What’s on Dec? | Episode 26 | The key issues shaping brokers’ 2026 outlook  

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In this episode, Brett McGregor, president & CEO of Guild Insurance Group, and president of Insurance Brokers Association of Canada looks ahead to 2026 and unpacks the biggest issues shaping brokers’ work across Canada. He discusses the federal government’s Nov. 4 budget decision to delay the Bank Act review until 2026 and extend key sunset provisions to 2033 — including the rules that prevent banks from selling insurance in branches — and what this means for brokers. 

He talks about the fragmented market cycle, and how brokers are explaining the hardening personal lines market alongside a softening commercial one.  

He closes out the discussion with natural catastrophes and climate resilience and examines how aligned brokers and consumers really are on climate priorities. 

Audio Transcript: 

Intro | Alyssa DiSabatino: 

Hi, I’m Alyssa DiSabatino, reporter at Canadian Underwriter and co-host of our podcast series “What’s On Dec?” I recently sat down with Brett McGregor from the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada to talk about what’s on brokers’ minds right now. We spoke about regional trends taking shape across Canada, the top takeaways from the 2025 federal budget and how brokers are handling client conversations around market cycles, natural disasters, and insurance affordability issues. This episode is sponsored by AM Best. Today, Brett McGregor from IBAC will be giving his 2026 broker outlook and will share some insights on how brokers are handling client conversations around issues such as market cycles and natural catastrophes. So just kind of starting off off the top here, Brett, as we head into 2026, what would you say are some of the biggest issues on brokers’ minds right now? 

Brett McGregor: 

First of all, thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here. I think when you look at the issues that are top of mind for brokers across the country, you have a mix of some regional issues and you have some national issues. So, you know, if we look at a high level at some regional issues, in B.C., you have a significant issue with capacity, especially around earthquake in areas like lower Mainland B.C. and on Vancouver Island. In Alberta and Ontario, you’re looking at some pretty major auto reforms coming up in the next year or two here. So, lots of work being done on that to understand how that’s gonna impact customers and brokers. And then, you know, across the country, I think we’re seeing some auto theft issues. They were more concentrated in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces. And there’s been lots of measures taken to improve that and I think we’re seeing some results of improvement, but I also think we’re seeing a little bit of a shifting of the issue away from, you know, the it’s coming under control or coming down in certain areas, but I think that the activity is moving to other areas. So, those are some of the regional things. And then, I think nationally, we’re looking at issues like natural catastrophes. You know, 2024 was, you know, an awful year for natural catastrophes. I think it was close to $9 billion paid out. So far, touch wood, 2025 has been stronger as far as we’re seeing less activity in that area. But you know, we’re definitely seeing impacts from the natural catastrophes both on, you know, workloads of brokers and pricing issues. So, you know, I think that those are some of the high level issues that are on brokers minds, in addition to the commercial marketplace is, you know, quite soft and quite challenging right now. And it’s challenging in some ways that are especially difficult for brokers. It’s not soft across the board. And brokers I think are struggling to find, you know, or figure out which accounts should be going to market, which accounts could potentially be under attack, because it is fairly segment specific. So, lots of issues in 2026 on brokers minds. 

Alyssa DiSabatino:  

Speaking of 2026, I wanted to talk to you a bit about the federal budget. So that was just announced on November 4th. But in the budget, it pushed the Bank Act Review to 2026 and then extended its sunset provisions to 2033. So, these are the rules that prevent banks from selling insurance in branches. So, I’m just wondering if you can give us some insights on what these delays mean for brokers. 

Brett McGregor:  

