La Capitale/SSQ Insurance officially announced their merger on July 3, 2020. The resulting entity is capturing the lion’s share of the Quebec market, and ranks fourth in Canada in group insurance premium volume.
Proposed in January, the merger of La Capitale and SSQ Insurance has completed various regulatory steps, the insurer confirms. The official name of the entity will be announced this fall.
In Quebec, Desjardins Insurance and SSQ Insurance had been jockeying for top spot in group insurance for years, and vying in a tug of war for large groups of employers. Other rivals also won some of SSQ’s group clients, or ceded them grudgingly.
With the combination of two group insurance portfolios, the La Capitale/SSQ Insurance’s premium volume is ballooning. Jean-François Chalifoux, president and CEO of La Capitale/SSQ Insurance, told the Insurance Portal that the merger would bring the new entity’s group insurance premium volume to $3.0 billion, surpassing Desjardins Insurance.
Leading group insurance provider for businesses
Upon further scrutiny, which insurer is in the lead depends on how market share is calculated. In the Group Insurance for Businesses sector, Desjardins Insurance told the Insurance Portal that it gleaned $2.8 billion in active premiums in 2019. La Capitale/SSQ handily topped this figure, with $3.0 billion. However, if Desjardins Insurance’s credit card group insurance business is included, total premiums rose to $4.2 billion in 2019, spokesperson Richard Lacasse explains.
The two competitors are indeed debating over whether or not to include credit card insurance premiums in a ranking of group insurance companies. Each year, Fraser Group publishes the Group Universe Report, which examines insurers’ market share according to employers’ group insurance premiums.
Covering the August 2018 data year, the most recent report ranked SSQ Insurance second in the Quebec market, with a market share of 19.0% versus 19.3% for Desjardins Insurance. Manulife came in third in the market, with a 13.4% share, followed by Sun Life Financial, with 12.4% and Canada Life (then Great-West) with 9.3%, tied with iA Financial Group. La Capitale trailed with a 6.6% share.
In Canada, SSQ placed seventh with a national market share in 2018 of 4.6%, and La Capitale held ninth position with a 1.6% share. Fifth-ranked Desjardins Insurance had a 6.3% share. Greenshield fell between the two competitors with a 5.1% share. Sun Life, Manulife and Great-West dominated nearly 65% of the market, with shares of 23.3%, 21.0% and 20.6% respectively. Presented together, all Blue Cross plans (including Croix Bleue Medavie) came in fourth, with a 10% share.
Fraser Group president and founder, Ken Fraser, shared preliminary data from the report that will cover 2019 to be published in August. The figures back up Chalifoux’s assertion about group insurance for businesses. “We agree with the claim of 4th place status [in Canada] for the new entity. Based on pro forma 2019 premiums, they are slightly ahead of Desjardins and twice the size of Medavie. Green Shield is in fifth place,” he explains.
“The aggregate of Blue Cross plans would be larger [than that of La Capitale/SSQ Insurance) but we would not support that as a relevant benchmark in this discussion,” Fraser says, adding that he uses that aggregate because it solves a technical limitation in his firm’s data.
