Echelon and M&W parting ways

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Relax said:
Woah, I thought $300/yr for my SXV 450 was cheap, and thats with everything else with them except the Hyper. Wait, I see you're in Barrie...
Click to expand...
That's in Barrie, yes. It's more or less a loophole with Desjardins, my bike is classed as offroad so pricing is based as such. However, I am covered for the road and they only offer liability nothing else.
I'm fine with that as this bike is for trails with minimal road use and its value is only around $4000.

Sent from my SM-A530W using Tapatalk
 
Funny... 2-3 weeks ago I switched from M&W to Rider's Plus
 
Hey Everyone,



Adam Mitchell, President of M&W, here.



Cool thread with a lot going on, so I thought I’d offer a bit of an AMA and try to answer riders’ questions about the current marketplace and what is going on.



Couple quick things:

  • It’s true that we aren't currently working with Echelon.
    • They actually broke up with us because our loss ratio was too high. Loss ratio is the ratio of claims going out vs. premiums coming in.
    • The loss ratio was in the 150% range on certain lines of business, which means that they were paying out $1.50 in claims for every $1 collected in premiums. Obviously, this wasn’t sustainable.
    • We brought the loss ratio to Echelon’s attention, hoping to fix the problem together, but unfortunately, we were part of the cancelation of a bunch of brokers Just before the sale to CAA.
    • Because auto insurance is heavily regulated by the provincial government, insurance companies are severely limited in what they can do to change their pricing. Canceling brokers is one method that insurance companies use when they’re not happy with their financial results and want to make big changes.
    • A bad loss ratio usually stems from one of three things:
      • Not charging enough compared to claims statistics/paid
      • Fraud
      • Bad data – Sometimes people lie on their applications or brokers might enter the information incorrectly
    • You can see Echelon looking to improve on the first problem with rate increases.
    • Expect a lot more changes to come from the new owners as they work to improve on some bad financial results.
      • You’ll feel the changes in terms of premium changes and, depending on your riding history or bike, you may find that they won’t write your insurance anymore.
      • You won't notice the staffing or leadership changes.
    • On the motorcycle front, this is similar to what Aviva did a while back when they stopped insuring riders with less than 6 years’ experience.
    • Intact made similar changes a while ago.
    • It is getting concerning how few options there are for new riders out there. I'm really hoping some insurance company decides to compete here.
    • Someone mentioned that Echelon can't stop you from renewing with them at another broker.
      • That’s not exactly true. They can stop you, and won't let you transfer the policy to another broker. What they will allow you to do is to apply as a new rider with a new application, but make no mistake, they are breaking up with you, en masse, because they want to really pick and choose who they insure, and have a second look at the underwriting information.
    • Dalton Timmis does still have an Echelon motorcycle contract.
    • It does appear that Desjardins, who bought State Farm, is aggressively going after market share with very low prices on sport bikes and others.
      • You can take advantage of this while it is here but it's likely not sustainable long term.
    • We are working with CAA leadership, who we have a great relationship with, to re-establish the motorcycle contract.
    • CAA is an impressive company, is making money, seems stable and well-run, so we have high hopes that they’ll turn around the Echelon book of business.
Hope this helps some.

Happy to field any other questions you might have.

Please bear with me as this is my first AMA

Hope everyone is enjoying this nice riding weather that finally arrived!

Adam Mitchell
 
you've got an agent there named Alex
he's recently taken over my file
Alex is a keeper, excellent service

and thanks for the update
 
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