This article was created in partnership with Aviva Canada.
When the onslaught of severe weather hit Canadian shores in 2024, no one expected the losses to reach a dizzying $9.2 billion across the industry. For many customers, it was one of the bleakest times in their lives. For insurers, it was one of the most taxing - both mentally and physically. At Aviva Canada, while the situation was stressful, it also brought out the best in their dedicated team.
“It was horrendous for customers going through those experiences,” explained John Lally, Chief Claims Officer at Aviva Canada. “But I was so proud of our team at Aviva and how they responded.”
Lally leads teams in property, auto, injury and casualty, as well as the in-house claims legal team, Aviva Trial Lawyers. When disaster struck in 2024, many employees outside of the 200-people strong property claims team stood up and offered to help.
“The biggest moment for me was when people volunteered - it showed how much they really cared. There was a seven-week period from July to August where we saw four times the amount of claims we would receive in previous years – and the team just couldn’t humanly handle it alone.”
On the claims floor, over 150 people put their hands up to help their colleagues - a super proud moment for Lally and the rest of the executive team. However, Lally is quick to point out that this is just indicative of Aviva’s culture in general. This year, over 300 put their hands up, indicating their wish to help whenever severe weather strikes.
“It’s reflective of our values,” he told IB. “It was definitely one of the proudest moments of my career to date.”
Since 2024, many lessons have been learned in the CAT property claims space, not just at Aviva but across the industry. For Lally, it’s about encouraging people to take a more proactive approach in planning and shifting to a predictive model of claims management.
“If you think about last year’s events, in Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, we focused on load-levelling and having local people with local knowledge handle the claim. We were strategic and deliberate about ensuring we have teams based not only in the GTA, but across the country.”
The 2024 Montreal floods highlighted the need for specialized support. From that event, Lally revealed the team learned lessons in terms of licensing requirements and bilingual capabilities.
“We hired over 10 bilingual adjusters, so we’ll be able to deal with that going forward. But beyond staffing, we need more collaboration within the industry and with regulators. We need greater flexibility in adjuster licensing across provinces so when such large weather events happen, our people can get on the phones with our customers, reassuring them and setting the process up, not being held back by administrative barriers.”
Beyond internal improvements, Aviva has bolstered its relationships with restoration firms and catastrophe partners such as Wildfire Defense Systems.
“We now have far clearer guidelines in the overall ecosystem,” Lally added. “And we’re also educating our customers - what are the proactive steps that they can take?”
One key advancement has been increased customer autonomy during surge events, when contractor availability is stretched.
“In those events, it’s just not possible to get all contractors on the ground straight away,” Lally explained. “If a customer feels comfortable and confident, we can give them flexibility to use their local contractor. It’s about giving them that autonomy.”
Data and analytics have become instrumental in improving response logistics. As Lally told IB, his team did a lot of work on postal code analytics, assigning restoration firms by area. Still, Lally believes that technology cannot replace compassion and communication.
“We have a strong team that cares - that was our foundation. But we’re also focused on being proactive in our communication, giving customers regular updates, and showing empathy. Sometimes people just want to know how long something’s going to take. If it’s going to take two to three weeks, at least tell them that, as opposed to overpromising and saying two days.”
And the theme of leading through tech and human expertise is something that’s reflective of client expectations too. Research from UserTesting found that while AI is taking the insurance world by storm, 88% of customers would prefer to receive insurance guidance from a human.
Looking forward, Aviva is investing in operational resilience through training, geographic diversification, and tighter coordination with external partners.
“We’re scaling up cross-training and upskilling our teams. We’re more geographically diversified. And we’ve deepened our partnerships with Wildfire Defense Systems, and with restoration contractors, so we can respond faster and better. We’re also educating people on the steps they can take to mitigate risk, whether it’s the type of shingles they use for hail events or installing waterproofing in the basement.”
Yet, consumer awareness remains a challenge here. After all, when somebody’s buying a house, all too often they’re not going to invest $10,000 to $15,000 in basement flood mitigation. However, as Lally pointed out, they have a duty “as an insurance company, and in collaboration with the wider government, to educate people on what can be done to reduce damage from fire, floods, and hail.”
And for Lally, the path forward hinges on a collective approach to resilience.
“You can’t 100% mitigate these types of events, but there are certain things homeowners can do to lessen the impact or prevent it. That’s the key on a go-forward basis.”
