This week, Beneva, Canada’s largest mutual insurer, and Gore Mutual, one of the country’s oldest property and casualty mutual insurers, announced their intent to merge operations by 2026.
The landmark decision will see both entities combined under the Beneva brand, and bring together more than 6,000 employees, approximately $8 billion in total premium, and $27 billion in assets.
Chief executives of both carriers spoke to Insurance Business about the merger and what it means for Canada’s insurance landscape.
For Andy Taylor (pictured on the right), CEO of Gore Mutual, the decision to enter a merger was driven by their "Next Horizon" strategy.
“Five years ago, we launched our Next Horizon strategy with a clear goal: to start from a position of strength and embrace change before it’s necessary,” Taylor told Insurance Business.
“We looked 10 years ahead to understand the macro trends shaping our industry—consolidation among competitors, distribution shifts, and the growing impact of climate change—and asked how a company like ours, with 186 years of history, could continue to thrive.”
Taylor said the strategy identified two key imperatives that ultimately led to the partnership with Beneva: first, the need to achieve true scale, diversification, and access to capital to secure our future; and second, a strong belief in the mutual model.
“We saw an opportunity to create a compelling alternative in the market by building a high-performing mutual that could compete with the industry’s largest players,” Taylor said.
At the same time, Beneva was looking to expand its presence nationally beyond Quebec and saw the merger as a strategic move to accelerate its growth, particularly in Ontario and Western Canada.
According to Jean-François Chalifoux, president and CEO of Beneva (pictured on the left), the two organizations found alignment in their shared values, vision, and commitment to mutualism, which made them well-suited partners for this merger.
“For Beneva, this merger marks an exciting next step in a somewhat different but very similar journey,” said Chalifoux. “When we created Beneva in 2020, we knew our organization – while strongly rooted in Quebec – needed to position itself for growth across Canada, including Ontario, Atlantic Canada, and the western regions.”
Initially, Beneva’s priority was to merge entities and operations. But Chalifoux said they also aspired to design Beneva as a growth platform. This vision comes as mid-sized mutuals faced mounting challenges, including technology, compliance, demographic shifts, economic fluctuations and labour shortages.
“Today, we’re navigating even more complex challenges, such as cyber threats, artificial intelligence, and generative AI, issues that weren’t even on the radar in 2020,” Chalifoux said. “We believed strongly that we would be stronger together than apart in an increasingly competitive and rapidly evolving world.”
The CEOs emphasized the benefits of the merger for policyholders, brokers, and employees by creating a more robust, resilient, and technologically advanced mutual insurance provider that can better compete in the evolving industry landscape.
In the near term, policyholders should expect no immediate impact, as it will be "business as usual" for Beneva and Gore Mutual. In the longer term, policyholders can expect more product offerings nationally, as the combined organization begins to offer more enhanced products and services.
Brokers can expect Beneva to be a stronger, more resilient partner, providing a meaningful panel of choice. The merger will bring Beneva's capabilities to the rest of Canada, and brokers will benefit from the combined organization's leading-edge technology and service offerings.
Gore Mutual will operate as a standalone subsidiary under Beneva, maintaining its offices in Cambridge, Toronto, and Vancouver. Taylor said he expects employment in these regions to increase as the combined organization grows.
“Over the past five years, our company has undergone a remarkable transformation through our Next Horizon strategy,” said Taylor. “We’ve implemented industry-leading technology, doubled our workforce, introduced straight-through processing, and built a highly modern, scalable business. This progress makes this partnership particularly exciting because of our strong alignment and shared values.
“We’ve followed Beneva’s story closely, and their vision as a modern mutual with a forward-looking approach resonates deeply with us. We share a commitment to mutualism, respect for legacy, and a desire to compete with the industry’s largest players while preserving what makes us unique.”
Ultimately, both organizations have a shared commitment to protecting the heritage and legacy of both companies, while modernizing and scaling the business.
“I’m proud that Andy, myself, and our teams have found common ground to make this partnership a reality,” Chalifoux said. “This is a testament to the strength of mutualism in Canada, and we’re excited to build an even stronger future together.”
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