Insurers more reluctant to settle claims quickly 

Due to ongoing price volatility and post-catastrophe repair backlogs, insurers are taking a more cautious approach by waiting to see where repair and rebuild costs for property losses actually land before finalizing payments, experts at the Canadian Independent Adjusters Association Claims Summit said on Oct. 3.  

But strategies exist — from offering Canadian-made repair materials to pre-loss supply chain mapping — to help insurers overcome service delivery hurdles after property losses, panellists said during a discussion about tariffs and international trade barriers.  

Claims challenges 

Ongoing price volatility from rising construction materials, increased labour costs, and other factors, makes it risky for insurers to agree on settlement amounts too early. But that’s dragging out repair timelines.  

“From the adjusting side, insurers are more reluctant to settle,” said Michael Galea, vice president of national operations at Sedgwick Canada. “We just got off four Cats last [summer]. It was a busy year. So when you’re waiting a year or six months to get your house fixed, that’s a long period, and things can change in those six months,” he said. “Insurers are coming up with different ways — settlements or supplements — to make that gap.”  

Some insurers have been employing cash settlements to pay out the property damage instead of managing repairs to completion. But that comes with its own customer satisfaction risks. 

“During a busy period…you’re trying to close claims, and it’s a balancing act, because you’re balancing that with [Net Promoter Scores],” Galea said. “Anecdotally, what we’re seeing is if you [make a] cash settlement, your NPS score isn’t as good as if you were to see it all the way through.” 

Speeding up settlements, repairs 

By helping customers make decisions quickly — like selecting contractors or approving repair options early — insurers can “lock in” prices and availability before things change, said Sean Purcell, assistant vice president of national property claims at Aviva Canada.  

Purcell referenced Calgary’s July 2025 hailstorm where customers wanted to choose a contractor and start rebuilding right away. 

‘People were accepting of…some of the build back better features that we have, but they’re like, ‘I need the money…I’m going to go with this contractor, and I need to sign up now,’” Purcell said.  

“That is also [where] we’re pushing Canada products first,” he said. “It’s all in how we frame it with the customers up front, so we can take that worry out.” 

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Reducing supply chain pain 

Frequent disruptions, stricter regulations, and cost uncertainty are leaving many companies struggling to map and manage their supply chains beyond the first tier of suppliers. 

“Supply chain disruptions are creating longer times for settlement, and there’s more uncertainty around forecasting costs,” said Matthew Zuccato, SVP and national leader of strategic risk at Marsh Canada.  

“When we talk to our clients about what they are challenged with, the first is there’s often a very large lack of visibility in their supply chain,” he said. “They’re blind to a lot of the risks — anything beyond the tier-one [supplier] level. Or they’re going through a painstaking and costly analysis to determine what that supply chain looks like, and they’re facing constant disruptions.” 

To address this, insurance firms can turn to tools that use AI and shipping customs data to “reverse-engineer” supply chains from the top down.  

“So, starting with the tier-zero and tier-one information, you can then look down to the tier-two and tier-three levels,” said Zuccato. “That really helps in a number of ways.” 

Supply chain mapping can identify concentration risks, natural hazard exposures, sanctioned geographies, and other potential bottlenecks such as multiple suppliers depending on a single lower-tier manufacturer. 

“In looking at these and prioritizing those risks, we can then work with our business continuity team to look at, where could there be alternative suppliers that could make sense?” Zuccato said. “We can also run tariff simulators — based on that flow of goods and based on some financial information — to quantify and forecast what the anticipated tariffs would be cross-border. 

“Then [we can] run different scenarios on what it would look like either leveraging different suppliers or even [making] changes within the overall business.” 

This supply chain mapping process happens pre-loss, says Zuccato, “but it’s about helping build a more resilient supply chain and ensuring there are lowest cost and the lowest timelines possible.” 

Alyssa DiSabatino

Alyssa Di Sabatino has been a reporter for Canadian Underwriter since 2021, covering industry trends, market developments, and emerging risks.