, we had a presentation by our new broker, LMS ProLink Ltd., for the professional liability coverage program sponsored by CIAA. We determined their quote for professional liability coverage for independent adjusters is significantly lower than what was available to us previously. Also, the coverage is enhanced. I strongly recommend all members that are not on the program to contact Chris Fay at 416-644-7744 to discuss a quotation on your professional liability insurance. Existing members on the program will be receiving renewal notices in the normal course of the year. For those non-member firms who are considering membership in CIAA, you could be pleasantly surprised to find out savings on professional liability premiums more than offsets the cost of membership in CIAA.

Remember to be safe out there and take care of your health. Enjoy the spring, which is a great time of year right across Canada.