Intact CEO says odds of upsetting current hard market momentum are “fairly small”
November 7, 2019 by Greg MeckbachWith the Canadian industry experiencing its lowest return on equity in 17 years, Intact’s senior leadership is not foreseeing a soft market in the short term. “To find similar [hard market] conditions, you have to go back to 2002-03,” Charles…
BrokerLink acquires another Ontario brokerage
November 4, 2019 by Greg MeckbachBrokerLink has acquired Newmarket, Ont.-based Buckley Insurance Brokers Ltd., which places home, auto and commercial insurance. Buckley notified its customers Friday by email that it is now part of BrokerLink, which is owned by Intact Financial Corp., owner of Canada’s…
How the industry is mobilizing ‘small armies’ to help reduce flood risk
October 30, 2019 by Adam MalikIntact’s Centre on Climate Adaptation is “zeroing in” on flood risk mitigation, educating professionals in other industries about flood risk so that more eyes are watching out for dangers in homes across Canada. Blair Feltmate, head of the Intact Centre…
How Intact is changing usage-based auto insurance in one province
October 21, 2019 by Greg MeckbachIntact Insurance is making some key changes to its usage-based insurance (UBI) product for motorists in Nova Scotia. Essentially, the company is requiring continual monitoring of an insured’s driving behaviour rather than having the same discount apply until the end…
What vulnerabilities are getting in the way of insurance?
October 18, 2019 by Adam MalikInsurance leaders are aware they’re not moving fast enough to keep up with change, be it around technological or customer expectations. But, as they said at a recent summit, they have no choice but to figure it out. For Pat…
New commercial lines senior VP for Canada’s largest P&C insurer
September 19, 2019 by Greg MeckbachIntact Financial Corp. announced Thursday that Darren Godfrey will become Intact Financial Corp.’s senior vice president, commercial lines on Jan. 1. Godfrey, currently senior VP of personal lines, will replace Alain Lessard, who retires at the end of the year.…
Intact agrees to buy The Guarantee and MGA Frank Cowan
August 15, 2019 by Greg MeckbachCanada’s largest property and casualty insurer, Intact Financial Corp. has agreed to buy The Guarantee Company of North America and MGA Frank Cowan Company Limited for about $1 billion from Princeton Holdings. Princeton will continue to own retail brokerage Cowan…
Intact’s priorities for mergers and acquisitions
August 1, 2019 by Greg MeckbachBrokers can expect to see insurers representing nearly a fifth of the Canadian P&C market to be bought and sold, the head of Canada’s largest carrier suggested Wednesday. “We laid out the perspective seven or eight years ago that 20…
Sports heroes: one way to score big with your marketing
July 5, 2019 by Adam MalikWhen it comes to marketing, brokerages and carriers like pairing up with pro sports teams and athletes. For Waterloo, Ont.’s Aha Insurance, which launched in 2017, partnering with a professional sports team seemed like a perfect way to create brand…
The strategy behind BrokerLink’s latest acquisitions
March 12, 2019 by Greg MeckbachIf you run a brokerage in Ontario, Alberta or Atlantic Canada and there is no BrokerLink in your town, there soon could be. Intact Financial Corp.’s BrokerLink unit has closed seven brokerage acquisitions since Jan. 1, said Paul Meyer, BrokerLink’s…
Insurer CEOs react to hardening commercial market
February 13, 2019 by Greg MeckbachThe pace of the hardening market in commercial lines has come as a surprise to some executives at Canada’s largest property and casualty insurer. “We have seen a shift in commercial lines that is pretty abrupt in the past six…
Intact’s guesstimate of auto profitability improvement required by the industry
February 12, 2019 by Greg MeckbachThe Canadian auto insurance industry needs to improve its profitability by about 10 percentage points, executives with Canada’s largest property and casualty insurer suggest. Canada-wide and industry wide, personal lines auto has a loss ratio of about 75%, said Darren…