Canadian Underwriter

Category: Industry

How insurers can face real-world climate risks

It wasn’t your imagination, 2024 really was a climate risk turning point for insurers and reinsurers in Canada, panellists tell a session on global climate resilience at Insurance Bureau of Canada’s recent 2026 IBC InSight Summit.

“It kind of consolidated and brought to the forefront something that was happening over the years. And a lot of companies…were talking about this for many decades,” says Agis Kitsikis, market head for property and casualty reinsurance at Swiss Re. That ‘something’ is a trend toward multibillion dollar insured losses in Canada spurred by natural catastrophe (NatCat) events.

“This trend became really apparent in 2024,” he says. “Another key element to this is the ratio between losses that are climate related versus the peak risk of earthquake, given that we’re in Canada. [For] these secondary perils…the ratio of the contribution to this entire pool of loss moved from close to 30% in the first decade [of the 21^st Century] to 50% to 55% [in the] second decade, and now we’re close to 70%, 90% of losses coming from secondary peril.”

Risk on the ground

Bringing a client’s perspective to the discussion, Shashanka Suresh, director of sustainability and ESG at real estate developer Dream, says it’s getting harder for property developers and owners to ignore climate risk.

“In the Canadian context, the wildfires out West [have] been a little bit of a wake-up call. And even here in Toronto, wildfires in the northern part of the province have resulted in…smoky skies. That’s not something that we can ignore anymore,” he tells the conference.

“We are thinking about the value of our assets, but also the comfort of our tenants, because that becomes an important consideration for us….We’re sort of at an inflection point where climate risk is being talked about in different spheres.”

Commercial real estate firms have a close eye on how climate shifts will impact the value of certain properties, and how natural hazards directly impact real assets.

“But there’s some softer pieces that are [less tangible],” Suresh adds. “When Toronto had the extreme heat wave last summer, there were some stories of tenants legally going after their landlords because the [heating, ventilation and air conditioning] systems were not efficient enough to service them as tenants. And that’s a legal risk, that’s a reputational risk that we as real estate owners and operators need to be thinking about as an industry.”

In terms of planning, he says historical data is no longer adequate to determine risks to assets in various geographic regions.

“We’re now looking at probabilistic models, thinking through those different future scenarios [and] also looking at different time horizons,” Suresh says. “And the time horizons piece is interesting for real estate, because it can really help you strategize about your acquisitions and dispositions.”

Changing times

Looking at emerging data, Kitsikis says the key thing from an insurance and a reinsurance perspective is the underlying exposure. He notes companies’ concentration of exposure in NatCat-prone areas and economic drivers like inflation are combining to create significant cost issues.

“Forget about climate change,” he says. “If you have the same event happen today [that happened] 15 years ago, it would cost a lot more. And if you add the climate impact…it just amplifies that reality.”

Suresh says he’s seen risk amplification firsthand when visiting buildings that were constructed to building codes in place 20 or 30 years ago. Today, they cannot withstand weather patterns that have emerged in certain regions.

“When [one building I looked at] was built up to code about 23 years ago, it was taking into consideration the precipitation patterns at the time, and even after two or three extreme rainfall events, we are noticing now that…the drainage systems are not effective enough to drain all the additional water that’s now being collected on the roofs, and even this water in front of the building,” he tells the conference.

“We need to think about how climate risks are evolving [and] the pace at which they’re evolving.”

May 20, 2026
Insurers reveal more detail about their proposed quake backstop

Canadian property and casualty insurers are proposing a private-public earthquake backstop along the lines of the terrorism insurance backstop currently employed in the United States, the Insurance Bureau of Canada confirmed Tuesday.

“The industry’s proposed solution is known as the Canadian Earthquake Risk Protection Act (CERPA), and is modelled on the U.S. Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA),” IBC says in a paper published on the insurer association’s website. “TRIA has supported stability in the U.S. terrorism insurance market for more than two decades, by establishing a clear framework for sharing extreme tail risk between the government and the insurance industry.

“Although terrorism and earthquakes present different risk characteristics and market dynamics, TRIA demonstrates how a transparent, rules-based mechanism can reduce systemic risk and prevent market contagion after a catastrophic event. CERPA draws inspiration from these structural principles, while being tailored to the unique characteristics of earthquake risk in Canada.”

