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Are insurers fully unlocking the value of prevention?
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Echelon Insurance was founded in 1998 and became a member of the CAA Club Group of Companies (CCG) in 2019. As a leading specialty insurer, Echelon works closely with its broker partners to provide personal and commercial insurance solutions to protect Canadian families and businesses. For more information about Echelon, visit www.echeloninsurance.ca.
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“When insurers contribute expertise that helps businesses reduce risk, maintain operations, and protect their people, they demonstrate value long before a claim occurs”
Everett McCallum,
Echelon Insurance
FOR DECADES, one of the sector’s core promises has been straightforward – that when the worst happens, the insurer is there to pay the claim. And while that promise remains at the heart of the industry, in the face of extreme CAT events and increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, a real opportunity has opened up for insurers to rethink their overall value proposition.
Insured damage caused by severe weather events exceeded $2.4 billion in 2025, according to Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. This makes 2025 the 10th costliest year on record for severe weather–related insured losses in Canada.
And claims costs have risen significantly. According to a June 2026 report from Statistics Canada, insurers have faced a sharp rise in catastrophic weather-related claims, with average annual payouts nearing $2 billion since 2009, up from roughly $400 million between 1983 and 2008. The financial toll has been particularly severe in recent years, with annual insured losses hitting $3.4 billion in 2022 and $9.4 billion in 2024.
“Claims data and risk intelligence provide valuable insight into where and why losses are occurring and which trends are emerging across industries,” McCallum tells IB. “They help businesses move from reacting to events to being better prepared should they occur. Claims trends, industry insights, and risk intelligence help businesses identify emerging risks, benchmark their practices, and make more informed decisions.
“The most effective risk management decisions are based on a combination of past loss experience, a strong understanding of current operations, and insight into emerging risks and future trends,” he explains. “Together, these considerations help organizations identify vulnerabilities earlier, prioritize risk mitigation efforts, and focus resources where they can have the greatest impact on mitigating losses.”
Proactive, not reactive, claims handling
Going into 2027, it seems as if risk is constantly evolving, giving rise to new, more dangerous challenges. Cybercrime, for instance, has long been one of insurers’ biggest concerns, with Allianz’s Risk Barometer citing cyber incidents, including ransomware attacks, as the top global business risk for the fifth year in a row. For both insurers and brokers, that threat makes knowing where to focus prevention efforts more important than ever before.
“Organizations should take a tailored approach to risk mitigation by focusing on their most significant exposures, maintaining effective controls, and preparing for potential disruptions,” says McCallum. “Doing so helps strengthen resilience, improve business continuity, and support more constructive underwriting conversations, ultimately contributing to long-term sustainability.”
Shifting clients’ mindsets begins at first contact – that critical opening conversation. The 2025 National Broker Survey found that 96 percent of brokers described themselves as a “trusted advisor on insurance and risk matters” to clients, with 76 percent adding that proactively informing clients about emerging risks and exposures was a way they built trust.
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“We’ve also placed greater emphasis on the partnership between customers, brokers, and insurers, recognizing that effective risk management is a shared responsibility”
Everett McCallum,
Echelon Insurance
Although growing loss trends have reinforced the importance of prevention, Echelon Insurance has long viewed its role as extending beyond claims. While the industry is increasingly focused on delivering value before a claim occurs and shifting the relationship from payer to partner, Everett McCallum, director of technical risk services at Echelon, says that approach has been central to his team’s work from the start.
‘The role of the insurer is changing’
“As losses increase in both severity and cost, the role of the insurer is changing,” he adds. “Customers need a strategic partner who can help them identify, understand, and mitigate risks before they result in a loss. Insurers that invest in experienced risk engineers can provide practical, hands-on guidance tailored to a customer’s operations, helping them address emerging exposures, strengthen controls, and improve resilience.
“When insurers contribute expertise that helps businesses reduce risk, maintain operations, and protect their people, they demonstrate value long before a claim occurs. That value becomes tangible when customers can see how concrete controls, earlier identification of exposures, and better preparedness can reduce the potential for loss. This proactive approach to risk management is what transforms insurers into trusted advisors.”
The industry already possesses a larger source for achieving that goal, namely, the information generated by the losses it has seen before. Not only does historic claims data provide insight into individual incidents, but it can also be indicative of wider loss trends – pinpointing where losses are happening more frequently and, importantly, why.
Published October 5, 2026
Canada’s costliest severe weather events in 2025
Since 2009, insurers have paid nearly $2 billion per year on average in catastrophic weather-related claims. That’s a rise from approximately $400 million annually between 1983 and 2008.
Annual insured losses reached $3.4 billion in 2022 and $9.4 billion in 2024.
Catastrophic weather reshaping Canadian home insurance
McCallum says that brokers are in a unique position because they have that ongoing, two-way dialogue with customers from the start.
“Proactive risk management discussions allow brokers to move beyond coverage conversations and become strategic advisors,” he explains. “By sharing insights into customers’ operations and evolving needs, brokers and insurers can work together to develop practical solutions that improve preparedness, strengthen resilience, and help prevent losses before they occur.”
From an insurer’s perspective, the competitive advantage
here lies in investing in risk engineers, whose expertise should be embedded in the client journey from the start – not after a loss materializes. As McCallum notes, risk engineers can provide insights that go far beyond what can be learned from applications, inspections, or loss history alone, helping insurers understand how a business operates, identify potential vulnerabilities, and assess whether existing controls remain effective as risks evolve.
Hands-on risk mitigation
“Risk engineers can translate claims trends, industry data, and emerging risk intelligence into actionable recommendations that help customers strengthen controls and reduce the likelihood of loss,” says McCallum. “Integrating risk engineering earlier in the customer journey allows businesses to address concerns proactively and creates opportunities for more collaborative risk management planning.”
This is where Echelon’s team of experts comes in. Echelon has been practising this proactive, mitigation-led approach for years – and the results can be seen in its client–broker relationships.
“While risk management has traditionally focused on historical loss experience, today’s environment requires a broader perspective that considers emerging exposures and changing risk conditions,” McCallum says.
Through its Technical Risk Services (TRS) team, Echelon provides brokers and customers with risk assessments, technical guidance, educational resources, and practical risk mitigation support that help identify exposures and support business continuity.
July Calgary hailstorm
March 28-31 Ontario and Quebec ice storm
May Flin Flon and La Ronge wildfires
August
Prairie severe storms
December BC atmospheric river series
$490m
$300m
$235m
$160m
$90m
0
100
200
300
400
500
Insured losses ($ millions)
Source: Insurance Bureau of Canada
Source: Statistics Canada
“In recent years, we’ve also placed greater emphasis on the partnership between customers, brokers, and insurers, recognizing that effective risk management is a shared responsibility,” says McCallum. “Through open communication, brokers can bring customer concerns and emerging risks forward, ensuring the right expertise and resources are applied at the right time. This collaborative approach supports more informed decision-making and helps customers better understand, manage, and mitigate risk before losses occur.”