Two decades of publishing farm articles is worth celebrating. Congratulations to the team at the AgriPost for being a pillar in the agriculture community in Manitoba for the past twenty years.
This milestone led me on a journey back through articles written on insurance over the past two decades. It is interesting to see that in some areas not much has changed, while in others, everything is different.
I started by polling our team and asking what their experience was like in the past two decades of insurance, and I had to sort through people who were being potty-trained, watching cartoons, or dancing in the halls of their junior high school, to get to the tried-and-true veterans on our team who were actually working in the business twenty years ago.
In a nutshell, what has changed is the process that gets insurance coverage in place. Fax machines were incredible technology when they replaced carbon copy paper, and when the internet and email came into practice, the speed of business changed. The idea of waiting for the courier to bring the insurance company replies and answers for the day became obsolete. I remember hearing that experts predicted our lives would be so empty because technology would improve our efficiency so much that the biggest fear for the future of humankind was boredom. For those that spend their lives fighting off a constant barrage of emails all day, this concept is laughable.
On the insurance coverage side, there have been some changes, but in a cyclical market it’s interesting to see how similar some things are. Farm markets have come and gone. When enough insurers pull away from a class of business, someone new enters and before long, there are multiple insurers pursuing business hoping for their opportunity. Challenges that we saw from insurers haven’t changed much, as they are still looking to improve loss prevention, properly value buildings, and provide a profitable, yet competitive product, that interests consumers.
I also enjoy dreaming about what the next two decades will hold for our industry. We haven’t had to insure the flying cars that many predicted would be the norm by 2020. To date, insurance brokers haven’t been replaced by artificial intelligence, although there have been rumblings that Google and Amazon would love to take our place.
Insurance brokers haven’t been replaced by a modern version of R2D2 to deliver insurance coverage and risk management, and the team at Rempel Insurance remains committed to serving the agricultural community for decades to come.
Is insurance simple? Do you have questions? Work with someone who will explain the differences and options to you to make the best decisions for your farm. Rempel Insurance Brokers Ltd. are open for business and are glad to assist you with your insurance needs.
David Schmidt is an Account Executive at Rempel Insurance Brokers in Morris, MB, specializing in insuring farms and businesses across Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Call or text (204) 746-2320 Email davids@rempelinsurance.com Web www.rempelinsurance.com