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W E S T E R N C A N A D A’ S I N S U R A N C E M A G -
j u ly 2 0 0 7
Alberta
youth
Rink rat
Claims &
Adjusters
supplement
begins
page 21
NECESSARY
ROUGHNESS
When he’s done hitting QBs, Saskatchewan
Roughrider Scott Schultz hits his CAIB books
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Insurancewest July 2007
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V o l u m e
1 2 N u m b e r
4 j u l y
2 0 0 7
Contents
Peaks around
Kalar Patar in the
Everest region.
See page 7.
This M.F. McPherson photo shows the Little Saskatchewan River and a Husky oil refinery smokestack in Minnedosa, Manitoba. See page 12
cover story
10Necessary Roughness
Scott Schultz is a much-feared defensive tackle with the Saskatchewan
Roughriders, a Canadian Football League all-star. When his athletic career
is over, Schultz plans to be – what else? – an insurance broker.
12A darn good guy
Finished with pro hockey, Dave McDonald returned to Manitoba in search
of a living. He discovered he had a knack for insurance brokering, which
he practises with success in Minnedosa. His partner says he hasn’t lost
his scoring touch either.
1939 and under
21Special Feature
Claims & Adjusters
Alberta’s Professional Young Brokers Society may only have been
launched in May, but already the nascent organization has 335 members.
The Board hopes to double that number in a year.
Also inside StreetTalk 7 • TechWatch 36 • IW website links 37
Advertiser index 37 • TradeTalk 38
COVER: Scott Schultz, defensive tackle
with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Photo by Perry Dunn.
www.insurancewest.ca
‘‘
We want to be in control of our own destiny,” says Rikki
Wosnack (pictured), president of Alberta’s Professional Young
Brokers Society. “We can have an added voice when it comes
Story page 19
to political lobbying.
July 2007 Insurancewest Booking Now!
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WESTERN CANADA’S INSURANCE MAGAZINE
July 2007
Volume 12 Number 4
Editor
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streeTtalk
Please e-mail StreetTalk suggestions to [email protected] in Vancouver or to our Prairies editor at [email protected]
First Nations brokerage named Business of the Year;
ICBC runners win Sun Run’s Corporate Cup (again)
S
askatoon’s Lafond In-
surance and Financial
Services has been named
Business of the Year at the
annual Saskatoon Awards for
Business Excellence.
The awards, presented through
the city’s chamber of commerce,
take into account a company’s
history, its financial performance
and level of service.
The brokerage was established in September 2003 by
Lester Lafond,
a past president
of the chamber
and a member of
Lafond
the Muskeg Lake
Cree Nation.
The business is located on
a designated urban reserve
in Sutherland, a suburb of
Saskatoon.
“I started from zero, I didn’t
buy a book of business,” said
Lafond. “I built it up over the
last three-and-a-half years, so
I feel pretty darned good about
the award. It makes all that effort worthwhile.”
IBAA GETS NEW BOSS, NAME
Insurance brokers in Alberta
have a new president – and a
less cumbersome name.
Cy Johnson, 52, of Rushton
Agencies in Stettler, is the new
president of the
brokers association. He assumed
the position at
Johnson
the organization’s AGM in
May, taking over from Ralph
Zutter of Competition Insurance in Edmonton.
www.insurancewest.ca
The Independent Insurance
Brokers Association of Alberta,
meanwhile, is no
more. The organization is now
known as the In-
Rye
surance Brokers
Association of
Alberta (IBAA).
Past president Lorne Rye says
dropping “independent” from
the name is in
tune with reality.
“We originally
had it there to
differentiate us
from direct writBaker
ers. We thought we needed that.
But it just didn’t seem to fit any
more.”Rye says he had been polling members for the past year
about making the change.
In other association business, outgoing CEO Harold
Baker says he expects one of
his tasks as a consultant to the
CORPORATE CHAMPS
I
n our haste last issue to
report the impressive
involvement of insurers
and brokerages in the 23rd
Vancouver Sun Run, Canada’s largest 10-kilometre
road race, we neglected to
mention that the winner of
the Corporate Team (Government) category was the
Insurance Corporation of
B.C. Team ICBC was also the
top corporate team overall
– for the eighth time.
