Canadian Underwriter


News CatastrophesClaimsClaims CanadaEarnings / RatingsInsurance

Why the hard market could be unsustainable

September 21, 2021 by Greg Meckbach

The Canadian industry’s combined ratio, at 81% so far in 2021, is at a historic low but this is mainly due to a 23% drop in claims and adjustment expenses, from $20.26 billion in the first six months of 2020,

News Insurance

How to bring the risk of catastrophic events home to your clients

April 9, 2021 by Jason Contant

Canada’s property and casualty insurance industry needs to ramp up its public education efforts to bring the risk of catastrophic events home to the Canadian population, speakers said Thursday during the virtual CIP Society Symposium 2021. “I don’t like to

News Insurance

Feds seek post-pandemic ideas to prepare for next major disaster

March 16, 2021 The Canadian Press

OTTAWA – The federal government is looking beyond COVID-19 to prepare for the next large-scale calamity – be it another pandemic, a tsunami or cyberattack. In a notice posted today, Defence Research and Development Canada seeks proposals for studies, technology

News Insurance

$2 billion is the new $1 billion for insured Canadian NatCat events

January 5, 2021 by Jason Contant

Insured losses from natural catastrophes in Canada totalled nearly $2.5 billion last year, Toronto-based Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ) reported Monday. “The years where annual catastrophic insured losses were below $1 billion seem to be a thing of the

News Insurance

Ontario wind storm costs the industry $87 million

December 15, 2020 by Jason Contant

Add $87 million to the more than $2.1 billion that the Canadian property and casualty insurance industry has paid out in claims thus far in 2020. An Ontario windstorm in November hit the Greater Toronto Area, the areas of Hamilton,

News CatastrophesClaimsClaims Canada

More than one way to define a Cat

September 3, 2020 by Greg Meckbach

If you disagree with a co-worker on exactly what a catastrophe is, both of you could be right. There is no single standard definition of a “Cat,” with the industry’s loss costs — and even media coverage — among the

News AdjustersAssociationsCatastrophesClaimsClaims CanadaConstructionEmploymentInsuranceLegislation / Regulation

Adjusting Calgary’s hailstorm: The rationale for bringing in U.S. Cat adjusters

August 28, 2020 by Greg Meckbach

During the hail storm this past June that damaged tens of thousands of Alberta homes, adjusting firm CRU Group struggled to find enough qualified independent catastrophe adjusters in Canada, and wound up resorting to bringing in people from the United

News CatastrophesClaims

How much insurers paid out for Fort Mac’s spring flood

June 2, 2020 by Adam Malik

Insurers paid out more $228 million in insured damage for spring flooding in Fort McMurray, Alta., that occurred a little over a month ago. Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ) released the numbers this week, noting that commercial properties took

News AdjustersCatastrophesClaimsClaims CanadaInsurance

The impact of COVID-19 on independent adjusters

March 18, 2020 by Greg Meckbach

As most Canadians are being asked to leave home only when necessary, how will the property and casualty industry deal with a large catastrophe, such as a major wind storm, while still taking precautions to reduce the risk of COVID-19

News CatastrophesClaimsClaims CanadaInsurance

Canada’s biggest insurance losses in 2019

January 22, 2020 by Greg Meckbach

Insured damage from floods, rain, snow and windstorms reached $1.3 billion in 2019, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) reported Tuesday, citing data from Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ) “Like 2018, no single event in 2019 caused the high

News ClaimsClaims Canada

How catastrophes affected Intact’s Q4 numbers

January 9, 2020 by Greg Meckbach

Intact Financial Corp. is pegging its catastrophe claims at $115 million for the fourth quarter of 2019 alone, more than double the figure for the same period in 2018. Intact released its $115 million estimated catastrophe loss Tuesday. The company

News CatastrophesClimate Change

How this year’s CAT losses are trending

July 3, 2019 by Adam Malik

Canada is well on its way to cracking the $1-billion threshold in insured catastrophe losses yet again as we enter the second half of 2019. Catastrophe Indices and Quantification (CatIQ) told Canadian Underwriter Wednesday that the estimated catastrophic insured loss