Message From the President

I think we need to add some days to February. As adjusters, all we sell is time and knowledge; with all that goes on this month, it is much too short.

CIAA’s Mid-Year meeting and the CIAA National Insurance Industry Advisory Board (NIIAB) meeting were held at the start of a very busy week full of events where industry people converge from across Canada.

The CIAA NIIAB was formed to maintain a pro-active national forum working on behalf of Canada’s Claims Professionals to address and resolve mutual and individual issues of concern.

It struck me in the meeting when concern was expressed about publishing fraud indicators as a training aid. Could this potentially be seen as bad faith? While I believe that the majority of adjusters undertake an investigation with the mindset that their objective is to fairly adjudicate claims, they also have distaste for blatant abuse of the insurance system. If something doesn’t pass the “smell test,” it should be pursued and investigated. The thought that training adjusters to protect the insuring public from the criminals committing insurance fraud could be construed as bad faith seems bizarre.

This tied in nicely with this year’s CIAA/CICMA Ontario Joint Conference theme. The organizing committee is to be commended for providing an exceptional education program reminding us all that we are in the business of customer service. The presenters hit home that “attitude” far outweighs “ability” in serving the industry well. Steve Scullion of Granite Claims Solutions suggested that following the natural steps of investigation along with an attitude to adhere to the spirit of the policy are essential for adjusters to avoid allegations of bad faith.  When you combine this with Carl Van’s approach to serving our customers, it was clear that this advice will not only  make you  a better adjuster, but allow you to cope with the constant pressures of our industry. Our affiliation with CICMA and these conferences are really one of the great benefits of membership.

It was my pleasure to see so many new members approved at the CIAA Mid-Year meeting. The majority of the membership applications were from our colleagues at Cunningham Lindsey and we are excited to have them back in our association. In my discussions with Cunningham Lindsey’s management team, it was clear they were impressed with CIAA’s ongoing efforts on behalf of the profession and we look forward to their contributions in this process.

Some of the key areas of recent interest include The Department of Finance’s present review of the current GST/HST tax system within the financial services sector.  As one of the stakeholders, CIAA National participated in their assessment of the current status – any future recommendations will be based on improvements Finance feels can be achieved in efficiency, fairness and simplicity of handling GST/HST – essentially value added taxes (VAT). At their request, your executive, with the assistance of Bob Krische of Crawford & Company, have submitted a formal position paper outlining CIAA’s recommendations. To condense it to one line: independent adjusters should be treated in a similar fashion as insurers to ensure equality in taxation for all industry sector participants. Rest assured, we will follow this closely and keep the membership posted.

Another area of interest is adjuster mobility and a seamless licensing process, particularly in times of emergency. CIAA has been working in conjunction with the Canadian Insurance Services Regulatory Organization (CISRO) to develop an expedited process to ensure adjusters can travel efficiently to best serve the public interest when disaster strikes.

The last event for this marathon week was the OIAA Claims Show, where I worked the CIAA booth with our Executive Director, Pat Battle, and Anna Sonta. I was honoured to be OIAA President Steve DelGreco’s guest at the OIAA Luncheon. This year’s speaker was Joe Roberts, also known as the “Skid Row CEO.”  His message was very inspiring and reminded me we really need to try harder to take care of each other and those among us who are less fortunate. If you’re interested, go to www.skidrowceo.com to learn about his fundraising for at risk youth.    

It was exciting to see the busloads of students from the various colleges and universities attending the job fair and trade show. They have no idea what a great career lies ahead. They also got a taste of how much fun the social aspects of our industry can be. I think I demonstrated that aspect all too well at the “Big Mingle,” with hosts Jamie Dunn of Blouin Dunn and Chris Giffen of Giffen Koerth following the CIAA/CICMA Joint Conference.

I look forward to the warm western hospitality when attending the Northern Alberta Chapter’s CIAA/CICMA Joint Educational sessions in Edmonton this March.  

Finally, I remind you to make sure to join me at this year’s WICC Gala in Toronto.  It is going to be a great event with Chantal Kreviazuk as the entertainment. Tickets are on sale now!

Continue to set the standards of excellence CIAA adjusters have come to be known for and enjoy reading this edition of Claims Canada.