Terri O'Brien

As the national authority on insurance crime and fraud prevention, Équité Association is a not-for-profit organization, supporting Property and Casualty (P&C) insurers in Canada to fight fraud by using advanced analytics, intelligence best practices, and coordinated investigations.At Équité, we recognize that the cornerstone of our collective success is rooted in our unwavering commitment to meeting the needs of our members to meaningfully reduce insurance crime. In 2023, our continued commitment to deliver value to our member insurers while protecting Canadians against insurance crimes drove the following notable successes.

Last June, Équité Association announced that auto theft was a national crisis. Since then, Équité has been advocating for comprehensive solutions to combat all facets of the crisis which is a complex problem that requires a multi-faceted solution. Public Safety Canada’s (PSC) strong leadership on combatting Canada’s auto theft crisis has been steady since we announced auto theft as a national crisis in 2023. With Équité being the national authority on insurance crime, we were invited to meet regularly with federal and provincial government leaders, to contribute recommendations and insights. PSC approached the daunting task of creating an action plan thoughtfully and with an openness to fully understand all of the underlying nuances, history and complexities of the crisis.

Équité Association’s 2022 Vehicle Theft Trend Report (June 2023) shows that Canadian vehicles are being increasingly targeted by criminal organizations across Canada and internationally. In 2022, over 40,000 vehicles (excluding British Columbia) were stolen in Canada, accumulating losses for Canadians of over $1.1 billion, at a time when consumer affordability and inflation are critical issues.

As human beings, we are wired to seek meaningful connections. Whether professionally or personally, connecting with something outside of ourselves gives us purpose. That sense of purpose is what makes us feel as though what we do matters. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Purpose also fuels our engagement; it motivates us to contribute, pushes us to overcome obstacles, and equips us with greater resiliency.

In my July blog, I wrote about the many benefits of shifting from an inward to an outward mindset. At Équité Association, we are committed to investing in each other’s success whether it be our colleagues, our members, or our partners. We believe in exploring possibilities together as we continue to grow as an organization. In order to do so, we need to stay curious and consistently seek out new opportunities to learn – because when we learn, we grow.

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about how and why we grow. When I look back on my career, I can pinpoint definitive transformational moments of growth, and each of these have something in common: They required me to reach beyond myself, to see things differently, or to change my mindset. Growth can feel uncomfortable, but I am fortunate to have a supportive network of friends, family, colleagues and mentors – all of whom provide diverse perspectives. But in the quiet moments of thought and introspection, I find myself reaching for a book for guidance and insight.

At Équité Association, our cyber security strategy underpins our mission to provide best-in-class prevention and defense against insurance crimes through advanced analytics, intelligence and coordinated investigations.

When we began building our organization in 2021, our team was small and has since grown with an unwavering focus on building a single, unified, not-for-profit organization to proactively tackle insurance crime on behalf of our members. We prioritized building the foundation of what our organization would grow to become, establishing our workplace culture as an essential component of who we are, along with the products and services we offer to members.

As we embark on a new year, here at Équité Association we are poised to continue to provide our members with the best-in-class products and services they have come to depend upon, with a few new, and game changing offerings on the way. Our Fraud Analytics Team has been busy developing Canada’s first insurance fraud analytics platform, ÉQ Insights, to provide our members with more robust insights– from dashboards and visualizations to big data processing, real-time fraud analytics, and machine learning – to move the P&C insurance industry to a ‘predict and prevent’ model, and ultimately change the role of the insurer in the fight against crime.

Insurance fraud is a serious crime that impacts many people and its consequences are real. March being Fraud Month, it is a good time to discuss why we should all care. Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime – it is time we eradicate it from the Canadian economy and the insurance industry, and tip the scales back to supporting Canadians.