Quote Originally Posted by NiteshadeTA View Post
Don't forget supply demand affect price. In province's/states where insurance is not a requirement, the pricing is actually quite reasonable/affordable because the insurance company needs to price lower in order to continue to attract business.

In areas where insurance is mandated by law (IE: Ontario), but the pricing is not regulated, the Insurance companies can gouge much more deeply. This is why they are posting record profits in 2003, 2005, and so on.

Here is the hard numbers:

$154.8 million - The Co-operators Group Ltd - PROFIT
$63.1 million - Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. (IAG) - PROFIT
-$103.5 million - Kingsway Financial Services Inc. - LOSS
$35.1 Million - SGI Canada (coachman) - PROFIT

So briefly examining the situation, it is pretty clear the insurance companies are making money, with the exception of Kingsway. This is based off end of 2007 fiscal financial statements off the TSE, so there can be no dispute... they are hard numbers.

Statefarm is a US based company, and don't trade in Canada, but they posted a net profit of $5.46 billion for their USA business. This includes profits made in Canada.

Anyone who says they don't make money is lying.

Nites
In what province is insurance not mandatory? There is a lot more to cost of insurance than competition, which makes comparisons between locations very difficult. There is open competition in Ontario for cying out loud! You can get vastly different rates between companies in Ontario! I've tried to explain this over and over again and people just continue to rant like children. An insider comes here and explains how it works, an incredibly well written and intelligent explanation, and people STILL don't get it. And why shouldn't they make money? They're in business!! It's not a non-profit service.