Jul 4, 2016 | News
Scheduled Coverage
Refers to policy on which coverage is provided only on that property which is specifically identified or scheduled
Property of Every Description
Refers to policy used to insure building, stock and equipment under a single limit of insurance
All Property (Blanket)
A policy under which all property owned by the insured is covered or “blanketed” by a single limit of insurance
Tenants Improvements
Building improvements, alterations and betterments made at the expense of or purchased by the insured to a building occupied by the insured and which are not otherwise insured, providing the insured is not the actual owner of the building
Actual Cash Value
The replacement or repair costs less depreciation
Replacement Value
Represents the costs to repair, replace or rebuild the lost or damaged property without deduction for depreciation
Reinsurance
Involves an insurer ceding part of the risk it has assumed to one or more other insurers
Subscription
An insurance policy under which a group of insurers has agreed to participate in providing policy insurance coverages
Condition
Something imposed by the insurer which requires the insured to do or not do to something
Subrogation
Refers to the right of the insurer to “step into the shoes” of the party whom it has compensated and sue any party whom the compensated party could have sued
Warranty
A promise that certain facts are as they are represented to be and that they will remain so
Material Fact
Facts which if communicated to the insurer would induce it either to decline the insurance altogether, or not accept it unless a higher premium is paid
Fraudulent
To act willfully, and with the specific intent to deceive or cheat
Void Contract
One which has no “legal or binding force” and as such, “is incapable of being enforced by law
Fire Resistive
Buildings which have met minimum standards in terms of hours it will withstand a specific, carefully controlled test fire
Non Combustible
All structural members, including floors, roofs, and their supports are constructed of steel, iron, concrete or other noncombustible materials. Falls just short of fire resistive
Common Hazards
Conditions common to all buildings which influence their potential for loss
Detachment
Refers to the proximity of the building insured or containing the property insured to other commercially rated buildings
Adverse Selection
Occurs when the applicants for insurance are largely those most likely to suffer a loss
Risk Classification
Refers to the grouping or classifying of risks according to established criteria which, in large part, is based on their probability for loss as a class
Soft Market
Characterized by intense competition between insurers resulting in low rates and broader coverages
Hard Market
Occurs when low profit margins force out some of the competition resulting in a more disciplined underwriting approach where insureds receive little or nothing in rate discounts
Hazard
A condition which may cause a peril to occur
Physical Hazard
Conditions relating to the use of tangible property which could cause a peril to occur
Moral Hazard
Subjective characteristics of the applicant that could cause a peril to occur
Accommodation Business
Business which is marginal or substandard but which the insurer agrees to accept as a favor or accommodation to the broker
Supporting Business
Existence of other insurance policies the applicant has with the same insurer
Vacant
Empty, or when the normal occupant is absent and the contents have been removed
Unoccupied
Lack of habitual presence of human beings, or then premises are complete with its contents, except that such person who normally occupies the premises is temporarily away
Loading
An additional rate charged over and above the fire rate
Centrifugal Force
The inertia of a body that tends to move it away from the center around which it revolves
Mechanical Breakdown
A failure in the working mechanism of the machinery…a functional defect in the moving parts of the equipment which causes the latter to cease function or to function improperly
Electrical Breakdown
Failure in the electrical mechanism of the machinery, appliance or device
Trade Losses
Types of losses which might be expected as a part of the every day operation of a business
Wear and Tear
Deterioration or depreciation in value by ordinary and reasonable use of the subject matter
Gradual Deterioration
Deterioration of an object which arises naturally over time
Latent Defect
Hidden or concealed defect. One which could not be discovered by reasonable and customary inspection. A defect not apparent on the face of the goods
Inherent Vice
Something within a commodity, or other kind of property, that causes its demise over time
Mysterious Disappearance
Disappearance under circumstances which cannot be explained
Endorsement
Changes the terms or conditions of the policy
Jul 2, 2016 | News
We advise our brokerages that ILScorp is on the ICS Courier route. ICS is Canada’s Business-to-Business Courier, more information can be found here.
All business payments can be forwarded via ICS or can be made by calling ILScorp and paying via credit card at 1.800.404.2211.
Jun 29, 2016 | News
The June 30 CE Credit Deadline is here!
Don’t panic just yet.
ILScorp has REAL PEOPLE standing by to help you meet your requirements.
