The commercial insurance market in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is facing more than economic headwinds. According to Thomas Wright (pictured), brokerage leader at Avail Insurance and president of the Young Insurance Professionals of Toronto (YIPT), it’s also being reshaped by changing client expectations.
"Who we're doing business with and how we're doing business is shifting," Wright said. "Clients are becoming more research-driven. They're asking more sophisticated questions, even if those questions don't always apply directly to their business."
While transactional buyers still exist, Wright noted a clear rise in clients seeking strategic advice over quick quotes. That shift, he said, demands a balancing act from brokerages.
"You're trying to find the balance between servicing young, digital-first enterprises that want expedited turnaround and self-serve portals, and not turning into a transactional brokerage," he said.
In a fast-paced market dominated by automation and AI buzzwords, Wright sees long-term value in going back to basics.
"The most effective way we've found to serve small and mid-sized businesses is a consultative approach. Prioritize listening and explaining risk in simple terms," he said. "It doesn’t need to be reinvented. It just needs to be dusted off."
Wright emphasized that quoting should come after understanding the client's operations, not before. "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough," he said, referencing a mantra used within Avail to evaluate readiness for client conversations.
This mindset extends to internal operations as well. Wright advocates for service staff to think critically about every client request, understanding the broader context rather than defaulting to an "inbox-outbox" workflow. "More often than not, just forwarding off a request is going to lead to a bigger issue if you don’t understand the big picture," he said.
The maturity gap between how the industry handles cyber versus climate-related risks is another key concern.
"Cyber has been one of the top topics for a decade now. The industry’s been proactive – underwriting has improved, cybersecurity's better, and we've got post-loss support," Wright said. "But climate is indiscriminate. It's not if, it's when. And we’re not as well equipped."
Wright called for stronger cross-sector collaboration across brokers, insurers, adjusters, reinsurers and clients to develop actionable response plans before the next climate-driven catastrophe hits.
"Do we all know our roles when the next weather event occurs? Because we know it’s coming," he said.
As someone with a "courtside seat" to the next generation of insurance professionals through his work with YIPT, Wright is optimistic about the future.
"We’ve done a great job at filling the talent pipeline, but now we need to focus on how we support and develop that next generation," he said.
While younger professionals are pushing procedural innovation, Wright warns against mistaking operational efficiency for true insurance expertise.
"The real value we provide is our experience and our knowledge in risk prevention. A lot of that is still in the minds of our industry vets," he said. "We need to make sure mentorship and learning by osmosis are cultivated. Otherwise, we risk losing that depth."
If the goal is to build a smarter, more resilient industry, Wright believes the focus should remain on substance over speed. "Technology will keep evolving. But if we lose sight of the fundamentals, we’re not really solving the right problems," he said.
