News
Trump's 50% auto tariff threat adds to a cost pressure already hitting Canadian premiums
A new levy on auto parts specifically would build on repair cost inflation already showing up in Canadian rate filings
US President Donald Trump said Monday he will raise tariffs on all Canadian-made cars, trucks, auto parts and steel to 50% starting January 1, 2027, escalating a trade fight that saw the US impose a separate round of 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods just days earlier.
The threat notably introduces a new tariff on auto parts specifically, which hadn't previously faced a levy, on top of doubling the existing 25% tariff on Canadian vehicles.
As of this week, the White House had not released implementation details, exemptions, or a calculation method, meaning the 50% figure remains a stated threat rather than a finalized order, according to a report from BBC.
Tokio Marine plots multibillion-dollar deal after Berkshire takes stake - The Business Times
TOKIO Marine, the Japanese insurer backed by Berkshire Hathaway, is closing in on its largest acquisition after months of due diligence on Australian and Canadian targets.
Pursuing a multibillion-dollar international takeover is part of chief executive Masahiro Koike’s push to diversify the operations of one of Japan’s largest financial services companies.
Over the past months, Tokio Marine has reviewed a number of targets including Australia’s Suncorp and Insurance Australia Group (IAG)– two of the country’s largest general insurers and among its most valuable listed companies – as well as Canada’s Intact Financial Corporation, with a view to launching a deal.
AI in Insurance
Who is liable when AI goes rogue?
Headlines this year have been awash with tales of rogue AI agents breaking free of their restraints and launching unprecedented attacks on people and companies.
From a personal perspective, it’s concerning. From an insurer’s perspective, it raises difficult questions around liability, accountability, and how existing legal principles apply when AI behaves in unexpected ways.
AI is disrupting the legal sphere, challenging traditional tort law head-on through two important factors - foreseeability and causation. Because of the ‘black box’ nature of AI and the unpredictable ways models can fail, it’s becoming difficult to establish foreseeable harm or a clear causal link between human action and the resulting damage.
But what does this mean for the future of AI in law? And how can the insurance world really build the right infrastructure around AI’s impact on liability frameworks if we’re still grappling with the basics?
Fuse introduces AI-powered commercial insurance market intelligence via new Terminal platform -
Fuse, an AI-powered market intelligence company focused on commercial insurance, has launched Fuse Terminal, a new workspace designed to give insurance professionals access to market intelligence, analysis and underlying filing information through a single interface.
Terminal has been developed over two years to provide a more consolidated way of assessing the commercial insurance market. The company describes the platform as a terminal-style workspace, bringing together information that would traditionally require users to consult several separate systems, databases and internal sources.
The company said commercial insurance professionals have often had to combine data from filings databases, rating systems, catastrophe information, spreadsheets and messaging platforms to build a current picture of a particular risk. Fuse Terminal is designed to bring those sources of analysis into one environment.
The Truth About AI-Powered Insurance Leads
AI-powered insurance leads are not a shortcut to sales success.
AI-powered insurance leads can help agents create more consistent sales opportunities, but they are not a shortcut to success. The real value comes from combining better technology with fast follow-up, strong sales skills and a system you can actually work.
I have been in the insurance industry since 2018, and I have watched lead generation change significantly. Agents once relied heavily on referrals, purchased lists and manual prospecting. Today, technology can help identify potential customers, organize information and improve how agents manage their pipelines. But there is a difference between having better technology and knowing how to use it.
David Price is the CEO and Founder of The Price Group, one of the fastest-growing insurance agencies in the country.
MAVRIX INSURANCE SERVICES INTRODUCES MILLIE: A PROPRIETARY AI-ENABLED PLATFORM BUILT INTO THE BROKERAGE | Morningsta
Mavrix Insurance Services, a centralized brokerage model born out of the Heffernan Group, today announced the launch of Millie, a proprietary platform that functions as both an AI agent and the AI infrastructure layer for agents, insureds, and service teams.
Millie serves two functions, both built around workflows unique to Mavrix's centralized brokerage model. For agents and service teams, Millie works through intake, quote-to-bind, and servicing, recognizing what each stage needs and acting on it. Agents spend less time on administrative handoffs and more time in front of clients, growing their books of business. For insureds, Millie is a fast, guided way to start a personal or commercial insurance quote, with a self-service portal for managing the policy afterward.
Most AI tools for insurance handle isolated tasks: a recommendation, an answer, one automated step. Millie, by contrast, executes work across interconnected workflows.
Announcements
CAS Automotive Launches Damaged Equipment Service
CAS Automotive, a technology-driven automotive and equipment services group operating across asset acquisition, remarketing, and global distribution, today announced the public launch of Damaged Equipment. The on-demand remarketing service was created to help businesses, insurers, dealers, and fleet operators sell damaged, surplus, aging, and end-of-life commercial equipment.
The announcement marks Damaged Equipment's first official introduction to the market after operating as a proof of concept since the end of 2025. The company also launched a refreshed brand identity for Damaged Equipment and a new website: www.damagedequipment.com.
“Damaged Equipment started with the idea that the model we built for damaged and salvage vehicles could work for other high-value assets and it has,” said Frank Camoun, CEO of CAS Automotive. “Today’s launch isn't just a new website; it's CAS Automotive stepping into a new category, with the brand, service, and infrastructure to support it at scale.”
InsurTech/M&A/Finance💰/Collaboration
Will AI change agency valuations? Buyers are starting to draw a line
Insurance brokerage buyers are beginning to screen acquisition targets for technology and AI readiness, even as valuations remain anchored to growth.
And while artificial intelligence may not yet warrant its own line in a valuation model, acquirers are increasingly distinguishing between brokerages equipped for a more automated future and those that could require substantial work after purchase.
Felix Morgan, CEO of Trucordia, said technology capability has become part of his firm's assessment of a target. Trucordia has completed roughly 200 acquisitions over a two-year stretch and now operates in 42 states.
"Insurance brokerage M&A is at an inflection point," Felix Morgan said. "It's always been true that there were targets that were better than others and that would create value, but you're seeing that divide happen at a much larger scale right now."
Claims
ValueMomentum Partners with Celonis to Streamline Claims for P&C Insurance
ValueMomentum, a global services and solutions provider exclusively focused on property and casualty (P&C) insurance, today announced a partnership with Celonis, the global leader in Process Intelligence, to bring P&C claims organizations greater visibility into their process performance and drive down indemnity leakage.
The partnership combines the Celonis Platform with ValueMomentum’s vast industry knowledge and P&C claims advisory capabilities.
The combination of deep industry expertise and advanced technology allows these organizations to bring P&C insurers process-aware claims diagnostics that help quantify leakage in actual dollars. With leakage making up 7-14% of insurers’ spend, investing in process-focused claims assessments can help P&C insurers drive measurable results. The result is a new category of claims intelligence. Where traditional diagnostics rely on sample-based file reviews, process mining analyzes the full claim population (often hundreds of thousands of process events) in a fraction of the time.
“We’re excited to partner with Celonis to turn diagnostic insights into sustained operational improvement for our P&C insurance clients,” said Peter Venetis, Principal Consultant, Claims at ValueMomentum. “Our combined approach can help tie findings to specific process steps, adjuster cohorts, and financial outcomes.
For insurers evaluating their claims operations, the partnership offers a clear value proposition: the ability to see, for the first time, how their claim handling workflows actually perform, and to translate that visibility into quantified indemnity improvement. This level of process execution intelligence represents the largest untapped lever for financial performance improvement in claims.”
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