Definity Financial Corporation has continued to improve its quarter-over-quarter performance since going public. The company reported net income of $252 million for the full year ended December 31, 2022, an increase of $38.8 million over 2021.

Part of this 18.2 per cent improvement comes from a $67 million revaluation gain on its previous ownership interest in the brokerage firm McDougall, the company said in its Feb. 9 release. 

For the fourth quarter of 2022, Definity reported net income of $142.2 million, compared with $33.7 million in Q4 2021. 

“We continued to leverage our broker relationships and digital platforms to drive strong premium growth of 11.3 per cent in the fourth quarter and 11.8 per cent for the full year,” says Rowan Saunders, Definity's President and CEO. 

Definity, which became a public company in November 2021, includes insurers Economical, Sonnet, Petline and Family Insurance Solutions.

Combined ratio 

Definity's combined ratio in 2022 was 94.1 per cent, compared with 93.1 per cent in 2021. Increased auto insurance claims partly account for the difference, the company said. 

In the last quarter of the year, the combined ratio was 91.7 per cent, 2.9 points lower than the 94.6 per cent posted in Q4 2021.

Underwriting income 

Definity reported underwriting income of $192.3 million in 2022, versus $194.5 million for full year 2021. 

For the fourth quarter of 2022, the company posted underwriting income of $70.2 million, up from $40.3 million in Q4 2021. In the last quarter of 2021, the company mentioned that it had strengthened its auto insurance reserves to account for high inflation. 

The variance stems from an improvement in the claims ratio from 60.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2021 to 54.9 per cent in Q4 2022. 

Premiums 

Gross premiums rose 11.8 per cent from the previous year to $3.6 billion in 2022 from $3.2 billion in 2021. 

According to its M&DA, Definity is the sixth largest property and casualty insurance player in Canada, with a 4.9 per cent market share. This estimate is based on the market share of the Canadian P&C insurance industry DWP of $70.5 billion for the twelve months ended June 30, 2022. 

Gross premiums rose at a similar rate in fourth quarter 2022 alone: They were $942.5 million, up 11.3 per cent from $846.6 million in Q4 2021. 

For fourth quarter 2022, Definity noted a 17 per cent increase in commercial lines, with gross premium volume of $297.3 million, compared with $254 million for the same period in 2021. For the full year, this segment also climbed 17.6 per cent from $910 million to $1.07 billion. 

In personal lines, gross written premiums (GWP) increased from $2.32 billion in 2021 to $2.54 billion, equal to growth of 9.5 per cent. Of this volume, Sonnet's sales totalled $332 million in 2022, up 13 per cent year-over-year. 

In the fourth quarter of 2022, gross written premium growth slowed slightly, to 8.9 per cent. Thus, GWP totalled $645 million versus $592 million in Q4 2021.