What happened: Nova Scotia’s insurance regulator approved a 1.5% auto rate increase for Security National Insurance Company.
Who’s involved: Security National Insurance Company and the Nova Scotia Regulatory and Appeals Board.
What’s at stake: A 1.5% overall premium increase on private passenger, motorhome, and historic vehicle policies.
Why it matters: The renewal cap for drivers with no at-fault accidents drops from 15% to 10%, changing what returning policyholders see at renewal.
Where it stands: Approved – new business effective December 14, 2026; renewals from January 29, 2027.
Security National can now charge Nova Scotia drivers 1.5% more for auto coverage – but it is the renewal cap shift that brokers should watch.
The Nova Scotia Regulatory and Appeals Board approved Security National Insurance Company’s application to increase rates across private passenger vehicles, motorhomes, and historic vehicles in a decision issued November 9, 2026.
The rate bump on its own? Small. The overall increase sits at 1.5%.
The more significant change came bundled with the rate filing.
Security National currently caps how much a renewal premium can rise or fall for drivers with no new at-fault accidents: increases limited to 15%, decreases limited to 5%. Under the approved changes, the ceiling on increases drops to 10%. The floor stays put.
For brokers fielding renewal-season calls, that is a practical shift. A returning policyholder with a clean record who might previously have seen a 15% renewal jump will now be capped at 10%.
The board required Security National to show that limiting decreases did not have a bigger premium impact than limiting increases. The insurer’s numbers checked out: the overall effect of capping decreases came to 1.3%, below the 1.5% effect of capping increases.
Security National’s requested increase is well below what its own actuarial analysis called for. The company’s last approved filing in 2025 produced a 14.9% overall rate increase. The leftover gap from that filing – recalculated after new industry rating tables were adopted in August 2026 – pointed to a larger increase than the 1.5% requested this time.
That means the company’s profit margin on these policies will fall below the board’s target range of 10% to 12% return on equity. The board accepted the shortfall because the proposed change still narrows the gap.
The application qualified for the board’s fast-track process, available when proposed changes come in at 5% or less across all coverages combined. Board staff recommended approval across the board. Security National had no objections to the staff report.
New rates take effect December 14, 2026 for new business and January 29, 2027 for renewals. The next mandatory rate filing deadline stays at August 1, 2027.
Brokers writing auto in Nova Scotia will want to flag the tighter renewal cap for clients approaching renewal in early 2027 – the swing a clean-record driver can expect just got smaller.
The decision was issued by the Nova Scotia Regulatory and Appeals Board. No appeal or challenge is noted in the decision reviewed.