CERPA, like TRIA, “is designed to operate on a long-term, cost-neutral basis with no upfront public expenditure, while reinforcing insurer responsibility and preserving appropriate market incentives,” IBC says in a piece authored by Mahan Azimi, the association’s director of catastrophic and emerging risk policy team, and Christina Friend-Johnston, a communications manager at IBC.

Specifically, as in TRIA, taxpayers would be reimbursed for the government’s costs over the long term “by requiring the industry to repay any federal support through a temporary post-event premium surcharge, ensuring no upfront cost to taxpayers or consumers at the outset,” as IBC explains.

In the United States, if a terrorist attack is officially “certified” and industry-wide insured losses exceed the TRIA backstop’s trigger (currently $200 million), the US government reimburses part of insurers’ losses above their deductibles. The US government currently covers 80% of eligible losses above trigger thresholds, while insurers retain 20%. The US government recovers its outlay under a post-event premium surcharge paid by the US P&C industry.

Previously, CU reported information about the model published by the Property and Casualty Insurance Compensation Corporation. In its quarterly newsletter, Solvency Matters, PACICC CEO Alister Campbell says modelling for setting the proper ‘trigger’ would be critical.

“To the extent that any successful design will need to allow insurers ‘to fail’ (as antidote for ‘moral hazard’), there will also need to be accurate modelling to estimate how much failure the system can ‘afford,’” Campbell writes. “It seems very possible that the PACICC Systemic Risk Model (encompassing both federal and provincial insurers) will prove to be invaluable in supporting this modelling work.”

IBC says it’s 30% likely that Canada will see a Magnitude-8 or greater earthquake (“the Big One”) striking in Vancouver within the next 50 years. Plus, Montreal lies within Quebec’s most active seismic zone, which has experienced past earthquakes including a Magnitude-5.8 earthquake in 1732.

IBC cites a damage estimate suggesting a major earthquake in Canada could cause $52.6 billion in catastrophic damage. That’s 11 times greater than Canada’s current record-holding disaster, the 2016 wildfire that burned through Fort McMurray in Alberta.

Also in the news: Is insurance facing its Napster moment?

In previous reports, PACICC has said a damage loss exceeding $35 billion could create a “tipping point” after which multiple P&C insurers could fail.

To put that in perspective, MSA Research says Canada’s P&C insurance industry currently has approximately $66 billion in capital. That breaks down into $23.2 billion of minimum required capital, plus about $42.8 billion in excess capital.

“It’s important not to interpret the full $66 billion as capital available to absorb a single event,” MSA Research CEO Nevina Kishun tells CU. “The majority of this capital is already supporting ongoing risks across all lines of business, and insurers are required to maintain the minimum capital level.

“In practice, the [roughly] $43 billion of excess capital is the closer proxy for loss-absorbing capacity — but even that is not fully deployable without regulatory and market consequences.”

The industry has been calling for an earthquake backstop to prevent P&C insurance company failures for longer than a decade. In its 2025 budget, the federal government included a promise to consult with the industry on a quake backstop. Currently, the industry is calling for federally and provincially licensed insurers to be included in the discussion.

“Canada is the only G7 country with a significant earthquake risk that lacks a formal government-backed financial backstop for earthquake,” says Liam McGuinty, IBC’s vice president of federal affairs at the time the federal government released its budget. “Without a federal backstop, a major quake could trigger widespread financial instability.”

May 19, 2026
Is insurance facing its Napster moment?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the canary in the coal mine for the insurance industry, and the industry needs to prepare for what’s coming, speakers said May 11 at Insurance Brokers Association of Alberta’s Convention 2026 in Banff.

“This is the insurance Napster moment,” says Pete Tessier, president of MGA Taycon Risk and the Canadian Association of Managing General Agents (CAMGA), referring to the music sharing service that faced a copyright infringement lawsuit and was shut down in 2001.

“All of you in your offices have clients, that’s your music library,” Tessier says while moderating a Carrier CEO Panel at the conference. “You’re going to have to decide if you’re going to let AI come and take it from you, or if you’re going to own the AI and the technology.