You know, I think the changes that were announced in the budget that was tabled in Ottawa are really positive for the industry and for consumers. I’m actually in Ottawa right now. I’ve spent the last two days on Parliament Hill talking to MPs, talking to ministers, and talking to, you know, members of the bureaucracy and the finance department. And you know, it’s been really eye-opening for us to hear the conversations with them. And, you know, delaying the sunset clause for seven years is a major thing. And so when we talked to them about the why, you know, part of the why that they gave us was that, you know, brokers have been advocating on this issue for 40 years on Parliament Hill and you know, it’s something we do every single year. And the message back from the MPs was that, you know, we’ve done a good job of educating the government on the risks to the consumers in Section 4.16 of the Bank Act isn’t held up. So, that was really rewarding. There’s been a lot of work that’s gone into that over decades with IBAC and I think it’s really important. So Section 4.16, as you mentioned, prevents banks from selling insurance in their branches and you know, selling them at the time of granting credit. So that’s really the issue that IBAC is concerned about is, you know, we don’t have an issue with bank selling insurance. That’s not the thing. It’s more, you know, if you think about a first time home buyer, young couple, you know, maybe they’re kind of on the line of getting approved for that mortgage or not. And if in the, you know, office, they’re offered the home insurance to go on that home, maybe they think that they need to take that to better their chances of getting approved on the mortgage. So, that’s the consumer protection piece that we’re wanting to maintain. You know, we want to make sure that consumers aren’t being subjected to tide selling or coercive sales tactics. So yeah, overall, you know, that budget announcement was really, really well received. It provides stability for the market knowing that that’s not going to change for 2033. There is always the ability for the government to change, to make a change to the Bank Act still in an annual budget document. So, I think it’s really important for brokers to remain vigilant on this issue. So, you know, we can’t take it for granted that, you know, just because it was extended to 2033, that that’s not going to change. It’s really important that we continue to educate our different levels of government on this issue and keep up the work here in Ottawa. 

Alyssa DiSabatino:  

I wanted to kind of switch gears and maybe talk about market cycles, which you kind of previously already touched on, but we can get more in depth now. 

Brett McGregor:  

Sure. 

Alyssa DiSabatino:  

So from what I understand, personal and commercial markets are kind of on diverging paths, where personal lines are hardening and commercial is softening. So, how are brokers kind of managing these conversations with clients when the lines are just going down diverging paths? Like does it make it harder for brokers? 

Brett McGregor:  

So, the differences in the personal lines in the commercial market right now definitely do make for some difficult and challenging conversations with customers. So if you think back in our commercial marketplace, we went through very hard market through, you know, starting in around 2019, going through most of COVID. And we’ve very quickly here at the end of 2024, start of 2025, flipped to a very soft market. So, you know, it just setting aside the differences between personal and commercial for a moment. Those conversations are tough, right? Because we’ve had years of double digit increases for some of those commercial customers, some of which were, you know, greatly impacted by COVID. So you think about hospitality, restaurants, some of those risks were getting huge increases and they had, they were struggling for any revenue. So, it’s now challenging to explain to them how, you know, such a short time later, we can now offer such substantial discounts. So, I would say that’s a big challenge. And then, the personal lines market being harder, you know, we’re definitely seeing some price increases. And we’re really seeing some underwriting tightening in the personal lines markets. So, that does make it challenging. You know, you’ve got a business owner that you might be showing up with a renewal that’s gone down 30%, but their homeowner’s policy is up 15% or 20%. It is very tough to explain the difference between those two. And so, I think brokers are doing their best to explain the different cycles that our market goes through. And you know, I think that the personal property has probably, personal property and personal auto has been impacted by some of the NatCats I think to a little bit greater extent than the commercial. So that’s part of it, I believe. You know, we also see an auto theft issue across the country, so that’s definitely driving up personal auto rates. So, there are some reasons that you can point to with customers around why that difference exists between commercial and personal lines, but it’s a difficult thing to explain in a conversation to a customer who doesn’t fully understand everything that’s impacting the market. 

Alyssa DiSabatino:  

Are brokers kind of feeling more pressure from clients to justify rate increases or coverage changes right now? And how do they handle that? 

Brett McGregor:  

Brokers are for sure having issues with conversations to justify price increases to customers right now. We’ve been in Ottawa for two days here. We’ve talked a lot about affordability. It’s on the minds of Canadians. It’s on the mind of minds of politicians right now. Everyone is feeling the crunch of prices increasing. You know, tariffs are coming in. So, you know, it is a definitely a top of mind issue. So, insurance is one of those purchases that you buy and nobody wants to use. So when you see the price of it going up and you’ve got all sorts of other cost pressures and everything else is increasing in your life when you’ve got a product you don’t wanna use, you don’t really wanna see a big increase there. 

Alyssa DiSabatino:  

When clients are kind of facing these cost pressures, do you see them trying to make cuts to their insurance just to save in kind of their daily expenses, whether it’s like dropping something from their home insurance or changing something on their business insurance? 

