To better serve ag sector, industry experts added to insurance team
By Kate Ayers
Staff Reporter
SGI Canada, a provincial Crown corporation, has added a Farm Business Unit to its team to help its staff better understand the needs of farm customers.
The Farm Business Unit is led by an agrologist and includes staff with experience in farming and ranching operations, crop production, farm vehicles, livestock, equipment, farm buildings and other assets, according to a Global News article yesterday.
“The first piece (of the unit) was put in place back in March but it was actually formally rolled out about a month ago,” Blair McClinton, director of SGI Canada’s Farm Business Unit, said to Farms.com today.
“(The unit) is fully implement now.”
People who currently work for the company are a few generations removed from the farm, so they may not have a strong understanding of farm operations, McClinton said.
“Customers have told us that the insurance industry in general hasn’t done a good enough job understanding or serving the ag sector,” SGI Canada chief operating officer, Don Thompson, said in an SGI Canada release on Wednesday.
“After talking with customers and independent broker partners, we have begun to make some improvements. With the new Farm Business Unit, we’re looking forward to giving our farm customers better service and the best coverage possible to meet their needs.”
The average value of farmland and buildings in Canada is 39 per cent higher than it was five years ago, according to the 2016 Census. The price of farm equipment is increasing as well with continued technological advancements, the SGI Canada release said.
“(The unit) includes both the underwriting and the claims side of the business, so the underwriters put together the policies and the claims people handle policies when claims are made by our customers,” McClinton said to Global News.
“This (arrangement) is to put together better service for our clients and for our brokers.”
The new unit is intended to help the company better serve the farm industry through its broker network, McClinton explained to Farms.com.
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