How vulnerable are your clients to Canada’s most common natural disasters? A new free app released this week by
Aviva and the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) ranks users’ personal risk to the nation’s most frequent environmental hazards including flood, forest fires, severe wind, winter storms and earthquakes. Dubbed Plan & Protect, the app will provide users, based on their data, with personalized risk reports, and tips such as how to prepare a72-hour emergency kit. The app can also store auto and home insurance policies so users can have necessary information about their coverage at their fingertips.
The app’s release is in support of Emergency Preparedness Week (May 1 – 7), and $5 will be donated to the Red Cross with each download. The app will also work in offline mode should Wifi access not be available due to a weather-related emergency when information is needed.
Said Irene Bianchi, EVP of national claims at
Aviva Canada, “Canadians who download the Plan & Protect app will have the information they need to protect their family and homes, even if Wifi isn’t available.”
Severe weather-related incidents are a growing concern in Canada, costing insurers an average of $200 million between 1989 and 2008, according to the
Insurance Bureau of Canada’s 2015 Fact Book. Recent years have proven more costly, with insurers on the hook for a record $3.2 billion in 2014 when particularly tumultuous weather – including the Toronto ice storm – caused widespread damage to homes, trees and infrastructure.
The catastrophic floods in Alberta during the summer of 2013 were the costliest ever natural disaster in Canada, with losses of $1.74 billion.
