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Claims insights – an era of adaptation
Coming out of the pandemic, the insurance industry has continued to face claims challenges while supporting Canadians in tough times
Valérie Lavoie
Desjardins General Insurance Group
Industry experts
Brynn Tucker
CNA Canada
Matt Woodall
Royal Claims Services
Valérie Lavoie joined Desjardins in 1994 and held a number of strategic positions before being named president and chief operating officer of Desjardins General Insurance Group in 2019. Before taking on her current role, Valérie held several positions in actuarial services and distribution. She's always been skilled at rallying her teams around one common objective: doing what’s best for members and clients.
Valérie plays an active role in the ongoing evolution of the P&C insurance industry. She currently sits on the board of directors of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, the Équité Association, and the Insurance Institute of Canada.
Desjardins General Insurance Group president and chief operating officer
Valérie Lavoie
Prior to joining CNA Canada in July of 2022, Brynn worked in the property and casualty industry for over 20 years. Brynn began her career at RSA, holding many claims and underwriting roles over a period of nine years. She then joined Claimspro, a Marsh Claims Intake team as a bilingual claims triage specialist, where she was promoted to a claims administrative supervisor, creating and implementing the first quality assurance audit program. She now leads a team of claims professionals at CNA Canada’s Ontario Region.
CNA Canada assistant vice-president, claims
Brynn Tucker
After completing a bachelor of commerce at the University of Windsor, Matt entered the claims business and swiftly rose from telephone adjuster to an examiner handling complex scenarios. In 2019, he took the helm of Royal Claims as its president after acquiring the firm. Armed with both the CRM and CIP designations, Matt’s expertise plays a pivotal role in shaping the company’s trajectory, ensuring it’s rooted in industry best practices. Today, his emphasis is on steering Royal Claims with a focus on pragmatic and technology-supported client-centric solutions.
Royal Claims Services president
Matt Woodall
“We need to think differently about how we can better support clients in this uncertainty that we’re all living in right now and in this difficult economic environment”
Valerie Lavoie,
Desjardins General Insurance Group
SUPPLY-CHAIN challenges and natural catastrophes continued to pile on the pressure for insurers and insureds into 2023, but some pandemic-driven pressures have been easing, and digital transformation has seen insurers and claims groups up their game.
Insurance Business hosted a roundtable with a panel of senior industry experts from CNA Canada, Desjardins General Insurance Group, and Royal Claims Services to discuss today’s claims landscape and how the insurance industry is looking at its caregiver role in supporting claimants.
“Labour shortages and certain component shortages do remain prevalent, along with geopolitical considerations and shipping congestion, but overall, some areas of the supply chain are actually improving”
Brynn Tucker, CNA Canada
“What we will be able to do is start to capture some of that [knowledge] in claims systems and AI models to ensure that our training and our approach to claims are bolstered by the experience individuals have”
Matt Woodall,
Royal Claims Services
“It’s scary when you think about it,” said Tucker, who suggested that education is the best defence in the fight against fraud.
Royal Claims Services has seen a recent increase in opportunism around legitimate claims, with some businesses looking to bulk up payouts.
“Our mind always tends to go first to completely fraudulent claims,” Woodall said. “Ultimately, those are pretty rare in our industry, but what we’ve seen is a big uptick in claims of opportunity … where [for example] a scheduled loss is submitted and instead of it being 100 items it turns out to be 120 items.”
Climate risk continues to pose a huge challenge for insureds and their insurers, with catastrophes and weather events (like hail, wind, rain, and wildfire) increasing in both frequency and severity.
“Some years are better than others, but it is a continuing problem that we are going to have to address in the industry,” said Woodall. “It will have to be modeled into the underwriting and claims approach.”
Data will play a key role in navigating natural catastrophe risk, and it is vital that insurers and claims groups have catastrophe teams and responses ready to go, according to the experts.
When looking at weather risk and natural catastrophes, insurers are not just looking to adapt internal practices, but also at how they can play a wider role in bringing a “focus to disaster resilience and infrastructure development” along with risk mitigation, according to Tucker.