“That’s the mistake the music industry made, and now they give away a million streams, and they get 12 cents for it.”

As an example, Tessier says he helped build an AI underwriting assistant, which took 28 minutes and could compare inspection reports against submission forms to see what was accurate.

“And if you put your heads in the sand and ignore it, there are going to be changes that you don’t want happening,” Tessier says. “It’s coming…it scares me a lot, because I don’t think we get the wave of this…”

Number 1 topic

Evan Johnston, president and CEO of Wawanesa, says he was in Europe about two weeks ago, talking to approximately 20 insurance company CEOs about what was happening in the industry and what we could probably expect to see in Canada. The topics ranged from talent to climate change and others, but the Number 1 topic was AI, Johnston says.

“It’s very clear to me that AI is going to change this industry, and it’s certainly going to change our organization,” Johnston says. “And when I talked to that group of leaders…there were some that were way ahead of us [and] some that were completely denying that this was happening.”

He adds Wawanesa hasn’t really used AI to “change customer experience, but that’s coming.

“The examples and the models that we saw just completely blew my mind,” Johnston says. “So to deny this is going to change our industry, I think, is negligent.”

Louis Gagnon, CEO of Canada for Intact Financial Corporation, recommends the industry use AI as much as possible — “test it, call places where you know that they’re using AI, look at what they do, how they do it, if the experience is good or the experience is not good…

“Ask your accountant to do a little exercise on how much he’s going to charge you, and do it on AI to see what’s the outcome,” Gagnon says. “And I’m not teasing here.”

Full transformation

Within five years, Gagnon predicts AI will transform the ways consumers are shopping. It will also transform the industry through claims and broker relationships, as well as provide industry professionals a chance to spend more time on value-added activity, he suggests.

“I think it’s also going to cut jobs,” Gagnon says. “I think it’s going to reduce the number of people in [an] organization…and it’s going to transform the workforce.

“So, I really think we cannot put our head in the sand and just think that, ‘Well, we’re going to be okay. Things are going to be a bit different. We’re going to be better,’” he says. “I think it’s going to be a bigger change than that.

“So, I think it’s fundamental that we test it, we try it, we play with it, and we try to see in our business where we can implement it,” Gagnon says, adding that some things will go wrong with AI.

“I also think that people in general are going to be very hungry and thirsty for human contacts,” he says. “They are going to be very, very happy to talk to people, to shake hands, to [look] people in the eyes. There’s going to be also that aspect that will not go away.”

Nav Dhillon, CEO of Aviva Canada, agrees the relationship element of insurance will not disappear.

“When a customer has just gone [through] a devastating event and wants to talk to somebody and ensure that their most-loved possessions are back with them or their home [is] rebuilt, [that] won’t go away.”

Dhillon also doesn’t see an end of the industry because of the core purpose of insurance — to help get people back on track.

“This industry has been around for centuries,” he says. “Aviva has been around for over 325 years. It will be around for another 325 or more.”

May 15, 2026
Definity’s strategy for integrating new business lines

Pricing is important, and it’s among the issues facing Definity Financial Corporation as it aligns the expense and loss ratio sides of the recently acquired Travelers Canada business with its own operations.

Those alignment opportunities vary by line of business, Rowan Saunders, Definity’s president and CEO tells a May 8 earnings call in response to an analyst’s questions.

On the commercial side, both Saunders and Obaid Rahman, Definity’s executive vice president for Commercial Insurance say, that market is divided between large account segments where competition has intensified, and smaller accounts.

“We’ve mentioned in a couple of quarters, that the market is bifurcated where competition is most intense in the large account segment,” Rahman tells the call. “Over 80% of our business is not in that segment. When we look at the renewal book that we have, we have strong retention, and we’re still getting strong rate on the majority of that book. We don’t really have any concern with how the renewal portfolio is performing, the margin it’s holding, no concerns there.”

Commercial approach

As for new business within commercial segments, underwriting discipline is pushing a shift in the portfolio mix to ensure Definity is writing more smaller accounts than larger accounts.

