Risk Ready

RIMS Canada Conference
Toronto

The RIMS Canada Conference, held September 24 to 27 in downtown Toronto, tackled both risk issues of the day and of the future. Attendees were provided with insights on topics ranging from autonomous vehicles to drone services, fraud investigations and evolving ransomware attacks.

Shifting liability and “the period of intersection” between conventional vehicles and fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) are likely among the challenges risk managers will face in the future, speakers said during one session.

When there is a “period of intersection” between conventional and fully AVs, “the legal system is going to have to respond,” Mario Fiorino, director of legal and senior counsel for Insurance Bureau of Canada, said during Managing Risk in a Connected Community: Technology, Innovation and Insurance.

“There is going to have to be an approach that recognizes that product liability principles [that are] left on their own and are common law will not be able to sort these issues out,” Fiorino explained to attendees.

Issues that are likely to arise include “public road liability” related to communication between infrastructure and vehicles, and the principle of joint several liability, he pointed out.

Insurance company experts addressing RIMS Canada included Eric Schillup, a senior risk consultant with Zurich Canada. He was on speaker on the RIMS panel Commercial Drones: Strategies to Reduce Their Risks.

“I think third-party companies who provide services utilizing drones will be more common than having individuals at a company utilizing a drone,” Schillup said in advance of the RIMS Canada Conference.

Given the current regulatory environment, demands and restrictions related to drones, there are companies now specializing in drone operations, Schillup added.

RIMS also featured a CEO Plenary Panel, where Brian Parsons, president and chief executive officer of Willis Towers Watson Canada, suggested the brokers’ compensation model on commercial lines is “flipping.”

In the future, brokers will tend to earn more on consultative services and less on commissions, said Parsons.

Read the full article in the Digital Edition of the November 2017 Canadian Underwriter.

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