Supply-chain issues have also affected property claims.
“From our perspective, higher building and construction costs in conjunction with higher pricing seem to be today’s new reality,” Tucker said.
Nevertheless, the good news is that supply-chain disruption has eased off somewhat, according to the experts.
“Most of the issues with the supply chain have been resolved – it’s not back to where it was, there are still issues, but it’s a lot better than it once was,” Woodall said.
Coming out of the pandemic, digital transformation has accelerated, and this has presented new opportunities, according to Valérie Lavoie, Desjardins General Insurance Group president and chief operating officer.
However, on the auto insurance side, thefts have spiked, and driving habits have, in some cases, changed for the worse.
“In a survey by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation, 60 percent of respondents cited fewer vehicles on the roads as the main reason for exceeding the speed limit, and many agreed that they would continue to speed post-pandemic, now that it has become a habit,” said Lavoie.
For commercial insurers, the pandemic heralded a loss frequency dip in property and casualty claims, as people stayed indoors, with one notable exception to the trend being business interruption claims.
Commercial property claims are now working themselves back up to pre-pandemic frequency, according to Brynn Tucker, CNA Canada assistant vice president, claims.
Commercial liability payouts have decreased since the pandemic, though the number of reported claims has increased, and litigation awards and associated costs have also increased.
“We continue to see long-tail claims with, for example, an increase in multiple commercial businesses being called into legal actions by claimants alleging that they are jointly and severally liable,” said Tucker, who further highlighted that cyberattacks are on the rise.
Royal Claims Services has seen a “surge” in smaller claims since the pandemic, according to Royal Claims Services president Matt Woodall.
One positive from the pandemic, according to Woodall, is that it has led to a re-evaluation of policy wordings, meaning greater clarity for any potential claimants.
“The pandemic opened up a lot of questions regarding wordings, and how and when they should apply,” Woodall said. “It was a similar to a situation like Fort McMurray, which was devastating for the industry and led to a revision of wordings.”
For example, CNA Canada has partnered with non-profit Ducks Unlimited.
“This focuses on flood prevention through marshland and wetland protection, which is critical to reducing some natural catastrophes and flooding,” explained Tucker.
For Desjardins, claims initiatives like Build Back Better, which encourages greater material resilience through rebuilding with more weather-resistant materials, are one key part of how insurers are trying to help clients navigate weather risk, according to Lavoie.
Weather risk is not just a claims issue, and a variety of stakeholders, from industry to government, have roles to play here.
“We need to protect clients, but also we know that there are some gaps in protection,” said Lavoie, who pointed to the example of flood cover gaps, which the IBC is looking to tackle through the incoming National Flood Program, and earthquake risk.
Sustained inflation has hit the pockets of the public and insurance companies, and the experts addressed claims and fraud trends in the context of a more challenging economic environment, with Statistics Canada data having suggested that the country may have entered a technical recession, Bloomberg has reported.
Against this backdrop, automobile and equipment theft has continued to rise, according to Tucker. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported a historic fraud cost of $530 million in 2022, a 40 percent increase on 2021’s $380 million.
Meanwhile, only five to ten percent of people are believed to report fraud, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Tucker shared.
Royal Claims Services has seen “a lot more situations” where claims are to some extent “padded,” and Woodall suggested that monitoring and analytics will play a key role in future.
Businesses may be “taking advantage of the situation … and hoping to achieve a little bit more out of a claim,” said Woodall. “We find that to be quite a challenge right now, as it seems a lot of businesses are hurting and looking to get ahead wherever possible.”
For Lavoie, supporting clients through tough times is top of mind when it comes to cutting down on claims fraud.
“We need to think differently about how we can better support clients in this uncertainty that we’re all living in right now and in this difficult economic environment,” Lavoie said. “This brings a lot of opportunity to be creative, to be innovative, to use data and think about how we can better support our clients.”
Read on
Like natural catastrophes, supply-chain challenges have also proved costly for insurers and their insureds, with car and parts prices and availability adding to costs and driving delays. These challenges have even opened up avenues for organized crime on the auto side. “Unfortunately, with the scarcity of cars because of the supply-chain [impact], for organized crime, it is a way to get money, so they have decided to go there,” said Lavoie. “We have to work together as an industry to protect members and clients.”