About 140 ICBC employees, family members and
friends participated in Sun Run
events this year.
“We have good corporate
support and a very dedicated
group that goes out running
every day at lunch,” said team
captain Mark Francis , the
corporation’s manager of regulated vehicle programs who
placed 99th overall.
Added Doug McClelland,
manager, media relations,
“There was a pretty serious
challenge between our finance
and insurance divisions, with
runners right up to the senior
executive level.”
Photo shows Isabelle Colborne, president of the career
placement agency Temporarily Yours, presenting Team
ICBC captain Francis with the
Temporarily Yours Corporate
Challenge Cup.
Francis is joined by colleagues and fleet-footed
teammates James Gardner,
Jim Swaddling, Ken Bell,
Eric Vaagen, Kerry Ward, Phil
Green, David Clancy, Murray Stevens and Matthew
Gardner. IW
July 2007 Insurancewest LEWIS HEADS UP IBABC
Central Vancouver Island broker Ted Lewis is the new
president of the Insurance Brokers Association of B.C. He
takes over from Doug Guedes of Salt Spring Island’s SeaFirst
Insurance.
President of Nanaimo Insurance Brokers and a former
commodore of the Nanaimo Yacht Club, the 63-year-old Lewis
got his start in the industry with Travelers in 1968.
In a June ’07 profile in BC Broker, writer Stan Sauerwein
referred to Lewis, who has volunteered with the brokers’
associationBroker
for years,
as the “go-to guy” in B.C.
Manitoba
Magazine
Photo L to R, back row: Lewis’s sons Tom and Jerad. Front:
7 xLewis’s
4 5/8companion Susan Fox and his daughter Danielle. IW
organization will be to help
1963. He has missed only the
brokers prevent credit unions
AGMs of 1967 and 1988.
in Alberta from establishing
An Edmonton broker – his
their own brokerages. Baker
firm is Direct-Line Insurance
will officially step down at the
– he was present again this
end of the year but will be availyear, taking in all the activities,
able to work on special
renewing old friendprojects, including the
ships and meeting new
credit union issue.
people.
Credit unions have a
“I really enjoy it,”Heron
foothold in the insursaid. “The issues haven’t
ance business in other
changed much over the
Heron
provinces, the most recent
years; the only thing that
being Manitoba and Saschanges is the faces. The
katchewan. But Baker doesn’t
comradeship and the esprit de
think it will be as easy for them
corps are always outstanding.”
in Alberta.
“This is a free enterprise
IBAM PREZ
province. The marketplace is
CHANGES JOBS
completely different. It’s
The new president of
well-served by independthe Insurance Brokers Asent brokers. The credit
sociation of Manitoba has
unions don’t provide any
moved on to a new job.
alternative, and there’s no
Larry Watson , who
value in having them in
in May took over as
Watson
the brokerage business.”
IBAM president from
Larry Heron’s attendIrwin Kumka, had been
ance numbers at the annual
the Winnipeg office manager
IBAA get-together continue to
for Marsh Canada, a position
build. Heron began attending
he held for 14 years. He was
the association meets back in
recently named large accounts
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Insurancewest July 2007
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service manager, central region, for
Aon Reed Stenhouse in Winnipeg.
Watson, 55, has been in the insurance industry for 32 years in company,
risk management and brokerage positions.
“We’ve got insurance companies
buying brokerages, there are credit
unions in our business, so we have to
keep up our political lobbying efforts,”
Watson said of his new IBAM role.“We
also have to rethink our membership
in terms of different categories of
membership.”
MPI PLANNING REBATE
Drivers in Manitoba have a couple
of things to look forward to next
year.
Manitoba Public Insurance wants
to hold the line on auto insurance rates
in 2008. In addition, it plans to rebate
almost $50 million to customers next
year, about $90 for the average family
vehicle. It would be the fourth rebate
in the last six years.
The proposals are in MPI’s general
insurance rate application filed with
the province’s Public
Utilities Board.
“We know Manitobans expect and require
rate stability because
it helps them manage
the family budget,” McLaren
said Marilyn McLaren,
MPI’s president and CEO. “This rate
application means that over a 10-year
period, drivers will have had only one
rate increase, with five rate decreases
and four years of holding the line on
auto insurance rates.”
