Ontario’s car insurance industry is undergoing significant change: -the provincial government is overdue on its promised 5-year product reform update. -rates are rising sufficiently to warrant media attention – often with a cumulative annual impact of +10%. -a few insurers are “dumping” policyholders, even though they may not have had a claim. Does this make it the right time  more...

The government of Samoa – a small nation in the South Pacific – declared a 2-day national holiday last week for its 180,000 citizens; the reason was somewhat unusual.  Essentially, the governing authorities wanted – no, needed – fewer vehicles on the road, while everybody re-learned to drive. Why would drivers, some of whom had been  more...

One of the most crucial risk management questions our clients ask is: “How much liability insurance should I carry?” This question is critical in managing risk for anybody owning a vehicle, a residential property, a business, or for anyone involved in the operation of any organization, or almost any mobile equipment. My usual response is: “Buy as  more...

As the global financial catastrophe continues to unfold 18 months after it started (and 1 year after the massive American meltdown – think AIG, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac), one has to wonder: what have we learned? More specifically, to what reasonable standard do we hold our financial institutions, in the managing of  more...

Hurricane Bill has lost his identity, petering out somewhere in the North Atlantic; but he led the headlines last weekend as he threatened the maritime provinces. For those of us who were around in the final decade of the last millennium (remember way back to the 90’s??), such events evoke memories of Hurricane Andrew,  more...

Next month marks a dubious anniversary – one year since the US subprime financial meltdown reached a climax, at least in terms of public consciousness.  September 2008 saw daily headlines of announcing the failure or near-failure of: Merrill Lynch (emergency takeover by Bank of America); the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers (the  more...

Recent studies indicate that consumer’s attitude towards insurance fraud is “softening” – that is, more people find it morally acceptable to commit insurance fraud, particularly during a period of economic downturn. In Canada, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) estimates that between 10% and 15% of all claims paid contain an element of fraud. Premeditated fraud is  more...

Those of us living in Ontario this summer have had a tough time finding evidence of global warming.  But the weather is unusual in much of North America – the result of some form of climate change. And the changing climate is causing more damage because of something as simple as changes in rainfall. Let’s put this  more...

This past week saw a report by the federal Privacy Commissioner in which the ubiquitous social networking site Facebook, was cited for violating Canada’s privacy laws.  Although the criticisms are seen by some as excessive and even contradictory, they represent a bureaucratic attempt to protect the 12 million Canadians currently using the site. What is  more...

Falling hard on the heels of the worst month (June) for insured aviation losses since 9/11, July has worsened air disaster results for 2009 with the crash Wednesday of a Caspian Airlines jet in Iran. The Russian-built Tupolev jet crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran, killing all 168 passengers and crew.  This is the 6th commercial  more...