Canadian Underwriter

Category: Operations

  • How insurers can face real-world climate risks

    How insurers can face real-world climate risks

    Flooded office because building is no longer up to code

    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 21st 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.”

  • Are client supplier cyberattacks increasing in Canada?

    Are client supplier cyberattacks increasing in Canada?

    Cyber logistics and transportation network concept

    Nearly two-thirds (65%) of Canadian companies that suffered a cyberattack in the past 12 months indicate a supplier was involved, according to research from business insurer QBE. That’s up from 58% last year.

    In Canada, 57% of businesses experienced one or more cyber events over the past 12 months, slightly higher than last year (53%), QBE Canada says in a press release Tuesday. Among affected businesses, 65% suffered at least one cyberattack that was related to a supplier and 58% experienced revenue loss (up from 51%).

    For the study, market research firm Opinium surveyed 400 decision-makers handling IT, administration or insurance at businesses with between 100 and 2,000 employees in Canada. The survey was fielded from March 31 to April 20, 2026. The 2026 global survey covered 15 countries, with a total sample of more than 6,000 businesses.

    Canadian Underwriter has heard cyberattacks involving suppliers have been increasing. At the Insurance Brokers Association of Alberta (IBAA) Convention 2026 last week, BOXX Insurance president Jonathan Weekes anticipated this trend would continue. Supply chain or infrastructure-related breaches will increase in Canada as organizations shift toward cloud-based solutions or standardized software platforms to run their business, he says.

    And, at its 2025 Insurance Conference in Toronto last November, KPMG said it was seeing more ‘hybrid’ cyberattacks targeting both first and third parties.

    Cyber insurance take-up increases

    The good news from a cyber insurance perspective is that more Canadian businesses are purchasing cyber coverages. Seventy-two percent now have cyber insurance, compared to 67% last year.

    QBE also reports Canadian businesses are taking various steps to safely roll out artificial intelligence (AI) within their operations, from training staff on responsible AI use, to checking data quality or monitoring outputs for bias. However, these businesses worry their vendors might not be taking similar measures. Indeed, 63% of Canadian businesses are concerned about potential risks arising from how their suppliers use AI.

    “AI risk doesn’t stop at the internal perimeter,” Kyle Gray, underwriter team lead at QBE Canada, says in the release. “Organizations need the same level of discipline and oversight across their third-party ecosystem, because weaknesses in the supply chain can quickly become risks to the business itself.”

    To mitigate third-party vulnerabilities, QBE suggests businesses should:

    • Implement strong identity and access management (IAM) protocols, which control who can access technology resources and what they’re allowed to do once granted access
    • Run regular configuration audits
    • Encrypt sensitive data across all cloud environments
    • Evaluate the security posture of third-party providers
    • Establish clear protocols for managing supply chain exposure.

    Emerging AI threat

    According to QBE’s research, one in three Canadian businesses (33%) also experienced cyber incidents in the past 12 months that they believed leveraged AI, with phishing among the most frequent methods.

    And 16% of polled Canadian businesses experienced a cyber event in the last 12 months that resulted in business interruption of one working day or more (down from 18% in last year’s study).

    The research found two in three respondents (65%) are concerned about cyber threats their business may experience over the next 12 months, a smaller proportion than last year (78%), but still prompting investment.

    Most Canadian businesses say their IT cybersecurity budget is going to increase over the coming year (31% say these investments will be in line with inflation and 31% say it will exceed the inflation rate). More than eight in 10 (83%) have an incident response plan, up from 79% in last-year’s survey.

    AI is becoming ubiquitous in the Canadian economy, with 97% of businesses using it (83%) in 2026 or looking into using it (14%), up from 94% last year.

    Increasing operational efficiency and productivity are among the top motivations for deploying AI, with more than half of businesses rolling out the technology mentioning these objectives.

    “As new technologies such as AI become embedded in operations, effective risk management remains fundamental to ensuring sustainable and resilient growth,” Gray says.

  • Definity’s strategy for integrating new business lines

    Definity’s strategy for integrating new business lines

    Business insurance icons float over laptop

    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.”

  • Meet Aviva Canada’s new chief people officer

    Meet Aviva Canada’s new chief people officer

    Aviva Chief People Officer Anne Berend

    Aviva Canada has appointed senior human resources executive Anne Berend as Chief People Officer, effective June 1, 2026.

