Economical brings B.C. personal insurance business under subsidiary

Economical Insurance is integrating the management of all its personal lines business in British Columbia under Family Insurance Solutions, its wholly-owned subsidiary, in an effort to simplify business for brokers in the province.

Beginning Sept. 24, the distribution, underwriting and policy administration for its personal auto and property insurance will all be under the subsidiary, in a move Waterloo, Ont.-based Economical says will boost efficiency and simplify decision-making for brokers in B.C.

“Given the large number of broker partners we have in B.C., we will be implementing this conversion on a staggered basis,” Harry Kloosterhuis, president of Family Insurance Solutions noted in a statement.

“We will be communicating with each broker three months before their conversion date to facilitate a seamless transition to our easy-to-use policy distribution system that issues policies in real time. We expect to have all our broker partners writing personal insurance business in B.C. with Family by September 2014.”

Economical’s commercial insurance book of business in B.C. will continue to be managed through its Vancouver office. The insurer will also continue to operate Federation Insurance in the province in order to service branded and niche business.

Conversion of Economical’s personal insurance policies will begin in January 2014 for March 2014 renewals. All insurance policies distributed by Family will continue to be underwritten by Economical Mutual Insurance Company. All claims relating to personal insurance policies distributed by Family will continue to be handled by Economical’s claims personnel at the Family location.