Woodall gave the example of commercial trucking, which has seen used unit costs spike due to parts scarcities.
“The best way to determine the ACV of a total loss is to use current listings of similar vehicles,” Woodall said. “Because the prices of US vehicles went up, the total loss settlements went up, and it all increased costs.”
While industry valuation controls have helped, lag times have meant that material valuations have not necessarily correlated at all times, posing a potential value headache.
“Labour shortages and certain component shortages do remain prevalent, along with geopolitical considerations and shipping congestion,” said Tucker. “But overall, some areas of the supply chain are actually improving.”
In Canada, products and services are provided by Continental Casualty Company, a leading specialist commercial property and casualty insurance provider for clients and brokers in all local geographies, backed by more than 100 years of experience. For more information, please visit CNA Canada at www.cnacanada.ca. CNA is one of the largest US commercial property and casualty insurance companies. Backed by more than 125 years of experience, CNA provides a broad range of standard and specialized insurance products and services for businesses and professionals in the US, Canada, and Europe.
Find out more
Desjardins Group is the largest cooperative financial group in North America and the fifth-largest cooperative financial group in the world, with assets of $407.1 billion. It was named one of the World’s Top Female-Friendly Companies by Forbes magazine. To meet the diverse needs of its members and clients, Desjardins offers a full range of products and services to individuals and businesses through its extensive distribution network, online platforms, and subsidiaries across Canada. Ranked among the world’s strongest banks according to The Banker magazine, Desjardins has some of the highest capital ratios and credit ratings in the industry.
Find out more
Royal Claims Services Ltd. started with a mission to offer top-notch claims service. Evolving from a one-person venture, we’ve expanded significantly, maintaining our foundational ethos. Today, we serve in the insurance claims sector, with deep roots in Canadian and Lloyd’s insurance markets. Our team expertly navigates varied claim types, from basic to intricate. Leveraging traditional know-how, AI, and data insights, we guarantee precise, efficient, and tailored claim management. Our steadfast dedication ensures unparalleled service for claims managers and insurers alike.
Find out more
Claims insights – an era of adaptation
Coming out of the pandemic, the insurance industry has continued to face claims challenges while supporting Canadians in tough times
Read on
Matt Woodall
Royal Claims Services
Brynn Tucker
CNA Canada
Valérie Lavoie
Desjardins General Insurance Group
Industry experts
SUPPLY-CHAIN challenges and natural catastrophes continued to pile on the pressure for insurers and insureds into 2023, but some pandemic-driven pressures have been easing, and digital transformation has seen insurers and claims groups up their game.
Insurance Business hosted a roundtable with a panel of senior industry experts from CNA Canada, Desjardins General Insurance Group, and Royal Claims Services to discuss today’s claims landscape and how the insurance industry is looking at its caregiver role in supporting claimants.
Sustained inflation has hit the pockets of the public and insurance companies, and the experts addressed claims and fraud trends in the context of a more challenging economic environment, with Statistics Canada data having suggested that the country may have entered a technical recession, Bloomberg has reported.
Against this backdrop, automobile and equipment theft has continued to rise, according to Tucker. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported a historic fraud cost of $530 million in 2022, a 40 percent increase on 2021’s $380 million.
Meanwhile, only five to ten percent of people are believed to report fraud, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Tucker shared.
Coming out of the pandemic, digital transformation has accelerated, and this has presented new opportunities, according to Valérie Lavoie, Desjardins General Insurance Group president and chief operating officer.
However, on the auto insurance side, thefts have spiked, and driving habits have, in some cases, changed for the worse.
“In a survey by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation, 60 percent of respondents cited fewer vehicles on the roads as the main reason for exceeding the speed limit, and many agreed that they would continue to speed post-pandemic, now that it has become a habit,” said Lavoie.
For commercial insurers, the pandemic heralded a loss frequency dip in property and casualty claims, as people stayed indoors, with one notable exception to the trend being business interruption claims.
