Intact Financial


Intact Financial Corporation is the largest provider of property and casualty insurance in Canada by annual premiums as of 2017. Formerly an ING Group subsidiary, ING Canada, Intact changed its name from ING Canada to Intact Insurance in 2009.
The company has over 13,000 employees and insures more than five million individuals and businesses through its insurance subsidiaries. The company distributes insurance under the Intact Insurance brand through a wide network of brokers, including its wholly owned subsidiary, BrokerLink, and directly to consumers through belairdirect.
The company came together through a series of major acquisitions starting in 2011 when Intact acquired AXA Insurance's Canadian operations for $2.6 billion. The next year Intact acquired Jevco Insurance Company for $530 million, which allowed the company to expand its service to brokers through the opportunity to offer their clients complementary specialized products such as recreational vehicle insurance and specialty lines products to businesses.
In 2014, Intact acquired Metro General Insurance Corporation which operated largely in Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2015, it acquired Canadian Direct Insurance Incorporated, extending its direct-to-consumer operations from coast to coast.
In the J.D. Power 2015 Canadian Home Insurance Satisfaction Study, belairdirect was ranked highest in the Atlantic/Ontario region with a score of 799 and in the Quebec region with a score of 814 and Intact Insurance ranked third with a score of 791.

History

Started out as the Halifax Fire Insurance Association in 1809. In the 1950s, Dutch insurer Nationale-Nederlanden established itself in Canada by acquiring the Halifax Insurance Company; Dutch immigration to Canada attracted Nationale-Nederlanden to the country.
In the 1980s, the company continued to grow with the acquisition of three well-known regional insurers - Commerce Group and Belair in Quebec, and Western Union in Alberta. In 1991, Nationale-Nederlanden merged with NMB Postbank to create ING Group, one of the first bank assurance groups in the world. In 1993, as the company’s business continued to grow, it brought together its insurance companies that had been operating as separated entities under the umbrella of ING Canada.
A more cohesive entity, ING Canada made a series of acquisitions : the Guardian Insurance’s business in 1998, followed by the acquisition of Zurich Canada’s home, auto and small and medium business insurance portfolio in 2001.
In 2004, the company acquired Allianz Canada. That was soon followed with an Initial Public Offering and the start of trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange with ING Group retaining 70% ownership.
On March 10, 2009, ING Insurance Company of Canada changed its name to Intact Insurance Company. On May 13, 2009, ING Canada Inc. changed its name to Intact Insurance.
In July 2018, Intact announced they would be investing $3 million in the autonomous vehicle company startup company Voyage. Intact would be insuring self-driving vehicles in The Villages, Florida, one of the largest retirement communities using real-time pricing of insurance that take into account environmental factors.

Business and business segments

Intact's multi-channel distribution operates under the following distinct brands:
Intact Insurance is Canada’s largest home, auto and business insurance company.
Established in 1955, belairdirect is a direct-to-consumer P&C insurance company. In 1997, belairdirect became the first car insurance company in North America to offer an online car insurance quote directly to consumers. The company became an Intact Financial Corporation company in 1989.
Established in 1991, the companies, which include Canada Brokerlink Inc., Canada Brokerlink Inc. and Macdonald Chisholm Trask Insurance, together constitute one of the largest Canadian property and casualty insurance brokerage operations with over 115 offices and more than 1,400 employees across Ontario, Alberta and Atlantic Canada. The BrokerLink companies are subsidiaries of Intact Financial Corporation.

Leadership