“What that’s doing is, it’s having an impact on the overall growth, premium growth percentage by about a couple of points, but we are gaining market share, maintaining our margin and we’re continuing to grow the customer base…,” Rahman tells the call. “We’ve talked about how well the Travelers’ integration is going. We expect that retention of that book to continue to strengthen as we move forward. We’re already very close to where the Definity retention is.”

Related: Definity Q1 earnings show Travelers integration producing results

With Q1 behind them, the company is onboarding new underwriters as part of the transition.

“The first wave of production underwriters from the Travelers side got deployed towards the end of Q1. The second wave is coming in Q2,” he says. “What we see is that extra capacity that will come on board, as well as the new products and capabilities that will keep on rolling through the year. That will give us a boost in growth.”

Meanwhile, the digital platforms on the small business side will help the company gain share on the specialty market side.

“We’re managing the cycle with a lot of discipline in terms of preserving margin. Our small business specialty, as well as the Travelers capabilities com[ing] on board, will continue to give us market outperformance and be sort of in that mid-single-digit range as we go through the year,” Rahman tells the call.

Overall, for commercial lines, and for personal lines home insurance, “there are not any material segments or portfolios that don’t fit our appetite or need significant actions,” Saunders says.

Personal auto probably had the most loss, Saunders says.

“There will be two things happening there,” he says. “There will be their own rate filings that started last year earning through. Then as it converts onto our platform, the portfolio will become aligned with Definity binding rules, segmentation, and pricing. That’s just automatically going to happen over the conversion cycle.”

May 15, 2026
What U.S. budget cuts mean for NatCat forecasts

Deep cuts to U.S. government funding for climate research and forecasting by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies will impact catastrophe modelling going forward, Daniel Raizman, global head of client engagement, Climate Risk Advisory at Aon, tells attendees at Insurance Bureau of Canada’s recent 2026 IBC InSight Summit.

“I get asked this question all the time,” he says in response to an audience question. And the short answer is, “Yes.”

Since January 2025, insurers have been framing their messaging around impacts of climate data defunding in terms of how brokers and insurers rely on the data, he says. And this narrative addresses the importance of those data sets to banking and industries that drive key economic sectors.

“We’re notably facing a big setback in terms of research [organization] and potential threat of this data [disappearing], but we’re trying to come at it from a business perspective and say, ‘Hey, we personally rely on this data every day. This is how risk is transacted day-to-day across the insurance and reinsurance industry,’” he tells the audience. “We really care about the preservation of this data.”

Raizman adds the data creates significant value in catastrophe risk management, even without application of a climate lens.

“I would say, 90% of the work I do and the questions I get asked are around, ‘What’s my flood risk today? What’s it look like tomorrow?’” he says, adding clients are less likely to ask what 2050 will look like.

“And I think we have a challenge in managing that as well, because…the language of certain climate modeling is often mid-century, end-of-century. But the reality is that most people care about, ‘What does the next five years look like? What do I face today? How did I get yesterday wrong and [how can we] be better tomorrow?’”

Related: Environmental risks take backseat on list of business leaders’ concerns — in the short term

Much of the conference session’s main portion addressed Canada’s protection gap between what’s covered and what could or should be covered by policies. Panellists spoke to risks around wildfires and flooding that have exposed gaps for Canadian insurers and insureds, as well as inflation’s impact on restoration and replacement costs when customers have claims.

That sparked an audience question on the viability of a future public policy role in closing that gap.

There is work underway with the federal government on building a public-private partnership to help address that gap, notes Ravi Mahabir, vice president of climate at Intact Financial Corporation.

He says such public-private partnerships exist in other jurisdictions, including France and the U.K.

“There are many different constructs that have been deployed in terms of those public-private partnerships to address protection gaps. There are lots of lessons. That’s a good thing,” he tells the summit.

“Public policy is important; a blend of public and private partnership in deploying insurance mechanisms to provide affordable insurance to those high-risk areas. And that should really be a time-bound offering, in that those public private partnerships should really facilitate not just an insurance solution but also risk mitigation, such that those partnerships have phased out period over time.”

There also are misunderstandings within the general public around why insurers might need to reduce coverage or pull out of specific areas where risks are too high, adds Raizman.