Commercial property claims are now working themselves back up to pre-pandemic frequency, according to Brynn Tucker, CNA Canada assistant vice president, claims.
Commercial liability payouts have decreased since the pandemic, though the number of reported claims has increased, and litigation awards and associated costs have also increased.
“We continue to see long-tail claims with, for example, an increase in multiple commercial businesses being called into legal actions by claimants alleging that they are jointly and severally liable,” said Tucker, who further highlighted that cyberattacks are on the rise.
Royal Claims Services has seen a “surge” in smaller claims since the pandemic, according to Royal Claims Services president Matt Woodall.
One positive from the pandemic, according to Woodall, is that it has led to a re-evaluation of policy wordings, meaning greater clarity for any potential claimants.
“The pandemic opened up a lot of questions regarding wordings, and how and when they should apply,” Woodall said. “It was a similar to a situation like Fort McMurray, which was devastating for the industry and led to a revision of wordings.”
“It’s scary when you think about it,” said Tucker, who suggested that education is the best defence in the fight against fraud.
Royal Claims Services has seen a recent increase in opportunism around legitimate claims, with some businesses looking to bulk up payouts.
“Our mind always tends to go first to completely fraudulent claims,” Woodall said. “Ultimately, those are pretty rare in our industry, but what we’ve seen is a big uptick in claims of opportunity … where [for example] a scheduled loss is submitted and instead of it being 100 items it turns out to be 120 items.”
Royal Claims Services has seen “a lot more situations” where claims are to some extent “padded,” and Woodall suggested that monitoring and analytics will play a key role in future.
Businesses may be “taking advantage of the situation … and hoping to achieve a little bit more out of a claim,” said Woodall. “We find that to be quite a challenge right now, as it seems a lot of businesses are hurting and looking to get ahead wherever possible.”
For Lavoie, supporting clients through tough times is top of mind when it comes to cutting down on claims fraud.
“We need to think differently about how we can better support clients in this uncertainty that we’re all living in right now and in this difficult economic environment,” Lavoie said. “This brings a lot of opportunity to be creative, to be innovative, to use data and think about how we can better support our clients.”
Climate risk continues to pose a huge challenge for insureds and their insurers, with catastrophes and weather events (like hail, wind, rain, and wildfire) increasing in both frequency and severity.
“Some years are better than others, but it is a continuing problem that we are going to have to address in the industry,” said Woodall. “It will have to be modeled into the underwriting and claims approach.”
Data will play a key role in navigating natural catastrophe risk, and it is vital that insurers and claims groups have catastrophe teams and responses ready to go, according to the experts.
When looking at weather risk and natural catastrophes, insurers are not just looking to adapt internal practices, but also at how they can play a wider role in bringing a “focus to disaster resilience and infrastructure development” along with risk mitigation, according to Tucker.
For example, CNA Canada has partnered with non-profit Ducks Unlimited.
“This focuses on flood prevention through marshland and wetland protection, which is critical to reducing some natural catastrophes and flooding,” explained Tucker.
For Desjardins, claims initiatives like Build Back Better, which encourages greater material resilience through rebuilding with more weather-resistant materials, are one key part of how insurers are trying to help clients navigate weather risk, according to Lavoie.
Weather risk is not just a claims issue, and a variety of stakeholders, from industry to government, have roles to play here.
“We need to protect clients, but also we know that there are some gaps in protection,” said Lavoie, who pointed to the example of flood cover gaps, which the IBC is looking to tackle through the incoming National Flood Program, and earthquake risk.
Like natural catastrophes, supply-chain challenges have also proved costly for insurers and their insureds, with car and parts prices and availability adding to costs and driving delays. These challenges have even opened up avenues for organized crime on the auto side. “Unfortunately, with the scarcity of cars because of the supply-chain [impact], for organized crime, it is a way to get money, so they have decided to go there,” said Lavoie. “We have to work together as an industry to protect members and clients.”
Woodall gave the example of commercial trucking, which has seen used unit costs spike due to parts scarcities.
