Advice from last year’s annual Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario convention on embracing analytics proved prophetic during the summer of flood. Will this year’s convention speakers look just as deeply into the crystal ball for 2014?
Last year’s convention speaker Jean-Francois Blais, president of Intact Insurance, today more resembles Nostradamus – after urging insurers and brokers to offer more specific pricing for individual homeowners’ true water damage risk by embracing analytics.
“The homeowners’ package covers many perils,” says Jean-Francois Blais told IBAO delegates in October, 2012. “There needs to more education on how each peril is contributing to the cost of the policies, so people can change their habits.”
This year’s 93rd annual Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario convention kicks off today, and it all started with a few words of motivation from keynote speaker Terry Jones, founding chairman of Kayak.com and Travelocity.com and author of ON Innovation.
Connecting with customers online and doing more with less was the message during the Fundamentals of Innovation morning session.
Blais – who pointed out the trend among Canadians towards renovating basements, including keeping more expensive items downstairs, an area of the home at risk of flooding – returns this year as a member of the CEO discussion panel for the Thursday afternoon session. (continued.)
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“People who want significant, wonderful home theatres in their basements will obviously have to live with the consequences” in terms of paying higher premiums, said Blais. “We need to give consumers the option of saying, ‘You know what? We don’t need coverage for my basement or very minimal coverage for my basement.’ Now, there is more of a one-size-fits-all (policy). I see a more tailored approach as we go into the future.”
By using analytics, Blais argued, insurers and brokers could theoretically segment between those who are at high risk of flood damage and people who, for example, might place their prized possessions in areas of the home less prone to water damage. Ideally, people who remove their high-priced items from flood-prone basements would be eligible for discounts on their home insurance.
The record-breaking claims produced by this summer’s June flooding in southern Alberta, and July flood of downtown Toronto, underlined the industry opinion that water has indeed become the new fire.
The IBAO convention runs until Friday at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto, Ont.