“We often get in a blame game…when there’s lack of understanding around the risk that they face, and in realizing that these are businesses at the end of the day.”

May 14, 2026
Where Definity is seeing gains from the Travelers integration
Definity Financial Corporation posted $36 million in run-rate expense synergies linked to integration of Travelers Canada business into its operations during 2026 Q1, according to management’s discussion and analysis (MD&A) included in its quarterly regulatory filings.

(Run-rate expense calculations determine a company’s operating costs on an annualized basis by extrapolating short-term spending, quarterly in this case, over a full year.)

Provided the first-quarter trend holds, that means Definity is “in position to achieve run-rate expense synergies of at least $100 million (pre-tax) within 36 months of close,” according to the company’s MD&A.

“We now expect to realize approximately one-third of our $100 million target in the first 12 months, and the remainder over the subsequent 24 months,” the filing adds.

Related: Definity Q1 earnings show Travelers integration producing results

Three main sources for synergies identified by the company include:

technology platform consolidation, as acquired personal and commercial volumes migrate onto Definity’s platforms

elimination of service charges from Travelers’ U.S. parent company

“operational efficiencies driven by elimination of duplicative and administrative activities and the benefits of scale.”

During a May 8 earnings call with investment industry analysts, Definity president and CEO Rowan Saunders notes: “While these initial savings are largely from the elimination of U.S. parent company service charges and proactive attrition management, the next phase of synergies will be driven by technology platform consolidation and operational efficiencies as the integration progresses.”

He adds discipline around costs to achieve those savings are equally important.

“To date, we have incurred approximately $93 million in acquisition costs and recorded $44 million of integration-specific expenses, keeping us firmly on track with our total estimate,” Saunders says, adding the careful execution shows up on the company’s balance sheet.

“Our debt-to-capital ratio is already down to 26.8%, approaching our long-term target of 25%, well ahead of our 24-month guidance. Even after funding this major acquisition, our total financial capacity remains robust at more than $1.1 billion, putting us in an enviable position to fund future organic growth and deliver on our capital priorities.”

Business priorities

One goal emphasized during the earning call is retention of the acquired Travelers Canada business.

“If you just look at the total growth in the first quarter of 35.4% to $1.4 billion overall…we’d say about 80% of that growth is coming through the acquired business in the first quarter,” chief financial officer Philip Mather tells the earnings call in response to a question on breakdown of the 2026 Q1 earnings growth. “Now, attribution to that gets less simple as time goes on, because with the pace of integration, we’ve already unified the new business offering. Trying to split that between the acquired operations versus the underlying run rate activity gets more complex as you go.

“That said, if you take the 35.4% and you…simply isolate out the impact of the retained premiums that we acquired through the deal, the split for that is just over 27% [and] is coming from the retention of the acquired premiums in the quarter. Just over 8% is coming from the underlying organic growth of the business, combined with the Travelers new business contribution in that quarter.”

For context, he adds, that 27% from the acquired business represents a roughly 82% retention rate for that block of business. “That’s already within just a couple of points of our company-wide retention rate,” Mather adds.

Investment income and capital growth

Another plus from the Travelers acquisition was a 60% growth in net investment income to $79.9 million during the quarter, Mather tells the earnings call. He notes the change was “driven primarily by the large asset base from the acquisition,” along with the company’s repositioning as fixed-income yields increased.

“Given this strong performance on our view of the current yield environment, we now expect our net investment income for the full year 2026 will be approximately $320 million,” he adds.

“Our broker distribution platform operating income grew by nearly 25%, driven by strong policy growth and favorable contingent profit commissions earned on a high-quality portfolio.”

And, in response to an analyst question about Definity’s financial capacity of $1.15 billion following the close of the Travelers Canada transaction being “higher than we would have expected,” Saunders replies the company is “very happy” with the outcome.

“Our experience is that this would not put us on the sideline for other opportunities that come by…,” he tells the earnings call. “We’re happy to keep building up some of that capital because our conviction is that there will continue to be M&A opportunities in the Canadian marketplace over the next couple of years.”
May 13, 2026
2026 Q1 Cat updates: When less is more

Flood watches, warnings, and outlooks remain in place across Ontario as the spring thaw continues. However, based on national 2026 Q1 results, natural catastrophe (NatCat) claim numbers are down.

