WFG reports gains, despite “challenging” auto environment

Western Financial Group today announced its net income increased 67.5% — to $3.6 million during the first nine months ending Sept. 30, 2005.
The company’s business units include WFG Agency Network, the fourth largest property and casualty insurance broker in Canada and the largest in Western Canada. The network consists of more than 50 branch offices located in smaller cities, towns and villages across Western Canada.
“The [WFG Agency] Network continues to progress toward plan, with same store sales and same store customer count growing, despite a challenging environment in the Alberta automobile insurance market,” WFG noted in a press release.
Alberta recently introduced a new grid for calculating insurance premium rates, including lower rates for good drivers whose circumstances remain unchanged and “reasonable premiums for new drivers, young drivers and seniors.”
The province introduced a new diagnostic and treatment process, and increased accident benefits for medical and rehabilitation costs from $10,000 to $50,000. Also, it capped claims for minor injuries at $4,000.
The result of the government’s reform package, a KPMG conference in Toronto heard in October, has been a 24% decrease in bodily injury claims in Alberta.