CLIA Board Chair Report 2024

* Cheryl Canning. K.C., CLIA Board Chair 

It is hard to believe another year has passed but here we are in 2025.  I am very pleased to be able to report to you for the first time as Board Chair, on the year that was 2024. CLIA faced some challenges in 2024, such as the retirement of a longstanding Board member and leader, the implementation of a new accounting standard, the implementation of a new claims management system and navigating a suboptimal investment environment.  As I will report below, through the collaborative work of staff, the Board and the subscribers, these challenges were met head on. 

The Board met four times in-person, and once virtually in 2024. The virtual meeting was held on February 22rd, 2024, and the in-person meetings were held on April 8th, June 19th, September 24th, and December 4th. In addition to these meetings the Annual General Meeting was held May 8th and 9th in Toronto. 

The CLIA Board gets a gold star for meeting attendance.  It is a rare occasion that all Directors are not in attendance at a Board meeting, despite their geographic diversity and the challenges that come with that. Having been on many boards over the years, I am consistently impressed by this.  Not only do the Directors show up; they show up prepared and engaged.  It is truly a pleasure and an honour to work with this group.  

For anyone who would like more information about the work the Board is doing, agendas and supporting documents are all posted on the CLIA website. Please also feel free to reach out to Dave Jackson or me with questions, requests for more details or for discussion. We always welcome engagement with any of CLIA’s subscribers. 

Governance

After completing nine consecutive years on the CLIA Board, we said a sad goodbye to Allan Fineblit, Board member and outgoing Board Chair, in 2024. Allan will be greatly missed by the Board members and CLIA staff but to quote Allan’s wise words from his 2023 Board Report: “every organization needs to change and to refresh its governing body regularly”.

As the saying goes, when one door closes another one opens. At the June Board meeting we welcomed Catherine Gaulton to the Board. Catherine is the CEO of the Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC). She has a wealth of experience and knowledge about reciprocal business, governance and leadership, and she is a great fit for our Board. Welcome, Catherine!

There was a focused effort on communications and loss prevention in 2024. After extensive consultation with our Subscribers and other stakeholders, strategic plans for both communications and loss prevention were developed. New communication channels were created to raise awareness across our Subscriber jurisdictions about CLIA, its products and loss prevention resources we offer. These channels include the CLIA blog, Not So Risky Business, and a social media presence on LinkedIn. The CLIA blog published over 60 posts focused on loss prevention, cyber awareness, and wellness, and received over 7,500 visits. On December 31st, 2024 the 19th Annual Canadian Law Blog (Clawbie) Awards honoured the CLIA Blog, naming it one of the best Canadian legal blogs of 2024!

In addition to the creation of numerous loss prevention blog posts, 2024 was a year of identifying gaps in our existing loss prevention resources and contemplating updates and new resources to fill those gaps. Existing resources such as the Safe and Effective Practice book, last updated in 2014, and the Loss Prevention Online Repository were reviewed and will be updated in 2025. CLIA increased its educational offerings through several in-person and virtual presentations.

For 13 years I was involved with the Nova Scotia Lawyers’ Assistance Program and the CBA’s Well-Being Subcommittee, including as Chair of each. As a longtime advocate for and champion of wellness in the legal profession I am delighted to report that in response to a need identified by Subscribers, CLIA is developing an online Wellness Toolkit of resources to assist with various issues facing the profession. The Toolkit is in development and will be launched in 2025.

Investment Management performance is always on the radar for the CLIA Board. As an insurer we carry a large investment portfolio and in good years, revenue and growth from that portfolio can be a big factor in reducing premiums to Subscribers. Of course, the opposite is true as well and frankly, 2024 was not a banner year for our investments. CLIA was not alone in that regard, and no one expects great results when markets are floundering, but we do expect our investment performance to do slightly better than the markets in both good years and bad ones. We set benchmarks and monitor the performance of our investment advisors as against those benchmarks. To assist CLIA in this ongoing process, the Board has agreed to retain a third party in 2025 to review the performance of our investment manager.

Claims

CLIA claims numbers have been relatively static in 2024. CLIA’s central office began managing all of the claims from Prince Edward Island in July 2024 and are now managing claims for PEI, Yukon, NWT, and Nunavut.