“Only two Cats have been declared this year,” says Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction managing director Glenn McGillivray, “both small.”

Although the first quarter is generally pretty quiet for NatCats in Canada, even a slight drop is still good news. NatCat losses dropped in 2025 to around $2.4 billion after an historic $9.4 billion dollar high in 2024. Last year, however, still clocked in as the tenth most expensive year on record. In fact, according to CatIQ, 2025 losses ranked second overall in terms of catastrophes declared and in ice storm losses. The year also topped the list in declared fire catastrophes.

Q1 insights and outcomes

“Comparing Q1 this year to Q1 2025, the losses are 15% of last year,” says Laura Twidle, CEO at CatIQ. Twidle notes that while the first quarter of 2026 did bring a few thousand claims around common seasonal snow, freeze, thaw, and melt events, there were still fewer year-over-year NatCat events and claims.

Also in the news: Brokers’ next big E&O risk

Intact Financial Corporation, parent company of Canada’s largest carrier, referred to 2026 Q1 Cat activity as “benign.” Executives on the company’s 2026 Q1 earnings call told investors first-quarter Cat losses were $141 million, driven primarily by winter storms and large property losses in the UK. Overall, including the company’s US and UK operations, Intact expects $1.2 billion of annual catastrophe losses in 2026, with about one-third of that expected in the second and third quarters.

Adjusters make similar observations.

“Overall activity has been relatively moderate so far this season,” says Christine Segaric, director of Cat response for ClaimsPro. Segaric says volumes are tracking slightly below last year and ClaimsPro has not seen a meaningful increase in claims related to recent weather events. “That said, it’s still early in the season, and we will continue to monitor conditions closely.”

McGillivray points out that the four record events in 2024 all happened within about six weeks and totally changed the complexion of the year in a very short time. As a case in point, he cites the Fort McMurray wildfire with $4 billion in insured loss. There is, he notes, also no final data in terms of the recent events in Northern Ontario. “It will take time to see how those events shake out.”

Melt events in Q2

Twidle notes the snow, freeze, thaw, and melt events so far this year are in similar locations witnessed at the same time last year. “We typically see [them] in Ontario and Quebec each winter,” she says. A spike in warm temperatures in late April drove a rapid thaw and elevated water levels at the start of Q2.

An Ottawa River rising led some residents in Gatineau, Quebec, to voluntarily evacuate last month, for example. At least 200 buildings flooded and a few hundred more were at risk. Quebec City also saw several road closures due to heavy rainfall.

Conversely, though since lifted, states of emergency were declared across parts of Northern Ontario during that same time. Ontario’s Flood Forecasting and Warning Program highlights the 19 districts impacted. As of May 7, only a few of those districts remained under flood warnings, including the Lake Nipissing Shoreline and some of its surrounding areas.

Based on declining water levels and projection data, Greater Sudbury lifted its State of Emergency on May 1 and moved into its recovery phase. The municipality’s Flood Waste Relief Program has also been initiated “to help support residential property owners affected by flooding who do not have flood insurance.”

While the industry awaits the claims numbers and claims costs associated with these events, Q1 results are still worth noting. Yes, the year can change in what McGillivray calls “the snap of a finger,” but for now, the industry can enjoy this seasonal win.

May 13, 2026
Environmental risks take backseat on list of business leaders’ concerns — in the short term

Societal polarization, geopolitical tension, and economic slowdown are all dominating risk professionals’ heat maps right now, but insurance leaders see a lot of concern about environmental risks looking 10 years ahead.

With the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East effectively shut down by naval blockades, a tenuous ceasefire in place in a war between the United States and Iran, and global energy prices escalating as a result, insurance leaders in Canada are noting the current pace of global crises is bewildering.

One insurance CFO joked with Canadian Underwriter at a recent conference that rare global risks — events that used to happen only once or twice in decades — now happen on a weekly, if not daily basis.