    Berend has 30 years of experience across the financial services, telecommunications, technology, and consumer goods sectors.

    “I’m delighted to welcome Anne to my senior leadership team,” Aviva Canada CEO Nav Dhillon comments. “Anne’s deep expertise in talent management will be invaluable as we continue to build on and elevate the brilliant culture and world-class teams we have at Aviva.”

    Most recently, Berend was the chief human resources officer at Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, responsible for enhancing areas including talent management, succession planning, and performance management.

    Before that, Berend headed up the Human Resources departments at RSA Canada and Meridian Credit Union. In addition, her LinkedIn profile shows five years of executive human resources experience with Rogers Communications from 2012-17, as well as with IBM and Coca Cola before that.   

    In this new role, Berend will report to Aviva Group and will be a member of Aviva Canada’s executive committee.

  • Where Definity is seeing gains from the Travelers integration

    Where Definity is seeing gains from the Travelers integration

    Abstract synergy representation with hands turning coloured cogs

    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.”

  • Brokers less optimistic about growth in 2026

    Brokers less optimistic about growth in 2026

    Businessman shows thumbs down on a financial graph

    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.

  • ‘Right now means right now:’ How urgency reshapes broker workflows

    ‘Right now means right now:’ How urgency reshapes broker workflows

    Businessman walking in crowds of walking people. 3D generated image.

    For brokers, urgency used to mean the occasional last-minute vehicle pickup or same-day home closing. Now, many say it defines the entire workday.

    “Right now means right now,” said Pak Selvarajah, registered insurance broker at My Insurance Broker, describing the growing number of same-day requests brokers are navigating daily.

    Brokers say the workflow itself has changed. Once a more linear process — handling renewals, quoting new business, and servicing clients in sequence — the workflow is now a constant state of triage. Urgent requests, remarkets, underwriting timelines, and client demands are all competing for immediate attention.

    As workloads increase, brokers are rethinking how they organize and prioritize their workdays.

    Selvarajah says he now relies on multiple systems to manage volume, including calendars, CRM software, and manual task lists to keep urgent files from slipping through the cracks.

    “Two years ago, maybe I had five things to do today,” Selvarajah said. “Now I have 15 things on my list.”

    That pressure is changing how brokers approach client service.

    “Speed is a factor,” Selvarajah said. “But now I’m trying to look at what’s actually going on and how we can help the client.”

    Heavy workloads also strain operational processes, thereby changing the relationship between brokers, underwriters, and technology providers — particularly in cyber insurance, where response expectations and threat environments continue to accelerate.

    Also in the news: How Intact expects auto reforms in Alberta and Ontario to change its bottom line

    “People have an expectation now to get responses quicker on a variety of levels,” said Erik Tifft, global head of underwriting at Boxx Insurance, a cyber specialist.

    That expectation forces insurers and MGAs to rethink underwriting workflows.

    “It’s less about prioritizing the urgent from the non-urgent,” Tifft said. “It’s about treating everything as urgent and using technology to make us faster and more efficient.”

    Increasingly, that means relying on AI models, automated underwriting logic, and threat intelligence systems to rapidly process straightforward submissions while escalating more complex risks for human review.

    “It’s not sequential anymore,” said Neal Jardine, Boxx’s chief claims and cyber intelligence officer. “It’s stacking.”

    Rather than moving submissions step-by-step through underwriting, pricing, and intelligence reviews, multiple assessments now happen simultaneously to accelerate turnaround times without weakening risk analysis.

    The goal, Jardine says, is not necessarily to reduce pressure, but to change where human expertise is applied.

    “AI is not going to reduce the pressure,” he said. “It’s going to change the pressure and allow you to focus on the areas that you truly add value.”

    But Boxx executives say the next competitive advantage will not simply be speed.

    “The next phase of the market isn’t necessarily about who’s going to do it the fastest, but who’s going to do it the smartest,” Jardine said.

  • Why so few P&C insurers globally are successfully scaling AI

    Why so few P&C insurers globally are successfully scaling AI

    Stairs Leading to Flying Paper Plane - Success, Growth, and Freedom, 3D Render

    Property and casualty insurance organizations throughout the world are leaving money on the table by narrowly using AI to create “efficiencies” without fundamentally changing the human-centric processes that prevents them from scaling AI, a new global report says.