Chat with us live on our website:ilscorp.com.
Email us: info@ilscorp.com or call us 1-800-404-2211 and get your CE done today!
Get online and get to work!
CE with ILScorp is Fast, Easy and DONE!
Accredited Continuing Education courses for General Insurance 
Access over 180 accredited general insurance training courses in both text and streaming video formats, including personal lines, commercial lines, auto, farm, professional management and personal skills courses.
More Info
Accredited Continuing Education courses for Adjusters
Access numerous adjuster specific accredited courses plus general insurance training courses in both text and streaming video formats including a 3-part Adjusters Privacy Compliance Program.
More Info
Accredited Continuing Education courses Life/A&S 
Access over 70 accredited Life/A&S insurance training courses in both text and streaming video formats including errors & omissions insurance, money management planning process and insurance and estate planning.
More Info
Advantages of the ILS continuing education course subscriptions:
- Once you purchase your subscription, you can begin taking your courses immediately! If you are a new subscriber, you will receive an automated username and password by email.
- Access more than 180 accredited general insurance training courses in both text and streaming video formats, including personal lines, commercial lines, auto, farm, professional management and personal skills courses.
- Access more than 75 accredited life/A&S insurance training courses in both text and streaming video formats including errors & omissions insurance, money management planning process and insurance and estate planning.
- Have a digital record of your completed course work, which we keep on file for up to seven years.
- Save time by completing your general insurance continuing education requirements entirely online, no paperwork or commute.
- Courses can be accessed any time and you can log in and log out as many times as you wish during the course period.
- Quizzes and Final exams are offered in most of our courses to help you retain the information.
- Should you require any assistance at any time during your course work, we are here to support you 5 days a week, 0800 – 1700 PST.
Join the more than 22,000 Canadian insurance professionals who develop their skills with ILScorp each year!
Jun 21, 2016 | News
This course is included as part of your ILS General CE and/or Adjuster CE Course Subscription and qualifies for 1 continuing education hour of credit.
Alberta Insurance Adjusters and Alberta Insurance Brokers: AIC# 42949
Wawanesa Habitation Wording Update
The Wawanesa Habitation policy wordings are reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that the wordings are clear and consistent with Wawanesa’s underwriting and claims intent. In many instances, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) Advisory wordings were adopted. The wordings consist of two sections: Section I – Property Coverage and Section II – Liability Coverage. This wording booklet is also applicable to the habitational portion of Farm risks and is contained verbatim in ‘Your Farm Insurance Policy’
The policy wordings are reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that the wordings are clear and consistent with our underwriting and claims intent. In many instances, the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) Advisory wordings were adopted.
The purpose of this learning opportunity is to highlight the changes that were made to the wordings effective January 1, 2015. It is not meant to cover all aspects of Habitation coverages.
Topics include:
- Definitions, Property Coverages
- Additional Coverages
- Additional Coverages – Condos
- Additional Coverages – Tenants
- Forms
- Peril Highlights
- Section I – Optional Coverages
- Section I – Loss or Damage Not Insured
- Section I – Conditions
- Section II – Liability Coverage
Included as part of the ILScorp General Insurance CE Subscription
Included as part of the ILScorp Adjuster CE Subscription
Become an ILScorp group member to save even more
Credit Hours: 1
Credit Type: General/Adjuster – Technical
Accrediting Provinces: BC, AB, SK, MB, ON
Credit #: AIC# 42949; MB# 26233
It is recommended that you download ‘Your Personal Insurance Wording 2015’ from the resource tab located in this online course. The wording booklet will be a valuable tool as you continue with the online course.
Course Definition Sampling:
Here is an example of some definitions that are new to the Wawanesa wording booklet:
“Aircraft” is newly defined and includes, airplanes, helicopters, hot air balloons, drones, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and hovercrafts. It is important to include UAVs and drones in the definition to reduce ambiguity. In the past the common language definition of aircraft was relied upon. Over time technology has changed and by providing a proper definition it adds clarity to the intent of what is meant to be covered.
“Pollutant” means any solid, liquid, gaseous or thermal irritant or containment, including but not limited to fuel oil, vapour, soot, chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, waste and smoke from agricultural smudging or industrial operations. The addition of Pollutant to the Homeowner wording ensures consistency with the the Farm wordings, which previously contained this definition.
