With Robin Joshua—President, Echelon Insurance
In May 2019 Echelon brought their broker-focused approach to insurance and their specialized underwriting expertise to the CAA Club Group (CCG) family. Echelon’s goal to keep individuals with unique risks safe by offering tailored insurance options resonated with CCG and their purpose. With CCG’s support, Echelon is strengthening their identity as a broker-exclusive Specialty Insurer.
WHAT’S CHANGED AT ECHELON SINCE IT WAS ACQUIRED BY CAA CLUB GROUP?
Shortly after being acquired, Echelon announced a Specialty-focused strategy and a bold vision to become Canada’s most trusted Specialty Insurer. We’re working to bolster our teams and lean into our data-driven approach to underwriting to ensure our Specialty products offer reliable, comprehensive coverage at a competitive rate.
We’ve also announced a renewed commitment to technology to provide our brokers with more automated, streamlined service and enhanced connectivity. With this in mind, we’re thrilled to set out on our mission to migrate to industry-leading policy management platforms.
WHAT WILL BE THE FOCUS OF ECHELON’S SPECIALIZATION?
Echelon will continue to invest in the Personal Lines products we’ve become known for in Ontario, particularly our Specialty non-standard Auto product, while also building on our product offering to address more Specialty needs. We’re always striving to become a stronger partner and will continue to analyze and evaluate markets and our Personal Lines products to make more measured decisions that will benefit both brokers and insureds.
In Commercial Lines, we’ll continue to provide Commercial Property and Auto coverage, as well as Surety and Trucking. Echelon originally started out in the Commercial Lines space through our Specialty Programs offering, and as we look to hone our Specialty products, we’ll be enhancing our focus in this space. We work closely with our broker partners to design programs that leverage our shared expertise in a wide range of areas like home systems warranty and financial products.
In Commercial Auto, we’re continuing to focus on expanding our Specialty Individually Rated Commercial Auto (IRCA) business and evolve our Long Haul Trucking offering to select, Specialty brokers. We introduced Surety in 2016 and have since strengthened our niche in this Specialty market to serve our broker partners and their unique clientele.
We’re diversifying our approach by risk sharing on larger accounts, which has allowed us to fully leverage the expertise of our seasoned Commercial Underwriters while supporting our brokers with capacity, where needed.
WHAT WILL THESE CHANGES MEAN FOR BROKERS?
We’re working with our valued broker partners to hear where they have difficulty finding markets and to understand the gaps and hard-to-place Commercial type risks. In each of our lines of business, we strive to understand and cater to the unique and unmet insurance needs of brokers and their customers.
Our Specialty focus will help give brokers a new option for their unique and harder-to-place risks. We believe that enhancements to technology will speed up the policy issuing process, improve customer experience and help make insurance more fair and accessible for our customers and brokers.