“The best way to determine the ACV of a total loss is to use current listings of similar vehicles,” Woodall said. “Because the prices of US vehicles went up, the total loss settlements went up, and it all increased costs.”
While industry valuation controls have helped, lag times have meant that material valuations have not necessarily correlated at all times, posing a potential value headache.
Supply-chain issues have also affected property claims.
“From our perspective, higher building and construction costs in conjunction with higher pricing seem to be today’s new reality,” Tucker said.
Nevertheless, the good news is that supply-chain disruption has eased off somewhat, according to the experts.
“Most of the issues with the supply chain have been resolved – it’s not back to where it was, there are still issues, but it’s a lot better than it once was,” Woodall said.
“Labour shortages and certain component shortages do remain prevalent, along with geopolitical considerations and shipping congestion,” said Tucker. “But overall, some areas of the supply chain are actually improving.”
Outside of natural catastrophes and supply-chain difficulties, one of the biggest claims pain points for insureds continues to be when there is a perceived “lack of transparency” or a “misunderstanding about coverage,” according to Tucker.
“We're not saving the world, but we do try to make the claims experience as painless as possible,” Tucker said.
For Tucker, an essential ingredient is “having clear policy language and highly skilled claims professionals who are able to explain what comes next to our insureds.”
Insurance companies and claims handlers need to have a “caregiver attitude,” according to Lavoie.
“We need to adapt quickly to what’s going on to continue to better serve our clients and try to remove the pressure of [supply-chain] delays. We need to keep our members and clients feeling supported all along the claims process, and be really empathetic,” Lavoie said.
Valérie Lavoie joined Desjardins in 1994 and held a number of strategic positions before being named president and chief operating officer of Desjardins General Insurance Group in 2019. Before taking on her current role, Valérie held several positions in actuarial services and distribution. She's always been skilled at rallying her teams around one common objective: doing what’s best for members and clients.
Valérie plays an active role in the ongoing evolution of the P&C insurance industry. She currently sits on the board of directors of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, the Équité Association, and the Insurance Institute of Canada.
Desjardins General Insurance Group president and chief operating officer
Valérie Lavoie
Prior to joining CNA Canada in July of 2022, Brynn worked in the property and casualty industry for over 20 years. Brynn began her career at RSA, holding many claims and underwriting roles over a period of nine years. She then joined Claimspro, a Marsh Claims Intake team as a bilingual claims triage specialist, where she was promoted to a claims administrative supervisor, creating and implementing the first quality assurance audit program. She now leads a team of claims professionals at CNA Canada’s Ontario Region.
CNA Canada assistant vice-president, claims
Brynn Tucker
After completing a bachelor of commerce at the University of Windsor, Matt entered the claims business and swiftly rose from telephone adjuster to an examiner handling complex scenarios. In 2019, he took the helm of Royal Claims as its president after acquiring the firm. Armed with both the CRM and CIP designations, Matt’s expertise plays a pivotal role in shaping the company’s trajectory, ensuring it’s rooted in industry best practices. Today, his emphasis is on steering Royal Claims with a focus on pragmatic and technology-supported client-centric solutions.
Royal Claims Services president
Matt Woodall
Claims insights –
an era of adaptation
Coming out of the pandemic, the insurance industry has continued to face claims challenges while supporting Canadians in tough times
Read on
Matt Woodall
Royal Claims Services
Brynn Tucker
CNA Canada
Valérie Lavoie
Desjardins General Insurance Group
Industry experts
SUPPLY-CHAIN challenges and natural catastrophes continued to pile on the pressure for insurers and insureds into 2023, but some pandemic-driven pressures have been easing, and digital transformation has seen insurers and claims groups up their game.
Insurance Business hosted a roundtable with a panel of senior industry experts from CNA Canada, Desjardins General Insurance Group, and Royal Claims Services to discuss today’s claims landscape and how the insurance industry is looking at its caregiver role in supporting claimants.
Sustained inflation has hit the pockets of the public and insurance companies, and the experts addressed claims and fraud trends in the context of a more challenging economic environment, with Statistics Canada data having suggested that the country may have entered a technical recession, Bloomberg has reported.
