Introducing the Toronto Insurance Conference
By Sheila Reesor, Executive Director, Toronto Insurance Conference
Since 1918, the Toronto Insurance Conference (TIC) has provided a forum for commercial insurance brokerage firms in Toronto to come together to address common issues. Our continually growing membership is comprised of national and regional brokers located within Ontario, and represented on our annually rotating board of directors.
Over the years, TIC has created an open professional forum for commercial insurance brokers. Our annual events, including the Black Tie Dinner in November and the Presidents’ Reception in January, continue to be industry highlights. In recent years, both have hosted a record number of attendees, including leaders in the insurance and brokerage worlds. Last year, we expanded our annual golf tournament to accommodate demand for this routinely sold-out event. For the first time in 2008, we plan to open our annual September Seminar to RIMS Ontario members.
The Toronto Insurance Conference does not sell insurance or offer advice on insurance services. Nor are we a conference or convention type of organization as our name might imply. Rather we are a networking and advocacy organization that addresses the common concerns and issues of our members. The TIC board meets regularly with the Registered Insurance Brokers of Ontario (RIBO), the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO) and senior executives of insurers.
Each year, the TIC President also participates in discussions involving brokers from across the country as TIC’s representative at the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada (IBAC). Political issues, including the recently-passed Bank Act legislation, have been at the forefront within that forum, as well as broker education, perpetuation, technology and regulation here and abroad.
Beyond this, overall industry issues continue to provide the backdrop for TIC activity. Early last year we joined other industry voices with our submission to the CCIR on disclosure and transparency. We have maintained ongoing efforts to resolve some of the issues created by the new CGL wording, both working with individual insurers, and participating on the IBC’s re-opened CGL committee.
On another front, the TIC has launched an initiative regarding pandemic preparedness. This project looks beyond the plans of individual companies to the negotiation of industry-wide agreements and standards in advance of a possible pandemic. We are now working together with the IBC, to develop standard wordings which would define an industry response.
Last, over the past eight months, our executive has been speaking out on behalf of its members in an effort to clarify and facilitate exemptions to the Canada Revenue Agency’s excise tax, which applies to purchasing capacity from foreign, unlicensed insurance markets.
The Toronto Insurance Conference looks forward to forging a mutually rewarding on-going relationship with RIMS Ontario. As always, our mission is to build all of our industry relationships in the effort to address on-going and future issues, all the while representing the interests of our members.
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March 2008
