With this Bulletin the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) is issuing the 2000 Guidelines for Ontario Auto Insurance Claimant Satisfaction Research (Guidelines). On January 1, 1998, the Ontario Insurance Commission, now the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO), put in place a new compliance mechanism to monitor and help improve insurers’ claims management practices relating to private passenger automobile claims. It required property & casualty (P & C) insurance companies to conduct a claimant satisfaction survey annually beginning in 1998.
Claimant Satisfaction Survey
All P & C insurance companies writing private passenger automobile business are required to conduct the 2000 claimant satisfaction survey, using the attached Guidelines.
To ensure consistency in the data collected, insurers must retain a marketing research organization that is a member of the Canadian Association of Marketing Research Organizations (CAMRO). Insurers are required to file the tabulated results of the survey with FSCO by April 28, 2000.
Companies with less than $10 million in direct written premiums (Private Passenger Automobile) or with fewer than 300 closed claims in 1999 are not required to undertake the survey. Insurers must notify FSCO in writing if they qualify for exemption from conducting the survey.
We are also attaching a set of questions and answers (Q’s and A’s) to this Bulletin to assist your staff who are coordinating the survey.
FSCO Contact
If you need additional information or if your company qualifies for exemption from conducting the 2000 claim satisfaction survey, please contact: James Fox, Senior Advisor, Office of the Insurance Ombudsman, at (416) 590-7277; fax (416) 590-8480.
Dina Palozzi
Chief Executive Officer and
Superintendent of Financial Services
February 8, 2000