Brett McGregor:  

With the increases that we’re seeing and some of the affordability challenges that are going on in the economy, we are certainly seeing customers who are looking for ways to make their insurance premiums cheaper. So, you know, that’s a broker’s job at the end of the day to, you know, review coverage with people, you know, try to make sure we’re finding the best price for them in the market, but also explaining the why of, why some of these coverages are important. So, you know, as much as possible, we’re encouraging customers not to decrease their coverage. We don’t think that’s the answer. Because if you think about it, you know, if someone’s in a challenge, you know, as far as the affordability of the product goes, they’re probably also the people who can afford it least if something does go wrong. So, we wanna make sure that we’ve got those Canadians protected and that they’re making informed choices at the end of the day about their insurance protection. 

Alyssa DiSabatino:  

Again, kind of move topics along and maybe we can talk a bit about natural catastrophes and climate change. And so as we, as you kind of hinted at earlier, Canada experienced extreme natural catastrophe losses in 2024, close to $9 billion as you mentioned. But comparatively, 2025 was comparatively calm, probably kind of like a return to normal. So, how are personal lines brokers kind of managing client expectations when the market doesn’t necessarily soften even after a quieter year for catastrophes? 

Brett McGregor:  

The challenge with the market not softening after a little bit quieter year on the NatCat side and explaining that to customers, you know, it is difficult, but it’s a conversation about insurance doesn’t work based on one year terms and pricing doesn’t work based on just one year of results. So, you know, insurance companies are taking a much, you know, longer timeframe into account. And when you look at the trends over the past, you know, four or five years with NatCat and some of the average payouts and compared to 20 years ago, it’s just unbelievable how much it’s increased over that time period. So one good year is definitely helpful, but we need to see that become a trend and unfortunately, the trend so far has pointed towards climate change is impacting the severity and the frequency of these huge weather related incidents and wildfires. 

Alyssa DiSabatino:  

On that point, I mean the industry certainly wants clients to kind of build resiliency into their properties, but when it comes to kind of personal lines clients in your experience, who’s typically starting that discussion about resiliency? Is it the broker or the client? 

Brett McGregor:  

In my experience, the discussion about resiliency when it comes to people’s homes starts with the broker typically. You know, ideally, it’s a two-way conversation and both parties are sort of bringing it up and bringing it to the table. But I think for brokers, it’s up to us to help educate our customers on the things that they can do to make their home more resilient and the potential benefits to doing that. You know, I think that we are seeing that hardening in the personal lines market and so the more you can do to prevent or reduce a claim from happening, the better off you’re going to be. So, you know, I think the conversations about, you know, simple things like extending downspouts further away from homes with a basement. And when you’re choosing a building material, choosing something that is more hail resistant. You know, moving away from vinyl siding if we can. Those things are all decisions that are being made, you know, as people are renovating their homes or updating or whatever. So, I think it’s important for brokers to educate customers about the potential impacts and benefits of making some of those decisions. 

Alyssa DiSabatino:  

When brokers talk to clients about climate change, what are your clients telling you about their priorities? 

Brett McGregor:  

When we’re talking to customers about climate change and, you know, having that conversation about trying to make their homes more resilient, I think the customers are really focused on what the impact is going to be for them financially. So, you know, some of these upgrades are not cheap. And so if you need to put a new roof on your home, choosing hail-resistant shingles is a great option, but there is a typically a higher cost with some of those things. So, I think at the end of the day right now, everyone is focused on their bottom line personally. And so I think they’re wanting to understand the impact and so I think the more the brokers can do to explain the benefits, you know, both insurance premium wise, but also, you know, just the fact of not having insurance claim is really beneficial to them financially as well. 

Alyssa DiSabatino:  

Yeah, and you make a good point. I mean, making those upgrades might cost more in the short end, but it would save you money in the long end if you don’t have to make that claim, right. So, that’s something I’m sure brokers are talking to clients about, but is there anything that’s kind of missing in that conversation between brokers and clients about natural catastrophes? Like is there anything that brokers can kind of align with consumers on more? 

Brett McGregor:  

Part of what’s missing from the conversation, and it’s not just conversation between brokers and customers, but more broadly in the economy, I think, is we need to start to focus on what the impact is of making these changes to your home on the property value. So, I know that brokers are having that conversation with customers, but I don’t think it’s resonating yet. You know, most people aren’t thinking about selling their home, but I think we could do a better job of quantifying the impact for people if they do make some of these choices and start to better understand how that could affect the market value of their home and improve their financial position going forward. 

Outro | Alyssa DiSabatino:  

That wraps up today’s episode sponsored by AM Best. We hope you enjoyed the discussion. Thanks for tuning in and we’ll see you next time on “What’s On Dec?”