“Spouse” used to be embedded in the definition of Insured and Residence Employee. Spouse is now defined to closely follow the Ontario Family Law Act, which has been vetted by the Supreme Court of Canada.
“Surface Waters” means water or natural precipitation temporarily diffused over the surface of the ground, not caused by “flood” or escape of water from a “domestic water container” or “watermain”. The concerns regarding surface waters has increased due to catastrophes over the last few years and needed to be addressed.
“Watermain” means a pipe forming part of a water distribution system, which conveys consumable water but not waste water. This is an important definition when discussing the water exclusion that will be addressed later.
The following definitions have been revised from the previous version of the booklet.
“Business” has been clarified to read “the continuous or regular pursuit undertaken for financial compensation, including any trade, profession or occupation”.
“Computer Software” and “Software” have been combined under one definition; and means computer programs and/or instructions stored on electronic media, excluding video games of any kind
“Dwelling” has been expanded to include: ‘…described on the Declarations wholly or partially occupied by you as a private residence’
“Vacant” and “Vacancy” has been a contentious issue within the industry and there have been many prominent court cases on the issue. To clarify the issue further, the wording has been revised to:
Referring to the circumstance where, regardless of the presence of furnishings:
a.All occupants have moved out with no intention of returning to reside continuously in the dwelling and no new occupant has taken up residence OR
b.Where a newly constructed or acquired dwelling, no occupant has yet taken up residence
Jun 17, 2016 | News
Insurance reporting to Fire Commissioner’s office re: Fort McMurray Fires
Source Alberta Insurance Council and the office of the Fire Commissioner
Recognizing the burden the normal reporting system (Form 1242) would place on insurers and adjusters, the Office of the Fire Commissioner (OFC) has developed an abbreviated insurance loss system to capture fire loss data associated with the Fort McMurray fires. The OFC has developed a mapping solution that will allow companies to add the total fire loss and the loss payable by insurers. No other information will be required.
Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB) Fire Insurance Reporting
Background
The Safety Codes Act: Administrative Items Regulation (2004), sections 8, 9, 10 refer to the mandatory requirement for a municipality to report a fire that causes a fatality, injury or dollar loss to the Office of The Fire Commissioner (OFC). Section 11 refers specifically to insurers to report fires for which “that company is interested as insurer”.
Based on previous experience with mass loss reporting after the 2011 Slave Lake wildfire; the OFC has developed a faster and more readily accessible reporting tool. The OFC is aware of the enormous task of reporting all loss fires in the RMWB following the recent wildfire.
The tool chosen to collect data is a mapping product from ESRI Inc. that allows data collection via a series of points on a map (http://www.esri.com/products/collector-for-arcgis). Fire Safety Codes Officers (SCO) from across the province deployed to the RMWB and collected 7,716 data points, along with pictures that represent homes, outbuildings, vehicles and other losses.
Workflow
Since the information gathered by SCO’s begins to create a loss report, insurance companies and adjusters will not be required to submit a 1242 Insurance Report for every loss. Instead, adjusters will be asked to update the information within the map tool by first locating their client’s address and then editing the appropriate point representing that particular loss to include only the loss value and claim paid out. Adjusters can see the attached images for each point to help validate and qualify their loss estimates and payouts.
Please note that this tool is specifically for reporting on property damage directly incurred due to the RMWB wildfire and is not intended to replace previous or subsequent fire reporting in the province at this time.
Access
In order to gain access to the map, companies must provide a list of their intended users. The list must be in a csv (comma separated values) and contain the following: A header (first line) with these field names: Email, First Name, Last Name, Username.
This list can be sent to Kevin.McClement@gov.ab.ca and Micha.Jurisic@gov.ab.ca. Kevin McClement is the lead on managing this information. However, any questions or concerns can be sent to both recipients.
An automatic invite will be sent from ArcGIS Online to the identified email address. Once received, users can follow the link in the message to configure their profile, set a security question and create their password. Instructions on using the application are attached.
Clarification on the reporting requirements for the Fire Commissioner’s office – Fort McMurray Fires
The Fire Commissioner’s Office’s answers to the questions asked by an insurer about the reporting process may help you too, so we are sharing this withyou. Please note that if you have questions, please ask the Fire Commissioner’s office.