Against this backdrop, automobile and equipment theft has continued to rise, according to Tucker. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported a historic fraud cost of $530 million in 2022, a 40 percent increase on 2021’s $380 million.
Meanwhile, only five to ten percent of people are believed to report fraud, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Tucker shared.
Coming out of the pandemic, digital transformation has accelerated, and this has presented new opportunities, according to Valérie Lavoie, Desjardins General Insurance Group president and chief operating officer.
However, on the auto insurance side, thefts have spiked, and driving habits have, in some cases, changed for the worse.
“In a survey by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation, 60 percent of respondents cited fewer vehicles on the roads as the main reason for exceeding the speed limit, and many agreed that they would continue to speed post-pandemic, now that it has become a habit,” said Lavoie.
For commercial insurers, the pandemic heralded a loss frequency dip in property and casualty claims, as people stayed indoors, with one notable exception to the trend being business interruption claims.
Commercial property claims are now working themselves back up to pre-pandemic frequency, according to Brynn Tucker, CNA Canada assistant vice president, claims.
Commercial liability payouts have decreased since the pandemic, though the number of reported claims has increased, and litigation awards and associated costs have also increased.
“We continue to see long-tail claims with, for example, an increase in multiple commercial businesses being called into legal actions by claimants alleging that they are jointly and severally liable,” said Tucker, who further highlighted that cyberattacks are on the rise.
Royal Claims Services has seen a “surge” in smaller claims since the pandemic, according to Royal Claims Services president Matt Woodall.
One positive from the pandemic, according to Woodall, is that it has led to a re-evaluation of policy wordings, meaning greater clarity for any potential claimants.
“The pandemic opened up a lot of questions regarding wordings, and how and when they should apply,” Woodall said. “It was a similar to a situation like Fort McMurray, which was devastating for the industry and led to a revision of wordings.”
“It’s scary when you think about it,” said Tucker, who suggested that education is the best defence in the fight against fraud.
Royal Claims Services has seen a recent increase in opportunism around legitimate claims, with some businesses looking to bulk up payouts.
“Our mind always tends to go first to completely fraudulent claims,” Woodall said. “Ultimately, those are pretty rare in our industry, but what we’ve seen is a big uptick in claims of opportunity … where [for example] a scheduled loss is submitted and instead of it being 100 items it turns out to be 120 items.”
Royal Claims Services has seen “a lot more situations” where claims are to some extent “padded,” and Woodall suggested that monitoring and analytics will play a key role in future.
Businesses may be “taking advantage of the situation … and hoping to achieve a little bit more out of a claim,” said Woodall. “We find that to be quite a challenge right now, as it seems a lot of businesses are hurting and looking to get ahead wherever possible.”
For Lavoie, supporting clients through tough times is top of mind when it comes to cutting down on claims fraud.
“We need to think differently about how we can better support clients in this uncertainty that we’re all living in right now and in this difficult economic environment,” Lavoie said. “This brings a lot of opportunity to be creative, to be innovative, to use data and think about how we can better support our clients.”
Climate risk continues to pose a huge challenge for insureds and their insurers, with catastrophes and weather events (like hail, wind, rain, and wildfire) increasing in both frequency and severity.
“Some years are better than others, but it is a continuing problem that we are going to have to address in the industry,” said Woodall. “It will have to be modeled into the underwriting and claims approach.”
Data will play a key role in navigating natural catastrophe risk, and it is vital that insurers and claims groups have catastrophe teams and responses ready to go, according to the experts.
When looking at weather risk and natural catastrophes, insurers are not just looking to adapt internal practices, but also at how they can play a wider role in bringing a “focus to disaster resilience and infrastructure development” along with risk mitigation, according to Tucker.
For example, CNA Canada has partnered with non-profit Ducks Unlimited.
“This focuses on flood prevention through marshland and wetland protection, which is critical to reducing some natural catastrophes and flooding,” explained Tucker.
For Desjardins, claims initiatives like Build Back Better, which encourages greater material resilience through rebuilding with more weather-resistant materials, are one key part of how insurers are trying to help clients navigate weather risk, according to Lavoie.