Subscribers were advised late in 2022 that the platform built to support the Claims Management System was aging and soon would be unsupportable. Work began in 2023 updating the Claims Management System. In 2024 all of the CLIA Subscribers who use Claims Manager completed the transition to a cloud-based system and are up and running on the new system platform. Some may still be conducting duplicate entries until they are confident with the changes. CLIA’s central office is still working on accessing and utilizing Claims Manger as it was last on the schedule of activities.

Financial

The Board was provided with the results of the 2024 Q3 financial position at the December Board meeting.  

CLIA's investment portfolio experienced a positive return of 3.89% in the third quarter of 2024, resulting in an increase in surplus of $1.52 million. The performance of the investment portfolio can be primarily attributed to strong gains in the fixed income portfolio. The equity markets also performed well in the third quarter.

The 2025 CLIA operating budget was also presented to the Board at the December 4th Board meeting. The Board approved the 2025 operating budget of $2,786,900. This is an increase of 3.3% from 2024. The increase is primarily due to increased office salaries, increased premium taxes, and a bigger investment in loss prevention for 2025. 

Policy and Underwriting Committee (PUC)

In 2024 the Committee was involved in discussions related to social engineering claims, directors’ and officers’ insurance for Law Societies, remote working, and coverage for AI. A policy wording review was conducted by Clyde & Co. in relation to the D&O coverage in the CLIA policy. Meetings have been scheduled into 2025 to continue discussing these important issues.

Voluntary Excess Program (VEP)

Market conditions appeared more friendly this year and with the assistance of CLIA’s new insurance broker team from Marsh, CLIA was able to offer reduced premium rates and increased coverage limits. The CLIA policy renewal date was also moved up by one month, beginning this year on May 1st instead of June 1st.  This move was requested to avoid conflict with summer vacation plans and CLIA’s broker and markets were amenable to the request. 

As always, CLIA continues to offer exceptional customer service, claims handling, and an automated underwriting and application process that makes the administration simple and efficient for the client and CLIA.  Offering competitive rates, however, is a large part of the success of the excess E&O insurance program. After a successful marketing, negotiation, and rate setting process, we were looking for some positive results during the 2024 VEP renewal campaign and those positive outcomes were reported to the Board in September. There was a slight increase year over year in the number of applications that were submitted, and the overall lawyer count.  Work to increase VEP awareness will continue into 2025.

Audit and Conduct Review Committee

The Audit and Conduct Review Committee met on November 5, 2024. The agenda included a review and approval of the 2025 Audit Plan. The Committee approved the 2025 Audit Plan.

It would be an understatement to say that implementing IFRS 17 was a challenge for all insurers, including Canadian reciprocals. We are very pleased to report that CLIA successfully implemented IFRS 17 in 2024. CLIA’s Auditor (PwC) conducted a one-time audit, focusing on changes in actuarial liability valuations, accounting policy decisions, and internal processes and controls. No issues were identified during this transition. The expertise of the CLIA staff played an immense part in this success.

Claims and Loss Prevention Committee

The Claims Committee continues to review and provide settlement authority to subscribers who have claims that are in the CLIA limits.

In addition to this function, loss prevention was added to the Terms of Reference for the Claims Committee in 2022. The Committee met virtually on December 6th, 2024, to discuss upcoming CPD opportunities, review the strategic plan, and loss prevention.  Linda Doll was asked to be the representative from the Territories, and she agreed to participate on the Committee as it develops loss prevention.  

In closing

As I mentioned at the beginning of this report, I am always impressed by the dedication and professionalism of the CLIA Board.  CLIA’s success does not begin or end with the Board however because a Board’s work is only as good as the staff that operationalize it.  CLIA’s staff and management are second to none.  One of the many pleasures of participating in CLIA Board meetings is witnessing the passion and competence of the staff in their respective presentations.  It is clear that they care about the quality of their work, they care about the success of CLIA, and they care about CLIA’s subscribers.  They never lose sight of the mandate of CLIA’s subscribers and of their role in helping to fulfill that mandate.   

I’m looking forward to seeing you all in Toronto in May for the AGM and would love to hear from any of you with suggestions, questions, or feedback (positive or negative).  In the meantime, have a happy and productive new year. 

* To learn more about Cheryl and our Board, visit the CLIA website.