Ontario Insurer Q&A Series: Echelon Insurance

Despite media perception, this simply isn’t true. In Ontario, the government plays a large role in regulating insurance rates to ensure that consumers have access to the insurance coverage that they need, and that insurers offer this coverage at fair rates. While your automobile insurance rates may seem high, the bulk of the premiums collected are spent on the cost of claims. For every Ontario automobile premium dollar that insurers collect, on average, $1.03 goes to claims costs and expenses – from repairing vehicles, to providing medical care for automobile accident victims.

As a publicly traded company, Echelon is in business to make a profit for our shareholders, however, we are also committed to reinvesting our profits back into our systems, and ongoing product development to ensure that we are partnering with our brokers to offering the right coverage.

In addition to stringent government regulations, insurers face the ongoing challenges of unpredictable weather events, consolidating competitors with growing economies of scale, and rapidly evolving technology.

We think that a focus on technology will be one of the best ways to make the auto industry fairer. At a very basic level, technology speeds up the policy process, improves customer experience, and gives insurers insights to design and fairly price better insurance products. While Echelon isn’t the biggest player in the game, we are committed to continually improving our technology to make insurance easy and fair for our customers and brokers. At the same time, we work with our broker partners to better understand the unmet insurance needs of Ontario drivers and business owners, so that we can offer fair and accessible products to give them peace of mind.

Most importantly, we believe that consumers will find the fairest insurance by working with a broker, who has access to a wide range of insurance solutions, and their best interest in mind.

Well there have been many interesting home insurance claims in our near 20-year history. We had a claim a couple years ago involving a tree that feel through the insured’s roof. Upon inspection of the loss, the adjuster came across a family of raccoons in the attic of the home. We had to deal with this unexpected surprise and arrange repairs, after the successful relocation of the raccoon family.

Take your time, do your research and consult with an insurance broker. This is one of the most important purchases of your life and you want to make sure you find the coverage that fits your needs. Brokers understand the risks that your unique home may be susceptible to, and they can recommend coverages from a wide range of insurance companies, that are suited to your unique needs. The cheapest insurance is not always the best coverage.

Immediacy is key. It’s important to report your claim right away as it gives our claims team a head start in resolving your claim. In some cases, we may even be able to prevent further loss, like in the event of a flood or other property damage.

During the claims process, it is important to work closely and with your insurance company’s claims professionals, and provide them with as much information as possible. Being accessible and collaborative will help to move your claim along, so that we can get you back to your pre-claim state!

It also goes a long way to make notes and take photos where and when possible. This can help prevent information from being lost or forgotten.

Many insurance companies, including Echelon have set up after-hours services, so you can report your claim anytime and anywhere. Don’t wait, report your claim!

We think that there will always be a need for auto insurance; however, the normalization of self-driving cars will add complexity to the system. Today, we have an established system for determining the cause of most car accidents to determine which insurance company or party should be held responsible for the cost of damages. With self-driving cars on the road, this dynamic will undoubtedly change, and we will now have to determine whether a vehicles hardware, software, or human error led to an automobile accident. Layer in the possibility of cyber-attacks, and it becomes even harder to determine the cause of an accident.

While car manufacturers may consider providing insurance for their hardware, and even software, we think that the expertise of insurance companies and brokers will always be required – although the products and services that they offer will likely evolve alongside technology.

We feel that the customer’s postal code and or location will always be a factor in insurance rating, geographically dependent factors such as population density, traffic patterns and availability of services are always going to be key driver of loss costs. Newer advances like using geospatial coordinates or satellite imagery allow for specific aspects of a consumer’s risk exposure to be analyzed and compared, but address continues to play a key role in risk. In terms of gender, we think that the progression and expansion of available data will allow us to see if the insurance industry’s previous notions of gender are in fact still accurate. In the end, the data will decide what factors should be considered in rating!

Dogs, and cats that act like dogs, as they are loyal and survive and thrive by working together.