Weather risk is not just a claims issue, and a variety of stakeholders, from industry to government, have roles to play here.
“We need to protect clients, but also we know that there are some gaps in protection,” said Lavoie, who pointed to the example of flood cover gaps, which the IBC is looking to tackle through the incoming National Flood Program, and earthquake risk.
Like natural catastrophes, supply-chain challenges have also proved costly for insurers and their insureds, with car and parts prices and availability adding to costs and driving delays. These challenges have even opened up avenues for organized crime on the auto side. “Unfortunately, with the scarcity of cars because of the supply-chain [impact], for organized crime, it is a way to get money, so they have decided to go there,” said Lavoie. “We have to work together as an industry to protect members and clients.”
Woodall gave the example of commercial trucking, which has seen used unit costs spike due to parts scarcities.
“The best way to determine the ACV of a total loss is to use current listings of similar vehicles,” Woodall said. “Because the prices of US vehicles went up, the total loss settlements went up, and it all increased costs.”
While industry valuation controls have helped, lag times have meant that material valuations have not necessarily correlated at all times, posing a potential value headache.
Supply-chain issues have also affected property claims.
“From our perspective, higher building and construction costs in conjunction with higher pricing seem to be today’s new reality,” Tucker said.
Nevertheless, the good news is that supply-chain disruption has eased off somewhat, according to the experts.
“Most of the issues with the supply chain have been resolved – it’s not back to where it was, there are still issues, but it’s a lot better than it once was,” Woodall said.
“Labour shortages and certain component shortages do remain prevalent, along with geopolitical considerations and shipping congestion,” said Tucker. “But overall, some areas of the supply chain are actually improving.”
Outside of natural catastrophes and supply-chain difficulties, one of the biggest claims pain points for insureds continues to be when there is a perceived “lack of transparency” or a “misunderstanding about coverage,” according to Tucker.
“We're not saving the world, but we do try to make the claims experience as painless as possible,” Tucker said.
For Tucker, an essential ingredient is “having clear policy language and highly skilled claims professionals who are able to explain what comes next to our insureds.”
Insurance companies and claims handlers need to have a “caregiver attitude,” according to Lavoie.
“We need to adapt quickly to what’s going on to continue to better serve our clients and try to remove the pressure of [supply-chain] delays. We need to keep our members and clients feeling supported all along the claims process, and be really empathetic,” Lavoie said.
After completing a bachelor of commerce at the University of Windsor, Matt entered the claims business and swiftly rose from telephone adjuster to an examiner handling complex scenarios. In 2019, he took the helm of Royal Claims as its president after acquiring the firm. Armed with both the CRM and CIP designations, Matt’s expertise plays a pivotal role in shaping the company’s trajectory, ensuring it’s rooted in industry best practices. Today, his emphasis is on steering Royal Claims with a focus on pragmatic and technology-supported client-centric solutions.
Royal Claims Services president
Matt Woodall
Prior to joining CNA Canada in July of 2022, Brynn worked in the property and casualty industry for over 20 years. Brynn began her career at RSA, holding many claims and underwriting roles over a period of nine years. She then joined Claimspro, a Marsh Claims Intake team as a bilingual claims triage specialist, where she was promoted to a claims administrative supervisor, creating and implementing the first quality assurance audit program. She now leads a team of claims professionals at CNA Canada’s Ontario Region.
CNA Canada assistant vice-president, claims
Brynn Tucker
Valérie Lavoie joined Desjardins in 1994 and held a number of strategic positions before being named president and chief operating officer of Desjardins General Insurance Group in 2019. Before taking on her current role, Valérie held several positions in actuarial services and distribution. She's always been skilled at rallying her teams around one common objective: doing what’s best for members and clients.
Valérie plays an active role in the ongoing evolution of the P&C insurance industry. She currently sits on the board of directors of the Insurance Bureau of Canada, the Équité Association, and the Insurance Institute of Canada.
