Consumer Experience at Renewal

A survey was issued in June 2023 to the eleven largest insurance groups, by market share, offering auto insurance in Alberta. The purpose of the survey was to focus a consumer lens to insurer communications to better understand the reason for increased frustration and misunderstanding at policy renewal time. All eleven insurers responded to the request to provide:

• Information sent to policyholders at renewal
• Materials sent to the insurer’s distribution channel (agent or broker) to support explaining premium changes
• Consumer education information on the insurer’s website related to understanding changes in premiums.

A key finding of the survey showed insurers almost solely rely on agents and brokers to communicate reasons for premium changes; detailed premium change information is not provided directly to the policyholder. In fact, the previous year’s premium is not displayed in the documents for comparison – it is up to the policyholder to retrieve the information themselves or reach-out to a broker or agent. Some, but not all, brokers, and agents reach-out to the clients are renewal time but this is not consistent.

Policyholder communications often lack personalized content with precise answers about what is happening to their premium year-over-year. It should be noted some insurers provided excellent material to their policyholders, but there is room for many insurers to improve.