Many Financial Institutions in Canada have become more active in abroad.

Canada's expansion over the Globe have enabled them to grow in spite of the maturity of Canadian Financial market. 55 percent of the revenue is from the foreign operations of Canadian Life insurance companies. United States is considered as the key foreign market for Canada. A number of Canadian Insurance Industries have substantial interest beyond the US, for example South East Asia and a lesser extent in Latin America and Europe. From estimation it is seen that more than 110,000 Canadians are employed in the life and health insurance sector, making it a significant contributor to Canada's economy. About 57,000 are employed full time by the insurers while the remainder work as independent agents. In total, the life and health insurance industry employs more people than the forestry, chemicals, or pulp and paper sectors. Established in 1964, Insurance Bureau of Canada is the national industry association representing Canadas private home, car and business insurers. Its member companies represent 90% of the property and casualty (P&C) insurance market in Canada. The P&C insurance industry employs over 114,000 Canadians, pays more than $7 billion in taxes to the federal, provincial and municipal governments, and has a total premium base of $40 billion, approximately half of which is derived from automobile insurance.

Canadian Insurance Companies

Insurance has been called the most important export of the Canadian financial services industry. There are a large number of insurance providers in Canada, but there is a concentration at the top due to a financial revolution that has hit the once sleepy world of life insurance. The Demutualization revolution Ten years ago a large chunk of the Canadian life insurance scene was in the mutual sector, where a company is owned by the policy holders and is not quoted on the stock exchange. While this had the advantage of sharing all profits with the shareholders it also has the disadvantage that there are few reserves and no easy way of raising capital when there is a problem. Some life insurance providers are still mutually owned, examples include the Co-Operators and the insurance arm of the Desjardins group, a credit union federation that is the largest financial institution in Quebec. In 1999 the Canadian government passed a law that put in a simple process for mutual health and life insurance companies to "demutualize". Policyholders could vote on proposals to turn mutually held companies into companies getting either shares or cash as compensation. Life Insurance Life insurance in particular has grown dramatically in Canada in the last twenty years. Life insurance now covers more than 80% of Canadian households, and so there has been a certain amount of saturation. Some of the biggest insurance companies in Canada are specialist life insurance providers, such as the biggest Manulife whose full name is the Manufacturers Life Insurance Company. Other massive life insurance specialists include Great-West Life Assurance Company, Sun Life, Empire Life, Standard Life and the Economical Life Insurance Group.

Investment Management There has been a certain amount of diversification away from life insurance due to the saturation of the market. This has been in three ways, overseas expansion, going into other forms of insurance or dealing with other areas of long term saving - particularly investments. Insurance based policies have traditionally been a popular form of long term saving for those who are not confident with the stock market, and pension annuities are essentially a reverse life insurance policy, paying out if you don't die. Life insurance companies have been keen to stress their specialization in this area by providing investment services, and in many cases by giving their investment services division a different name and identity. Even relatively small life assurance companies such as Assumption Life have built up impressive asset management arms. Health Insurance In Canada health insurance tends to be sold as a complimentary product to life insurance with a number of life insurers such as Great-West having built up strong health insurance branches. Auto Insurance Auto insurance is an area of strong competition for Canadian companies. This is largely due to the fact that it is one of the easiest areas for American companies to break into, for example the Illinois based giant State Farm has a very strong presence in Canada. Mortgage Insurance Mortgage insurance is one of the few areas that has a sizeable direct government presence with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation taking two thirds of the market. Commercial Insurance Commercial Insurance tends to be a very specialized area. The Dominion is a generalist insurer which has made its name here, and the American Insurance Group (AIG) also built up a big book before needing to be rescued by the United States government. The oldest insurance company in Canada, the Guarantee Company of North America has a niche specialism in insuring Government procurement projects. The Co-Operators, who were founded by Saskatchewan wheat farmers, are the biggest providers of farm insurance (although they also sell life insurance and in fact this is what they started selling). Insurance companies in Canada Big Insurance Providers Canada has for a long time been a good place for insurance providers with a stable economy and a base of well educated predominantly middle class consumers. This has meant that a number of insurers have grown to be very big indeed and are international companies. A number of large insurance providers in Canada control between them just over 50% of the insurance market. Manulife Financial Corporation - The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company is Canada's largest insurance provider and the second largest in the NAFTA region. It has extensive overseas operations in Asia and owns John Hancock Insurance, a large insurer in its own right within the United States. The Great-West Life Assurance Company, or Great-West, is one of the largest life and health insurers throughout Canada. Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc. (which

