Development of Caissassurance in Quebec

Abstract

Desjardins Financial Security is the new life and health insurer of the Desjardins Group. A result of the merger between Desjardins-Laurentian Life Assurance and Imperial Life, our company is the largest life and health insurance company in Quebec and among the top ten in Canada. We are also one of the rare insurers that distribute products using several different distribution methods, including caissassurance. Bancassurance consists of a range of financial and insurance services made available to the customers of deposit and lending institutions. At Desjardins Financial Security, we refer to it as ‘‘caissassurance’’since it meets the needs of the members of the Desjardins caisses. We are the pioneers in our market, and I would like to briefly discuss our nearly 50 years of experience in this area. The idea of providing caisse members with insurance products designed especially for them is part of the origins of our company. Senior management of the Desjardins Group wanted to broaden their loan and savings offer to include insurance coverage. And so the creation of a property and casualty insurance company in 1944 enabled the caisses to offer members who took out a mortgage loan to insure their property against fire. This way, both the member and the creditor were covered. The next phase consisted in providing caisse members and their families with life insurance, through the establishment of a life insurance company in 1948. The emergence of caissassurance, however, is meeting opposition from competitive life insurers who are contesting the right of caisse employees to sell individual insurance products. In 1954, Desjardins Life Assurance started offering their first insurance product to its caisses and their members: a group loan insurance plan, as authorized under legislation. The caisses take out the group insurance plan in the same way an association or a company does, and then offers the various benefits of the plan to their members or employees. Bringing our products into line with members’ needs and integrating the insurance offer into the caisses’s service offer is caissassurance’s most critical success factor. Today, Desjardins Financial Security’s loan insurance plan is ranking it first in Canada and third in North America. Over the years, we have designed life and health insurance products and services to meet specific insurance needs. The range of products now available to caisse members by way of the group plan authorized under legislation includes loan, savings, accident and travel insurance, to name but a few. The enactment in 1999 of the Act respecting the distribution of financial products and