Questions asked by insurer:
Could you please clarify if this is loss reporting for any “payout” regarding the FM fires?
It states “Please note that this tool is specifically for reporting on property damage directly incurred due to the RMWB wildfire” so would this include any claim where we simply paid the Mass evacuation or we may have paid for a fridge to be replaced, or just food or, simply cleaning of the home/contents due to smoke?
Answer: insurance companies must report a fire loss to Office of the Fire Commissioner (OFC).
Normally, the way the reporting currently happens is that the fire department would submit a fire report to the OFC and then the owner’s insurance company would submit an insurance report containing the loss values. So, on a homeowner’s property there may be a home, vehicle, and detached garage. Let’s say the home was destroyed and you’ve paid out $250,000 for the building loss and $125,000 for the contents. That would go into the fields in the picture for the home report. In a new report, you would enter that the garage had minor damage resulting from the house fire, say $7,000 for new siding and $0 contents loss. The vehicle has cosmetic damage so you would pay to have the vehicle restored, costing $5,000.
If you have a claim where no direct fire damage was the cause, you would not report this to the OFC. Unsafe fridges, cleaning and other items not directly impacted by fire would not be a reportable loss to the OFC.
What investigators collected in the mapping tool are direct fire losses. We created a simplified form so that adjusters can go in afterward and enter the claim amount, payout and totals. Look up the claimant’s address and you can edit each investigation to complete the loss report.
Any questions or concerns can be sent to Kevin.McClement@gov.ab.ca and Micha.Jurisic@gov.ab.ca.
Jun 15, 2016 | News
MANITOBA ADJUSTER CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDIT REQUIREMENTS
For all other Canadian Insurance Continuing Education Requirements and Record Keeping please visit the ILScorp RESOURCE CENTER
QUESTION:
Do I have to complete continuing education credits to renew my licence?
ANSWER:
With the exception of Canadian non-residents who are licensed in a jurisdiction which has mandatory CE requirements, hail agents and adjusters, and restricted insurance agents (RIA), all other licensees are required to fulfill annual continuing education credit criteria.
QUESTION: How many continuing education credits do I need to renew my insurance license?
ANSWER:
Manitoba Adjusters
- 8 hours accumulated from July 1 – June 30
- maximum of 4 carry forward
Get CE Credits Online
QUESTION:
How do I find out how many credits I have carried forward from last year’s renewal?
ANSWER:
Important Note: Life and/or Accident & Sickness agents may not carry forward credit hours.
All other classes of licenses:
Your on-line Manitoba Insurance council CEC account will show how many carry forward credits you have if you entered all of your credits completed in the “2014-2015” CE Year. The responsibility to track credit hours rests with the licensee.
QUESTION:
As a Manitoba Adjuster, if I have completed a CE course in the past, but have taken it again this year, can I claim this towards my CE requirement?
ANSWER:
Entry of CE for the same course more than once may be permitted on an exception basis only. If an agent wishes to claim credit for a course more than once, the agent must contact Council for prior approval and
provide written reasons. This review is subject to the individual course review fee of $50.
QUESTION:
Do Non-Resident Agents/Brokers or Adjusters need to complete and report continuing education credits on-line?
ANSWER: Non-residents residing in Canadian jurisdictions that have mandatory CE requirements will be deemed to have met the requirement in Manitoba.
Non-residents residing in Canadian jurisdictions where CE is not mandatory are required to comply with Manitoba’s CE requirements. CE Credits must be obtained from an Accredited Course Provider or a course that has been individually approved by the ICM.
Residents of the United States of America are required to comply with the Manitoba CE requirements. CE Credits must be obtained from an Accredited Course Provider or a course that has been individually approved by the ICM.
However, if a Canadian non-resident or U.S. resident has completed a course that meets the applicable Manitoba requirements, the agent may apply for consideration of individual approval. The Individual CE Approval Application, along with the required fee, must be submitted to the ICM at least 30 days in advance of the course to ensure sufficient time to make an informed determination as to whether the CE course qualifies for Manitoba CE credits. More information can be found on the ICM website under “Continuing Education Info”.
Should the ICM determine that the CE course is not applicable to the Manitoba CE definition, the licensee would be required to complete additional CE courses to meet the mandatory Manitoba CE requirement