RE-GROUPING
Travel Insurance Coordinators
president and CEO Ruth Simons is
taking early retirement after 27 years
with the North Vancouver-based
company she originally
purchased from her father in 1994 and sold to
Co-operators in 2003.
The Lions Bay, B.C.
resident, the daughter
Simons
of Peter Faulkner, the
longtime Vancouverarea broker who pioneered the sale of
pet insurance, referred to the move as
“a re-grouping.”
“Obviously I’ll miss the excitement
of the industry and the people I’ve
worked with throughout the years, but
I want to put some energy into more
LAWYERS, ACCOUNTANTS, ENGINEERS: YOUR INPUT, PLEASE!
Litigation Forum
This feature includes analyses of claims settlements, opinions
and pointers by the leading insurance lawyers, litigation
accountants and forensic engineers across western Canada.
To book your ad space in this important magazine
feature in our November edition,
please call Linda Helme at
604-874-1001 or 1-800-888-8811.
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Continued on page 31
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July 2007 Insurancewest Perry Dunn photo
Profile
NECESSARY
ROUGHNESS
Since 2003, the year he joined the Saskatchewan Roughriders, all-star Scott
Schultz has led Canadian Football League defensive tackles in quarterback
sacks. When he retires from the gridiron, this Moose Jaw native aspires to
be an all-star insurance broker.
F
olks who meet up with Scott
all-star Saskatchewan Roughrider. They’ll
Schultz, particularly those not
be looking for him – to buy insurance.
wearing a green-and-white jersey,
In the off-season, you see, Schultzy, as
often come away from the encounhe is known, works as a sales associate with
ter thankful they have insurance.
Regina’s Bassendowski Agencies, a Co-opIn a few years, though,
erators affiliate. By the time
people won’t be running
his athletic career winds up,
By Don McLellan
from the 6-2, 295-pound
Schultz hopes to be a fully
10 Insurancewest July 2007
licensed insurance broker specializing in
commercial and agricultural products.
“I’m very outgoing and I’ve worked as a
mortgage broker previously,” said Schultz,
29.“I thought there was a need in insurance
and that I could help people.”
The Moose Jaw native turned down
offers from more football-prominent U.S.
schools like Stanford, Michigan and Penn
State to accept a full-ride scholarship to
play for the University of North Dakota
Fighting Sioux.
“I was a kid from Saskatchewan – what
did I know? Besides, North Dakota was
closer to home.”
He majored in mass communications.
Contrary to the jock stereotype, Schultz was
an all-American both on the field and in the
classroom. He also met his wife Rosaline in
the Flickertail State. The couple is expecting
their first child next month.
Schultz played briefly for the San Diego
Chargers and then the Pittsburgh Steelers before heading north to join the team
that selected him in the first round – first
overall – of the 2001 Canadian Football
League college draft. Since joining the
Roughriders in ’03, no defensive tackle
in the league has had more quarterback
sacks, each of which is followed by a
Schultzy-choreographed “sack dance”
called the Moose Jaw Stomp.
A 2004 stomping of QB Dave
Dickenson kept the Lion sidelined for
almost four months. No hit, though,
was more controversial than his July
’06 thumping of Toronto Argonaut
Spergon Wynn, a highlight reel favourite that separated the QB from his helmet
and landed him in hospital.
The league fined Schultz $1,000 – unjustly, he maintains.
“It was a dream hit. You can go your
whole career and not get a hit like that.
That’s how I’m taught to play, to go all
out.”
Schultz also goes all out off the field.
He’s involved with Saskatchewan’s Community Youth Challenge program, where
he and other players visit schools and
community centres to talk about things
like bullying, healthy lifestyles and drinking and driving.
Nor is he media shy. Before home games
he offers football commentary on Regina
radio station 620 CKRM; he’s also appeared
on TV with comedian Rick Mercer.
Though he’s keenly pursuing his CAIB
studies between games, the insurance
community will not have Scott Schultz on
its team any time soon, at least not yearround. Last December the Roughriders
inked the Moose Jaw Stomper to a multiyear deal. IW
www.insurancewest.ca