A former CEO of AIG in Canada, Lynn Oldfield, made a similar point in a recent keynote address at the Insurance Institute of Canada’s 2026 annual symposium in Toronto. She referenced a recent study by Global Risk Institute of 11,000 business leaders representing 116 economies around the world.

“What was the Number 1 takeaway when they amalgamated all that data and all those questions? Uncertainty. From every corner of the globe, in every possible way,” Oldfield said. “This is an unprecedented time….Why? It is characterized by so many risk files.

“But it’s not [just] that. It’s the pace, and the fact that they’re all happening at the same time. And that’s what’s really frustrating.”

Only 10% of business leaders in the GRI survey predicted a calm and stable global outlook over the next two to 10 years. Fifty-seven percent said it’s going to be turbulent or stormy.

And the environment, once a top political priority as of the Global Paris Agreement in 2015, seems to have fallen by the wayside, taking a back seat to other global risks.

Also in the news: ‘Right now means right now:’ How urgency reshapes broker workflows

“Risks are spiraling in scale, intensity and velocity,” Oldfield said. “And I think it’s the velocity we’re feeling right now. Tech risks are growing unchecked. Societies are on edge, and environmental concerns, which is a big one for our industry, are being deprioritized.”

Oldfield showed a slide with “top risk concerns” over time.

Between 2020, and 2023, environmental risk dominated the minds of business leaders.

For example, in 2021, ‘climate action’ and ‘biodiversity’ were two of three top concerns out of five. And in 2022, three environmental risks rated among the Top 5 concerns, including climate action, extreme weather events and biodiversity. In 2023, the two environmental concerns listed are a ‘failure to mitigate climate change’ and ‘natural disasters.’

But between 2024 and 2026, only one of the top five concerns were environmental in nature, with technological concerns beginning to dominate, and polarization remaining a top societal risk. State-based armed conflict is a top political risk in 2025 and 2026.

“We know that green [colour-coded] risks matter to our business, and you will see throughout catastrophic weather events. It really matters to us.”

Over the longer term, out of 10 global risks identified, five environmental risks are of the greatest concern, including extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, and critical changes to Earth’s systems — all ranked one through three out of 10 — followed by natural resource shortages (6) and pollution 10).

“Look at 10 years out, look at all that green,” said Oldfield. “Look at how worried business leaders are. That’s a lot of green, and that means we’ve got to get at it.”

May 12, 2026
Brokers less optimistic about growth in 2026

Brokers’ confidence in a strong financial future is slipping, according to Canadian Underwriter‘s 2026 National Broker Survey.

Sixty percent of 169 brokers surveyed predict their brokerage’s financial performance over the coming year will be ‘somewhat better’ or ‘much better’ than last year. That’s still a majority, but pales in comparison with the 74% of brokers who said the same thing in 2025. That’s a 14-percentage-point drop.

A further 33% say their brokerage’s financial performance will be static, against just 23% last year. Seven percent say it will be ‘somewhat poorer’ in 2026, compared to only 3% making that prediction last year.

What’s driving the erosion of optimism?

A slower economy, for one, say broker owners providing verbatim responses to the survey. Also, several principals cite shifts in client preferences as well as changes to regulation, with the latter expected to ding the bottom line while simultaneously improving client retention.

“My forecast is based on the auto reform that is supposed to come in next January,” says one broker in a large firm with more than 100 employees. “It is expected that average premiums will reduce, and retaining clients may be easier than it is this year.”

A respondent at a small firm adds: “Economy’s…slow, and customers can’t afford the insurance cost.” Another, small-firm owner adds, “The poor Canadian economy is a hindrance to growth in our brokerage.”

Related: How brokers are earning their ‘trusted advisor’ stripes

Women brokers are more likely (83%) to predict improved growth than men (52%). Small firms (73%) are rosy about growth, followed by brokers at large firms (50%) and those at mid-sized companies with between 20 and 99 employees.

Those newer to the industry (16 or fewer years in a brokerage) and veterans (with 31 or more years under their belts) tie at 67% for saying finances will improve in 2026. Those at mid-career (16 to 30 years in the brokerage business) are the least optimistic at 50%.

Broker principals who predict financial results will stay the same or grow marginally also reference Canada’s trade-impacted economy. “We hope to hold our own or grow a little, [the] present state of economy is slowing us down,” says a veteran broker owner at a small firm.