    “AI strategies that mainly focus on efficiency create natural pressure for near‑term returns,” says the CapGemini report, The intelligence era in P&C, released this week.

    “According to our analysis of the top 20 [global] P&C insurers, ranked by gross written premiums earned (S&P Global, 2025), only 35% explicitly link their AI strategy to business outcomes beyond efficiency.”

    The report highlights a small group of intelligence trailblazers, roughly 10% of insurers, that are using AI to the best competitive advantage. Compared to their P&C insurance industry peers, these organizations have increased revenue growth by 21% and have bumped up their share prices by 51% over a three‑year period.

    “These organizations outperform peers on revenue growth and share price performance by treating AI as a core operating capability, not just a technology initiative,” the report states.

    P&C organizations need to change in three ways simultaneously to make the most out of AI, the report notes. They need to make technological changes, address talent changes, and also make operational changes.

    Changing tech

    Most organizations are focussing simply on the tech side, the report says.

    “Insurers’ spending patterns make the challenge clear,” the report states. “On average, 72% of AI investments go toward technology and infrastructure, and only 28% to change management.

    “That imbalance leaves many programs short of the organizational support required to move from pilots to full‑scale implementation.”

    Changing talent and roles

    It’s not just a matter of installing the AI, accessing and capturing unstructured data, and developing the data sets required for AI analysis, CapGemini notes. To make AI a core operating capability, companies must address talent and operational gaps as well.

    For example, many agree only human experts can make judgment calls about an appropriate use of AI. This is what CapGemini describes as an “expert‑centric P&C insurer.” And they include “orchestration managers,” who translate business strategy into AI principles and govern how intelligence scales across the organization.

    Without these types of experts, AI isn’t scaled. “But with them, [AI systems] become coherent, well‑governed systems.”

    In addition to orchestration managers, three other types of leadership are required, says the report:

    • Executive leadership sets guardrails
    • Human subject matter experts such as underwriters, claims specialists, and distribution specialists define outcomes and establish the accreditation frameworks AI must meet before they’re trusted to act
    • Experts who handle situations when high‑volume work gets escalated, and complexity exceeds defined thresholds.

    Collaboration between these experts across various departments in an organization remains a work in progress, CapGemini says.

    “Changing how work gets done remains the central challenge, even for those already ahead on strategy, technology, and adoption,” the report says. “Forty-nine percent of employee time is spent on cross‑team collaboration, yet most AI tools operate at the individual task level, automating work after decisions are made rather than shaping those decisions.”

    Ideally, AI would give executive and team members real-time access to data they need to shape strategic decisions, the report says.

    To do this, a company will need to shift its focus from using only structured data to unstructured data. But only 12% of insurers reported high maturity in data readiness.

    Changing operations and process design

    Finally, insurers need to change their operations to incorporate the introduction of AI.

    “AI has been added to workflows built for humans, including sequencing, handoffs, and decision points, none of which were originally intended to incorporate AI,” the report states.

    On top of that, insurers need to address their workers’ suspicions about AI.

    “Forty-three percent of employees cite job security as one of their top concerns about AI, and 25% worry that the transition to AI will increase rather than reduce their workload,” the report says. “Employees navigating genuine uncertainty about their future are unlikely to lean into a technology they associate with displacement.

    “Until insurers address process design and the trust deficit together, transformation will remain out of reach.”

  • Are broker referral programs becoming more important?

    Are broker referral programs becoming more important?

    Woman using a megaphone to lure a client who looks skeptical

    Referral programs are always a key driver of broker business, but they’re viewed more favourably this year, say respondents to Canadian Underwriter’s 2026 National Broker Survey.

    For 2026, 56% of respondents identify referral programs as a primary sales and marketing activity. That’s up from 50% last year, 54% in 2024, 52% in 2023 and 45% in 2022.

    “My most effective tool has been client referrals,” says a verbatim reply by a newer broker at a smaller firm. “By providing clear advice, fast service and ongoing support, clients feel confident recommending me to others. This has been effective because referrals come with built-in trust, and it has led to steady growth in my client base without heavy marketing costs.”

    Says another respondent: “Customer referrals – word of mouth brings in the best kind of customers.” Several other verbatim respondents note good service is the best generator of quality referrals.

