Canadian Underwriter
News

CU webinar: Claims experts discuss how to adjust increasing number of NatCats


August 25, 2020   by David Gambrill


Print this page Share

In an era when $1-billion claims events have become commonplace, Canadian claims executives are turning their minds to how to adjust natural disasters that follow closely upon the heels of one another.

Canadian Underwriter will be bringing the discussion to light this Thursday, Aug. 27, at 3 p.m. ET, in its webinar, Standing on Guard for Thee: Adjusting Canadian NatCats.

Our panel of experts will look at trends in Canadian catastrophe events, how they get adjusted, who adjusts the claims, and most critically, whether the Canadian P&C industry is able to marshal the resources to take on multiple claims at once in the future.

The expert panel includes:

  • Skip McHardy, chief operational officer, catastrophe response, CRU Group
  • Fred VanDine, section manager of property field claims for the Ontario, Atlantic and Western Regions of Desjardins Insurance
  • Glenn McGillivray, managing director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction

Among its various claims-related topics, the panel will tackle the claims caseloads that natural catastrophes may require in the future, as well as strategies for handling NatCats that either overlap or follow closely on the heels of one another.

The most recent example would be Canada’s largest hailstorm event ever (the June 13, 2020 storm cost the P&C insurance industry about $1.2 billion), which happened within a month of major flooding in Fort McMurray, Alta., that caused insured damage of more than $500-million. The two storms individually rank within Canada’s Top 11 disasters of all time since 1983. (The hailstorm fourth, and the flood around 10th, depending on the final claims tally.)

Other examples of Cat events following closely upon each other abound. In Ontario, for example, a May 2018 windstorm happened just two weeks after a major ice storm, which in turn happened just after a major rain storm. Together, the three events caused $646 million in insured damage.

While it may be too early to consider the narrow intervals between storm events a “trend,” the panel will discuss how the industry can marshal the resources required for insurance companies to help their customers when lightning strikes twice in the same place (so to speak).


Print this page Share

Have your say:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*