And a mid-career broker at a large firm notes, ‘The soft market in commercial lines did have an impact on our 2026 forecasting.”

Other commenters describe their growth trajectories as “significant” in verbatim comments to the survey. A mid-career owner of a small firm says the burgeoning mergers and acquisitions trend is helping her business.

“Consolidators are having the most impact on my business,” she tells the survey. “As long as consolidators keep giving [bad] service, I will do incredibly well.”

Canadian Underwriter’s 2026 National Broker Survey heard from 169 brokers, with 32 identifying as brokerage owners or principals. The survey was conducted in February 2026, with support from Sovereign Insurance.

May 11, 2026
Definity Q1 earnings show Travelers integration producing results

Integration of Travelers Canada’s operations into Definity Financial Corp. is happening at a pace that’s “ahead of expectations,” Definity says in it’s 2026 Q1 earnings report.

Definity’s $3.3-billion transaction to acquire Travelers Canada closed on Jan. 2.

Policy conversions are underway, Definity reports, and $36 million “in run-rate expense synergies” have been captured during Q1. That means the company is ahead of schedule to reach a $100-million ‘synergies’ target.

“Our first quarter results reflect our new position as a Top-5 P&C insurer in Canada…and our conviction in the strategic benefits of the deal has only increased, underscored by a strong start on our synergy plan, achieving an annual run-rate of $36 million by quarter-end,” Definity president and CEO Rowan Saunders says in a May 7 press release.

“While this initial pace of synergy capture will moderate, it puts us in an excellent position to deliver on our three-year, $100-million target. Our top-line growth of 35.4% is consistent with our expectations, providing a solid start towards our $6.5-billion, full-year premium target.

“Our overall profitability is also evident, delivering a combined ratio of 92.9% – a significant result, as we absorbed the initial impact of the acquisition ahead of realizing planned synergies. This early success across all fronts is a testament to our combined talent and aligned cultures, and it positions us for sustained outperformance.”

The 35.4% gross written premium (GWP) growth during the quarter reflects good onboarding and retention of the acquired business, along with organic growth that’s expected to meet a targeted $6.5 billion, the company says.

On the numbers, 2026 Q1 GWP rose $364.5 million (35.4%) against the comparable quarter in 2025. Personal lines GWP climbed 36.1% due to “acquired premiums as well as organic unit growth, and rate increases.” For commercial lines, GWP jumped 34%, again due to acquired premiums, “as well as pricing increases and ongoing market share gains in small business and specialty lines,” the release notes.

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GWP for personal lines jumped 36.1% in 2026 Q1, “bolstered by the acquired premiums, with strong growth in our broker channel,” the release says, adding GWP for the direct channel rose 2% in 2026 Q1. For personal property, GWP rose 37.3%. And for personal auto, it increased 35.3% in 2026 Q1 due primarily acquired premiums “and continued rate achievement.”

Definity’s overall combined ratio (which adds incurred losses and expenses and divides that number by earned premiums) hit 92.9% during Q1. The combined ratio for personal auto insurance was 97.5% in 2026 Q1, matching 97.5% in Q1 last year. For personal property, the 2026 Q1 combined ratio was 85% (against 94.1% in 2025 Q1), reflecting a drop in losses from natural catastrophes compared to the same period in 2025, as well as “a decrease in the core accident year claims ratio.”

For commercial lines, the 2026 Q1 combined ratio reached 90.5%. “This resulted from the inclusion of the acquired business and its associated expenses, which we expect will temporarily increase the claims and expense ratios prior to the benefit of future planned synergies,” the release notes.

Meanwhile, underwriting income reached $100.1 million during first quarter.

“The diversified earnings power of the combined business was clearly evident this quarter, with strong performance from all our profit drivers. For the first time in our history, we delivered over $100 million of underwriting income in a first quarter,” Definity Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Philip Mather said in the release.

“Our broker distribution platform also showed excellent momentum, with broker operating income growing 24.9% year-over-year. Net investment income grew over 60% to $79.9 million, driven by the acquired assets and our proactive portfolio management.”

May 8, 2026