Insurance brokers are in a good position to give advice to clients about emergency preparedness, but are they in fact initiating these kinds of conversations with their clients?
Mike Smith of Axis Insurance Managers in B.C. says his brokerage takes a proactive approach, trying to engage clients in emergency planning discussions at every available opportunity. The brokerage uses social media, blogs, and even emergency preparedness seminars to help clients think about what they can do to prepare for disasters – emergency kits and their contents, phone lists, etc.
Smith said clients are more likely to adopt emergency preparedness tips if they have developed a close relationship with their insurance brokers.
“I think it has to do with approach and relationship,” said Smith. “If you commoditize the clients, they aren’t going to take a lot of advice from you. They will see you once a year; maybe they will renew it and maybe they won’t and go somewhere else.
“But if you create that relationship with them and they are looking to you for advice on these things, they are more open to hearing what you have to say. When information comes out about the likelihood of events happening in our area, the more likely they are to listen and possibly even take action.” (continued.)
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Smith was asked about his brokerage’s activity in the context of Emergency Preparedness Week in Canada. Canada’s property and casualty insurers, represented by Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), said the week allows insurance professionals to start discussions with insureds about what to do before, during and after public disasters.
“Severe weather is on the rise across Canada,” said Ralph Palumbo, vice president of Ontario for IBC. “Events that used to happen every 40 years can now be expected to happen every six. Homes are damaged more frequently by heavy rainfall, hail damage, storm surges, tornadoes and hurricanes. This makes it even more critical to know how you can protect your family and your home in the event of an emergency.”
Loide Arpea of Canopy Insurance Services said she finds that clients better respond to advice geared towards more localized, personal experiences. For example, large-scale public disasters such as earthquakes seem so large as to appear unreal, but clients can identify with smaller-scale definitions of “emergencies” that more directly affect them.
“I think they [clients] think of emergencies more on a personal level – a fire, theft, or water damage, or something like that,” said Arpea. “That’s something they are more aware of. Those are the types of conversations we have with them.”
Brokers are best prepared and able to offer loss control advice, said Glenn McGillivray of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR), an independent, not-for-profit research institute established by Canada’s property and casualty insurers. In partnership with Desjardins Insurance, the ICLR retrofitted a Quebec home to reduce the impact of winter storm and earthquake. The home was unveiled during Emergency Preparedness Week.
But several brokers contacted for the story said advising on emergency preparedness measures is not something they do on a formal basis. “Never really crossed my mind, to be honest,” said one Alberta broker. “We just make sure they have a policy to rebuild their house if their home burns down.”
Others say a broker can also add value in the way they respond to a disaster once it happens.
“If someone phones in in a panic, we get someone on the spot,” said Andrew McVey of McVey Bros Insurance Brokers. “We will have a restoration company that will go out and get the insured fixed up. We want to be the first point of contact on a claim.”
