Shaking Up the Status Quo

You can take the man out of the Maritimes, but you can’t take the Maritimes out of the man. When Reno Daigle travels to Prince Edward Island in September to be inducted as the next president of the Canadian Independent Adjusters’ Association (CIAA), it will be a homecoming of sorts.

Daigle, a native Maritimer — born and raised in Edmundston, New Brunswick — admits that even though he has forged the majority of his career in North Bay, Ontario, he is a Maritimer at his core.

Like many others in the industry, Daigle stumbled into his career in the insurance industry almost unintentionally. His father was an insurance appraiser, and once Daigle graduated from university in 1967 in Moncton, he needed to find work. His father called the manager of Adjusters and Appraisers (A&A) and Daigle landed his first job. After a quick relocation to Saint John, New Brunswick, he began to cut his teeth on marine claims and cargo losses (from paper to automobile to steel).

Two years into his career, Daigle had dotted the province of New Brunswick. As he transferred from town to town, he learned the craft of adjusting. He admits worrying when he realized the next stepping-stone of his career would take him to Ontario.

Daigle, an Acadian, learned a bilingual adjuster was needed in North Bay, but only for three weeks. “I didn’t want to come to Ontario, because Ontario to me was scary,” he says. “The only thing a person from a small town in the Maritimes knew of Ontario was Toronto. But I had no choice. Either I came [to Ontario] or I was going to look for a job. So, I came, but it was going to be for a short period — only for three weeks.”

As it turns out, Daigle met his wife of 37 years on that work placement. Now, nearly four decades later, the couple has set family roots in the Northern Ontario city and has three sons (one of which has also opted for a career in the insurance industry). “It’s been a very long three weeks,” he laughs.

Before his 30th birthday, Daigle found himself in a management position; by his 33rd birthday, he attained the title of regional manager. In April 1983, he branched out on his own, starting up

Daigle Insurance Adjusters Limited. He operated the company until 1993, when he sold it to Adjusters Canada, Inc. [which in turn sold to Crawford & Company (Canada)]. Currently, Daigle is the regional manager and assistant vice president for Crawford. He is responsible for the northeast region of Ontario, covering an area bounded by Thunder Bay, Newmarket and Ottawa.

MAKING CONNECTIONS Around the time he fired up his own business, Daigle began his involvement with both the CIAA and the Insurance Institute of Canada. “I got involved because being on my own, I had very little contact with the outside insurance industry,” he says.

He says his involvement in the association has “caused me to travel and see Canada from coast-to-coast, meeting people in various places in Canada.” It has even forced him to confront and conquer his fear of Toronto, he adds.

He stresses the importance of being an active association member and volunteering — a longtime passion of his — within both the industry and community. “I like to get involved, to help,” he says. “I don’t know if I do, but at least I try.”

Certainly involvement is a key theme as he prepares to take the helm of the CIAA. He believes the biggest challenge in his new role will be to attract people into the industry. He is well aware of the looming labour void that is anticipated to follow the exodus of the baby boomers into retirement.

“That’s a big issue, either as an independent adjuster or a company staff adjuster,” he says, noting the profession has struggled to attract younger generations into its ranks. “I believe part of the cause is probably that the young generation is changing [and] the quality of life is much more important than just work.”

The work/life balance is not easy to achieve in a profession known for its long, unpredictable hours (often on an ‘on-call’ basis), and in which a person works under a high degree of stress. This tireless, relentless approach to work, the product of increased customer expectations, adds to the difficulty of recruitment, he says.

“A few years ago, if you didn’t send a report for six months but…you talked to the examiner, then everyone was happy,” he observes. “But not anymore, because you have key performance indicators and you have to file reports within 15 days. There’s a lot of demand put on you, and it makes it hard to get young people.”

STAYING AHEAD OF THE GAME

For those already in the industry, Daigle stresses the importance of continuing education and training across all lines of business and jurisdictions. He says this is particularly important in light of mergers and acquisitions activity that has concentrated the field of claims adjustment into the hands of fewer companies.

Daigle is no stranger to mergers and acquisitions: he has worked for both his own small independent firm and larger companies. While some decry the shift in the industry landscape that has left fewer players on the field — and the remaining ones growing even larger — he firmly believes there will always be a place in the market for smaller independents. But that won’t happen without aggressive professional development on a continuing basis, he says.

“I think and I know that there is always going to be a spot for the small independent, but they have to work at continuously getting educated,” he says. “The small firm that doesn’t do anything in the industry, or [that doesn’t] have any involvement in the association or invest anything into education…will have a hard time,” Daigle maintains. “But the firm that is aggressive in training and knowledge, they are always going to survive.”

Maintaining the status quo just won’t cut it, he adds. “You have to provide good service, expertise and knowledge, and that’s how you’re going to get your business.”