Steve Lucas appointed vice president of national accounts at ACE Canada
Posted on January 25th, 2012
ACE Canada, the Canadian-based operating division of the ACE Group, has appointed Steven Lucas as vice president of national accounts.
Lucas will be responsible for leading the business development strategy and will act as the principal contact for ACE Canada’s national account segment. He will report to David Brosnan, country president of ACE Canada.
Lucas has approximately 10 years of insurance experience. Previously he served as assistant vice president for ACE Canada’s management liability division. He started his career with ACE Canada in 2005 as a senior underwriter specializing in directors and officers insurance.
Court finds direct writer didn’t explain optional benefits properly, but dismisses action against Meloche Monnex
Posted on January 15th, 2012
The Ontario Superior Court has found that a direct writer breached its duty of care in offering optional benefits to a consumer. Nevertheless, the court dismissed the claim against Meloche Monnex because it found the claimant would not have purchased the optional benefits anyway.
The case concerns an auto accident that occurred in May 2007. It does not address optional benefits offered under the reformed Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (SABS). Under the new SABS, implemented in 2010, a wider array of optional benefits is available to consumers.
In , the plaintiff in the case, Nicola Zefferino, was a named insured under a policy offered by Meloche Monnex.
Tags: Meloche Monnex, Monnex, Optional Benefits
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Law Society of B.C. expands lawyers’ professional indemnity coverage to respond to “bad cheque” scams
Posted on January 3rd, 2012
The Law Society of B.C. (LSBC) has broadened the scope of lawyers’ professional indemnity coverage to respond to trust fund shortfalls resulting from various forms of “bad cheque” scams.
Typically, the scams involve between $200,000 and $350,000, with one matrimonial scam approaching $2.6 million, noted a report presented to the law society’s board of directors in December.
The report says a common version of the scam has a client retaining a lawyer to recover an outstanding debt from a third party.
The lawyer sends a demand letter to a third party on behalf of the client. The lawyer will subsequently receive a bank draft from the third party that covers all or a certain portion of the debt owed. The lawyer will then deposit the cheque into a trust account, deduct his or her legal fees, and then issue a trust cheque to the client for the balance.
Tags: Bad Cheque, Indemnity Coverage, Professional Indemnity Coverage, Scams
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Matching touring caravan insurance to your reality
Posted on December 11th, 2011
If you are searching for touring caravan insurance, it may pay to think carefully about the cover provided by the policy and how that matches your own reality as a caravan user.
Contrary to what you may believe, not all touring caravan insurance is more or less the same.
No short article of this nature can give a full overview of points to look for, however, there are a few things worth noting in general terms.
Mileage allowances
Policies may differ significantly in terms of their allocation of what they consider to be a standard annual mileage.
If your real usage is likely to be higher, then you may have to pay an increase in premium.
Tags: Caravan Insurance, Reality, Touring Caravan, Touring Caravan Insurance
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Insurers should use multi-model approach to reduce catastrophe model uncertainty
Posted on December 5th, 2011
2011-12-08
Insurers can reduce catastrophe model uncertainty and better estimate risk by adopting a multi-model approach, a Guy Carpenter report says.
In Managing Catastrophe Model Uncertainty: Issues and Challenges, Guy Carpenter examines three strategies for using multiple models to narrow the “uncertainty band” inherent with the use of cat models.
The uncertainty band is the plausible range above and below the cat model’s probable maximum loss (PML) estimate in which the true (but unknown) value may fall.
Advances within the modelling industry have reduced the width of the uncertainty band, Guy Carpenter says. But as insurers consider smaller areas of geography, additional uncertainties are introduced.
Tags: Catastrophe Model, Catastrophe Model Uncertainty, Model, Model Uncertainty
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Ontario Risk Sharing Pool shows signs of improved results in 2011 H1, a possible indicator of effectiveness of auto reforms
Posted on November 26th, 2011
Ontario’s Risk-Sharing Pool (RSP) and Facility Association Residual Market’s auto loss ratios showed signs of improvement in the first half of 2011, possibly indicating a positive effect of the 2010 auto reforms, said Graham Gersdorff, senior valuation analyst at the Facility Association.
Gersdorff spoke at KPMG’s 20th Annual Insurance Issues Conference in Toronto on Nov. 24. He offered insights into whether or not the 2010 auto insurance reforms are helping to stem soaring loss ratios.
Gersdorff offered several caveats and insisted it is still too early to draw a concrete conclusion as to whether or not the improvement of loss ratios in both the RSP and FARM are a result of the reforms. But by looking at the data, one could infer the possibility that the reforms are having a positive impact, he said.
Tags: Auto, Sharing Pool
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