“Do you drive for Uber?” asks Toronto insurance company
A Canadian insurer is specifically asking policyholders if they drive for Uber. Wawanesa Insurance of Toronto has added the question to renewal questionnaires and says it will cancel policies if drivers check ‘yes’. “Kudos for them because they’ve actually informed their customers correctly on this topic,” Philomena Comerford, president and CEO of Baird MacGregor Insurance Brokers LP told The Toronto Star. The exclusion also applies to other similar services such as Lyft which is not currently operating in the city.
Cargill to sell crop division to Silveus
Silveus Insurance Group will acquire the crop insurance business of Cargill in a deal announced late Tuesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Cargill has been looking to restructure its business units, with other divisions also sold during 2015.
SHIP executes reinsurance transaction with Teachers
Senior Health Insurance Company of Pennsylvania (SHIP) has announced that it has executed a reinsurance transaction with Teachers Protective Mutual for SHIP to reinsure all of Teacher's long-term care business. Teachers’ CEO Edward Young said that the mutual’s small size has seen it struggle with the challenges of long term care. As part of the transaction, SHIP will initially provide 100 percent coinsurance of the block of long-term care policies Teachers Protective Mutual holds, and will seek to assume the Teachers policies into SHIP in 2016. The transaction has obtained all required regulatory approvals necessary to proceed.
This nation could become a major insurance market
Global insurers could be allowed to invest in one of Asia’s emerging insurance markets. Myanmar has recently launched its Financial Regulatory Department which will oversee insurance in the country. It has been working with the Thailand’s financial regulator on training and Japanese insurers are already offering help to the industry in Myanmar to develop products. With the potential for foreign insurers to gain further access to the market, currently estimated to be worth U$40 million, there is already interest from North American insurers.
A third “don’t make enough money” to worry about financial planning
Health and wellbeing will be the focus of many American consumers as we head into 2016. That’s one of the findings of a poll by
Allianz Insurance Services of North America asking consumers about new year’s resolutions that they intend to keep. While that may not be surprising, the survey also found that a third of respondents are not interested in any form of financial planning because they “don’t make enough money to worry about it.” There is some hope for insurance brokers and agents though as the poll found that consumers are likely to be prompted to get professional help with protecting their finances when free advice is offered.
