News

It is important for adjusters to determine whether or not a claimant has been scamming Revenue Canada when considering the claimant’s entitlement to income replacement benefits (IRBs), according to Donna Ford, an investigator with Northwood & Associates. “If a person…

Fire damage increases at a rate of approximately US$2,400 for each minute it takes fire services to respond to a call, according to a study of fire service response times in New Zealand.The Relationships Between Fire Service Response Time and…

Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) is reporting a net loss of $35.5 million for 2010 Q2.“This net loss reflects an increase in severe weather, including hail-related claims,” said Don Palmer, MPI’s vice president of finance and chief financial officer.MPI reported a…

The reduction of Ontario’s discount rate for catastrophic injury trials could significantly increase the future care and future loss of income costs for insurers, warns Stephen R. Moore, a lawyer with Blaney McMurtry.In the bulletin, Don’t Adjourn This Fall’s Large…

Seventy-five per cent of Canadians drive distracted, despite the fact that nearly all Canadians view distracted driving negatively, according to an Allstate Canada poll conducted by Leger Marketing. The most common forms of distracted driving include talking on a mobile…

Insurers wishing to expose potential insurance fraud should be getting written conflict-of-interest statements from legal, treatment and assessment facilities, a fraud investigator suggests.Donna Ford, an insurance fraud investigator with Northwood & Associates, addressed the topic of insurance fruad at the…

RSA Canada has entered into an agreement to purchase GCAN Insurance Company and its parent company, Glenstone Capital Incorporated, from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board for approximately $420 million. “This is actually the second-largest insurance company acquisition in the…

RSA Canada has received approximately 200 claims related to Hurricane Igor, which hit eastern Newfoundland on Sept. 21.The hurricane cut off power to as many as 50,000 people across the province. Many of the hardest-hit communities were isolated due to…

Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc. opened an office in Prince George, British Columbia, effective Sept. 1, 2010.“The addition of this office, which covers an important territory in northern British Columbia, will allow us to service our clients even more effectively…

Re/insurers in North America and Europe are facing the “new reality” of a low or no-growth environment, according to Patrick Thiele, CEO of PartnerRe Ltd.“This new economic reality in the U.S. and Europe has important implications for the re/insurance industry,”…

Cooperation between insurers is the key to a successful automobile fraud investigation, according to Rick Muir, senior special investigator with Desjardins General Insurance Group, The Personal and Certas Direct Insurance Companies. Right now, however, many insurers are going at it…

The Winnipeg Sun has obtained collision data from Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) suggesting red-light cameras have generally failed to reduce the number of collisions in several key intersections in Winnipeg.The Sun‘s editorial notes the average number of collisions at Winnipeg’s…