Desjardins General Insurance Group president and chief operating officer
Valérie Lavoie
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Claims in a post-pandemic landscape
Published 04 Dec 2023
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Copyright © 2023 KM Business Information Canada Ltd
Contact Us
Specialty
Best in Insurance
Resources
Risk Management
TV
News
CA
RSS
Sitemap
Contact us
About us
Conditions of Use
Privacy policy
Terms & conditions
People
Copyright © 2023 KM Business Information Canada Ltd
Contact Us
Specialty
Best in Insurance
Resources
Risk Management
TV
News
CA
Copyright © 2023 KM Business Information Canada Ltd
RSS
Sitemap
Contact us
About us
Conditions of Use
Privacy policy
Terms & conditions
People
Fraud and the economic environment of today
Claims paid 2022
In 2022, Canadian P&C insurers paid out $42 billion in claims, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada
$19.35 billion
$9.87 billion
$6.63 billion
$3.86 billion
$1.3 billion
$953 million
Source: Direct claims incurred (DCI) by line, 2022 – via IBC, sources IBC, MSA, SCOR, AMF
The climate risk challenge
Supply chain easing – but challenges remain
Catastrophic losses –
the mounting cost
3.5
BN
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
$3.41
$2.48
$2.46
$1.56
$2.40
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
*LOSS plus loss adjustment expenses in 2021 dollars
Source: CatIQ via IBC
Tackling transparency in claims starts with clarity and caregiving
Outside of natural catastrophes and supply-chain difficulties, one of the biggest claims pain points for insureds continues to be when there is a perceived “lack of transparency” or a “misunderstanding about coverage,” according to Tucker.
“We're not saving the world, but we do try to make the claims experience as painless as possible,” Tucker said.
For Tucker, an essential ingredient is “having clear policy language and highly skilled claims professionals who are able to explain what comes next to our insureds.”
Insurance companies and claims handlers need to have a “caregiver attitude,” according to Lavoie.
“We need to adapt quickly to what’s going on to continue to better serve our clients and try to remove the pressure of [supply-chain] delays. We need to keep our members and clients feeling supported all along the claims process, and be really empathetic,” Lavoie said.
For Woodall, talent continues to be a big claims-industry pain point, particularly in specialty insurance. However, he predicted that technology might prove a boon here.
“What we will be able to do is start to capture some of that [knowledge] in claims systems and AI models to ensure that our training and our approach to claims are bolstered by the experience individuals have,” said Woodall.
The experts were clear that technology would have big role to play in helping claims teams and insureds, whether across the customer experience piece, detection capabilities, or assisting staff in playing their parts.
From streamlining operations and reducing paperwork, to fraud detection and machine learning – which is already being used as an aid in some auto claims – the experts felt that by taking an “ethical” and “problem-solving” approach, those who harness technology – potentially including generative AI – will have the power to improve claims responses, and to better help insureds, who increasingly expect 24/7 experiences.
Technology and talent in claims
PERSONAL PROPERTY
AUTO
ACCIDENT AND SICKNESS
SPECIALIZED
LIABILITY
COMMERCIAL
Fraud and the economic environment of today
The climate risk challenge
Supply chain easing – but challenges remain
Tackling transparency in claims starts with clarity and caregiving
Technology and talent in claims
For Woodall, talent continues to be a big claims-industry pain point, particularly in specialty insurance. However, he predicted that technology might prove a boon here.
“What we will be able to do is start to capture some of that [knowledge] in claims systems and AI models to ensure that our training and our approach to claims are bolstered by the experience individuals have,” said Woodall.
The experts were clear that technology would have big role to play in helping claims teams and insureds, whether across the customer experience piece, detection capabilities, or assisting staff in playing their parts.
From streamlining operations and reducing paperwork, to fraud detection and machine learning – which is already being used as an aid in some auto claims – the experts felt that by taking an “ethical” and “problem-solving” approach, those who harness technology – potentially including generative AI – will have the power to improve claims responses, and to better help insureds, who increasingly expect 24/7 experiences.
In Partnership with
Fraud and the economic environment of today
The climate risk challenge
Supply chain easing – but challenges remain
Tackling transparency in claims starts with clarity and caregiving