History of Aboriginal Insurance Services
Where
Are We Now
In 2020, AIS consolidated the insurance products we had been creating into a single, nation-wide Managing General Agency (MGA).
The concept for what would become Aboriginal Insurance Services came about when a group of First Nations businessmen who had been working in the insurance space for a number of years realized that the biggest obstacle First Nations communities faced in growing and developing their communities was a serious lack of access to insurance and financial products - which, as any economist knows - make up the foundation to a successful and burgeoning community. Combining their collective experience, knowledge, and expertise, the group first made the ultimate decision:
AIS would focus solely on First Nations communities - both on-and-off reserve - and only these communities.
The second task was figuring out where exactly the issues lay: In the end, it was determined that there were 17 major challenges that needed to be overcome in order for their idea to become a reality. Some of the challenges included:
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Educating the insurance industry, as well as Corporate Canada, about the past, present, and future of First Nations peoples
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Identifying the pitfalls and roadblocks that have made securing insurance and/or credit difficult for First Nations communities
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Creating, developing, and implementing products and solutions to meet the unique needs of every individual community.
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Finding solutions and/or loop holes to bypass community infrastructure issues created by government-imposed regulations
The biggest challenge, however, was coming to a place of mutual understanding with Corporate Canada; we knew we wouldn’t be able to get them to think like First Nations peoples, but we could educate and collaborate with Corporate Canada in order to take a “Whiteman” municipal solution and tweak it to develop solutions that help our communities . while taking into account into account the absence of fire protection and building codes that most communities have seriously been lacking.
Once the founding members, including Randy Sherwin and Bill Montour, had overcome that first objective, they had 6 more:
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Develop realistic and cost-effective insurance products specifically for First Nations
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Create and execute solutions to claims issues
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Introduce a risk management program customized to First Nations communities
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Create and implement a building grading system for administrative purposes and to ensure proper application of insurance premiums
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Build and grow a 100% Indigenous-owned insurance company
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Create jobs