Desjardins Insurance has long held the second largest market share in P&C insurance in Quebec, behind Intact Financial Corporation. In Canada, Desjardins also ranks second since 2019. That was the year the company dislodged Aviva, which had a firm grip on second place since at least 2015.
Recently, Desjardins’ P&C insurance segment has been posting record financial results. It surpassed the company’s wealth management and life and health insurance sector for the first time in 2020.
Leading the P&C segment is Valérie Lavoie, who was appointed Executive Vice president, Property and Casualty insurance in October 2019. She took the time to fill Insurance Portal in on her views on two busy years, marked by a global cataclysm: COVID-19.
“Four months after I took on my position, the pandemic hit. It taught me that we can be very resilient,” Lavoie says.
“We successfully adapted to the situation, we had no service disruptions, and I am very proud of that. Despite the context, we have managed to transform work methods and platforms. These are important internal changes that benefit our customers. Our employee mobilization remains very high. I truly believe that being close to the teams is possible, despite COVID-19, because we have plenty of tools on hand.”
Externally, customers’ needs have also driven her team to adapt. “At the beginning of the crisis, when the relief measures were announced, the first premium rebates were done on request, and people had to contact us to obtain them. We were reactive, then we became proactive,” Lavoie explains.
“We know that the pandemic is lingering, and we may have to live with it for a fairly long time. So we are focusing on our innovations. In particular Ajusto, our telematics solution, allows us to offer a personalized premium based on our customers’ actual driving habits. Instead of offering premium rebates, we adjust our premiums constantly as the situation evolves.”
Digital transition continues
Technology is central to Desjardins’ P&C insurance strategy. In 2017, the company planned to invest $400 million (M) over six years in a digital insurance platform. This transformation is on track.
“We’ve broken down the multi-year project, and we’re advancing as planned. We started with commercial insurance and we are now working on personal insurance. In Quebec, the transition will take place in early 2022 for auto insurance,” says Valérie Lavoie.
“Right now we have pretty efficient digital platforms. This new platform will allow the customer to have a smoother relationship with the insurance agent, especially if they need to communicate with an agent while they are doing things online. It’s going to allow us to be more agile, more flexible over time, to make changes and respond to needs more quickly.”
Business insurance
Desjardins is more present in personal insurance, Lavoie points out. “Our commercial insurance offer is not yet very developed. Our market share is not very large. It’s a sector in which we want to develop a lot in the future, invest in more,” she says.
Desjardins intends to “develop new product offerings,” while continuing to improve its existing products, she adds.
“To support our entrepreneurs more, we are working with our colleagues in the banking sector to meet their needs. What drives us is the desire to respond to growing needs. For some time, we supported them in a more moderate way, but we want to do more, to be there for them. This will be done gradually and in the niches in which we are present. We’re going to increase our market share!”
In 2020, Desjardins commercial insurance premium volume was $220.4 million in Quebec and $363.3 million for all of Canada, company spokesperson Valérie Lamarre told TheInsurance Portal. This segment has grown by 40.9 per cent in Quebec and 36.2 per cent in Canada in three years. In 2017, commercial insurance represented a premium volume of $156.4 million in Quebec and $266.7 million for Canada as a whole.
Acquisition
Desjardins’ most recent acquisition in P&C insurance was the Canadian operations of State Farm in 2015. “We finished integrating all operations in 2019,” Valérie Lavoie says. Are
more acquisitions likely? “Desjardins grows a lot organically. Obviously, we complement that with an inorganic strategy. We are an insurer that wants to make acquisitions. We evaluate opportunities constantly,” she says.