incorporates the Clarica Life Insurance Company - formerly Mutual Life) The Dominion - Its full title is the Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company. It was founded by the first Prime Minister of Canada in 1887, and so is part of the commercial life of Canada. It is a general insurance company that runs across most sectors of the insurance market Specialist Life Insurance Providers As well as some very big firms that get the bulk of their fees through life assurance there are a number of "small" firms which would be considered big if they were operating in other sectors. Empire Life - Also Empire Vie it has grown through acquisition to be one of the top 10 insurers in the country. It incorporates the Concordia insurance group.. The Economical Life Insurance Group PC Financial (President's Choice Financial) - This is a brand of the Loblaws supermarket chain Assumption Life - Based in New Brunswick and with strong local roots in the French speaking Accadian community Standard Life - Edinburgh based parent company Desjardins Financial Security Life Assurance Company Home and Auto Insurance providers There are a number of providers who specialize in the Home and Auto market, although some of them are expanding into Life insurance. SSQ Financial - Quebec based company which offers a range of personal insurance products and is quite strong in the Real Estate market Insurance Corporation of British Columbia - Owned by the provincial government of British Columbia State Farm Canada - Subsidiary of America's largest auto insurance provider The Personal - a pure group insurance company run by the Desjardins group Industrial Alliance - Also a big life insurer Arms of Financial Institutions Banks and other large financial institutions will often have personal, business and credit insurance offered under their own name. Some examples include: National Bank Insurance, RBC Insurance, TD Insurance Commercial Insurance Canada doesn't just have life insurance, there are a number of companies that specialize in commercial insurance: The Co-Operators - A mutually owned insurer based in the West of Canada which is Canada's largest farm insurer The Guarantee Company of North America Based in Quebec, Canada's oldest insurance company now specializes in Government contracts and provides the majority of procurement insurance products.
Although a number of parish and municipal fire-insurance companies operated in the mid-1830s in Lower and Upper Canada, the first Canadian life-insurance company was founded in 1847 in Hamilton, Ont. The formation of major insurance companies (Mutual Life, Sun Life, Confederation Life and London Life) in the 1870s was prompted by the passing of the first Canadian insurance law in 1868. With industrialization and the introduction of new technologies, the insurance industry developed rapidly

Supervision and Regulation The insurance industry is regulated for a number of reasons, eg, because premiums are paid in advance and benefits may be paid in the (far distant) future to the insured or to others with little or no power to protect their interests; to protect consumers from unfair practices; and because unreasonably low or high premiums can lead to insolvency or to unwarranted profits. In addition to self-regulation through industry associations, the responsibility for supervision of insurance in Canada is shared by the federal and provincial governments. The federal Department of Insurance is responsible for the registration and licensing of federally registered companies and is concerned with their ability to meet obligations to policyholders. This is accomplished by requiring insurance companies to submit financial statements to establish that they have sufficient financial resources (through solvency tests) and by restricting the investment of the funds of insurance companies

Life Insurance Industry Facts

Posted 04.03.2011 in Insurance Info, Insurance News by CanadianLifeQuotes Its way more than just insurance:

Through a wide range of products and services, the life insurance industry helps Canadians to protect themselves and their families against the financial risks of premature death and illnesses. It also serves Canadians with some retirement planning solutions. Products and services include individual and group life insurance, supplementary health insurance and individual and group annuities (including RRSPs, RRIFs, TFSAs and defined contribution pension plans), segregated funds, etc

Critical for the economy and a key part in Canadian lives:

The life insurance industry in Canada provides financial products to nearly 26 million people in Canada and manages over 70% of Canadas private pension plans. It provides supplementary health coverage to almost 23 million people which accounts for about 12% of all health care expenditures in Canada. Over one billion dollars in claims are paid every week to Canadians. It employs over 131,000 people. There are 102 life and health insurance companies in Canada and the Canadian-owned companies control nearly 87% of the industrys assets. With $411 billion in assets in Canada, the industry is one of the largest investors in the Canadian economy: o $75 billion or 14% of all Canadian and Provincial Government bonds; o $77 billion of 13% of all Canadian corporate bonds; and o $82 billion or 13% of all Mutual Fund assets.

International success:

3 Canadian life insurers rank in the top 10 of the Forbes Global 2000 list of the worlds largest Lifecos. Canadian insurance companies are active in over 21 countries around the world. The industry holds $500 billion in assets abroad. Nearly half of the industrys total premiums are received abroad.

Financial strength and stability:

In spite of the recent global financial crisis, no government bailouts have been required for Canadian insurers. The industry is very well capitalized Minimum Capital Requirement (MCCSR) ratio among Canadian life and health insurers currently stands at 231 per cent significantly above the OSFI requirement of 150%. This ensures that policy holders are cared for and not stranded.

Canadian Insurance Company Reviews

2010 Customer Satistifaction Study by JD Power and Associates of Canadian Home Insurance Providers JD Power and Associates, a global marketing information services company based in the US, performs customer satisfaction surveys for our Canadian Insurance Companies every year. In 2010, their study found that La Capitale General Insurance rank highest among home insurance providers with a score of 798. La Capitale General performed extremely well in three of the five factors: billing and payment; interaction; and price/premium. Next best was Belairdirect (791) and Desjardins General Insurance (779). Belairdirect performed well in the policy offerings factor. The JD Power and Associates study measures home insurance policyholder experiences with their primary insurers. Customer satisfaction with home insurance providers is examined in five factors: interaction; price/premium; policy offerings; billing/payment; and claims. Here is the complete results: La Capitale General Insurance 798 BelairDirect 791 Desjardins General Insurance 779 BCAA 751 AXA Insurance 756 Johnson Insurance 756 TD Insurance Meloche Monnex 750 The Personal 734 RBC Insurance 728 State Farm 728 Allstate 724 Intact 723 Economical Insurance Group 716 Aviva Insurance Company 708 Dominion of Canada 705 Wawanesa 704 699 Co-operators 693 SGI Saskatchewan Government Insurance 689 TD Home & Auto Insurance