    Men responding to the 2026 survey (59%) are a bit more sold on the value of the referrals than women (52%). And those at mid-career (61%) with between 16 and 30 years on the job are most likely to favour referrals, as are those at small firms (50%), compared with their peers.

    Brokers are less convinced about the value of traditional advertising, with 34% of 2026 survey respondents saying the tactic works for their firms, compared to 35% last year. Women (42%) are more likely to favour advertising than men (25%) and support for the tactic hovers within the 30% band for all firm sizes and age groups.

    “We find public engagement by sponsoring community events gives us more visibility than traditional advertising,” says a woman respondent who works at a large firm with more than 100 employees and who is newer to the business.

    Related: Brokers see rapid digital change as a major challenge for the channel

    Another respondent who’s also newer to the brokerage and works at a mid-sized firm, stresses the value of step-by-step relationship building. “Traditional correspondence via phone and email [and] being accessible and quick to respond with competency and proving relatable to the client are the best tools,” he tells the survey.

    “AI and software are an imitation and have their use, but are not the solution to maintain the broker-client relationship and will ultimately lead to high client turnover [and] shorter customer lifespan and subsequently higher premiums.”

    Webinars, whitepapers, blogs and other customer education tools come in third at 32% in 2026, up from 29% last year. A broker working at a large firm who’s newer to the business says customer education tools support retention, reduce “complaints or surprises at claim time,” and drive better coverage decisions and trust.

    “Educating our customers reinforces us as the ‘trusted advisor’ and directly impacts long-term business health,” he tells the survey.

    Rounding out the Top 4, 28% of respondents say public relations and media outreach are important marketing tactics. That’s down from 32% in both 2025 and 2024, and 34% in 2023.

    And, apparently, some firms are so successful that they don’t need to market.

    “Our brokerage owner does not want to grow our business,” says a mid-career broker at a smaller firm. “He feels we can barely keep up with the clients we have, so does not invest in attracting new clients.”

    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.

  • Navacord brokerage expands commercial platform ambitions

    Navacord brokerage expands commercial platform ambitions

    Navacord brokerage Jones DesLauriers Insurance Management Inc. (JDIMI) has announced a strategic partnership with Valebrook Family Office Inc. to support the growth and expansion of a commercial insurance platform across North America.

    Valebrook is a multi-family office providing strategic advisory, capital solutions, and operating expertise to ultra-high-net-worth families, entrepreneurs, and institutions, JDIMI says in a press release Monday.

    “Founded in Toronto, Valebrook is focused initially on Canada and Florida,” the company says on its website.

    The deal became effective Apr. 1. “The partnership brings together Valebrook’s advisory-driven approach and strong client relationships with Navacord’s national brokerage capabilities, creating a platform positioned to deliver comprehensive insurance and risk solutions to business owners and enterprises,” Navacord says.

    The collaboration is focused on building long-term client relationships and delivering tailored risk management solutions across key sectors including real estate, construction, manufacturing, and logistics.

    Navacord says the deal reflects “a broader industry shift toward integrated advisory and risk solutions, as clients increasingly seek coordinated guidance across insurance, capital, and strategic planning.”

    With more than 5,000 industry professionals and 150+ offices in Canada, Navacord delivers expert advice and tailored solutions in commercial and personal insurance, travel and specialty, group benefits, retirement, and financial planning.

    Last November, Navacord began transitioning its broker partners to operate under a unified, national brand, although some legacy brands remain in transition. The rebranding process brought six broker partners under the Navacord banner:

    • Waypoint Insurance Services and Waypoint Benefits & Financial Services
    • Seafirst Insurance Brokers
    • Lloyd Sadd Insurance Brokers and Lloyd Sadd Consulting
    • Iridium Risk Services
    • Ives Insurance Brokers
    • Insurance Store.

    Over the years, Navacord and its broker partners have made numerous deals, including a mega-merger in February between Navacord Corp. and Acera Insurance Services Ltd.

    Combined, the two brokerages will place $7.2 billion in insurance and employee benefits premium and have $7.5 billion in retirement assets under management. Familiarity, scale, geographic diversity and product mix all played a role in the deal, the brokerages told Canadian Underwriter in February.

    The two brokerages will work under their own brands until November and then will come under the Navacord banner, said Navacord president and CEO Shawn DeSantis and executive chairman T. Marshall Sadd.