The best home & car insurance companies in Canada

Personal insurance policies provide liability and damage coverage for your personal property and vehicle. This is your personal everyday coverage for your home or vehicle. It will not cover commercial use cases or speciality risk. This is the most common type of insurance coverage and what is often looked at as standard insurance coverage.

A commercial insurance company will be able to offer you coverage for your work vehicles and property. This is just coverage for you work property, but to run a business you will need more business insurance coverage and that largely will depend on what type of business you are running.

Commercial vehicle insurance

This type of insurance is needed to cover any vehicle used in conducting your business. Large fleets, as well as small businesses, should be properly covered by a commercial auto insurance policy.

Commercial property insurance

Essentially commercial property insurance cover the repair or replacement of stolen, lost, or damaged business property. It covers your business’s physical location and other assets like equipment similar to a home insurance policy.

A commercial policy will be far more expensive than your standard personal P&C polices.

If you're a member of a union or school alumni, or other affiliation such as a major company or professional association, you can sometimes entitled to insurance discounts depending on the insurance provider.

For instance, Johnson Insurance works with the Ontario Nursing Association. Johnson insurance is Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance, but for groups. The Personal insurance is the group insurance company for Desjardins Insurance.

Group insurance discounts can often be the cheapest rates you will receive, so you should check with your employer, union or post-secondary educational provider to see if there are any group affiliate discounts available.

High-risk insurers

You may also run into specialized insurance companies like Perth or Jevco, who deal almost exclusively with high-risk insurance. High-risk insurance companies work with The Facility Association to deliver affordable car insurance to young drivers, people with a number of collisions or claims, and anyone convicted of a serious or major crime such as a DUI or stunt driving. 

Classic car insurers

Older vehicles with perceived value may be designated as a classic vehicle, like a 1967 Ford Mustang.  Your standard personal auto insurer generally won't insure this type of vehicle. You likely will need to go through a specialty insurer like Haggerty Insurance in order to get the classic car insurance  coverage you need.

Gap Insurers

Some insurers only offer one type of coverage such as boat or motorcycle insurance. Optiom insurance, for example, provides replacement cost insurance, sometimes thought of as gap insurance, for your vehicle, old or new. A car's value depreciates quickly and if you're in an accident, especially when the car is a total write-off, may not be enough to buy a new or used car, or pay off your lease. Optiom insurance covers that "gap" in your coverage.

Managing general agent (MGA) or managing general underwriter (MGU) is an insurance agent or broker that has been given underwriting authority by a major provider. They can also bind coverage, settle claims, and generally work as the intermediary between insurance carriers and customers. Another way to think about an MGA is a a type of wholesale broker working on behalf of the insurance company and fulfilling clients' needs. MGAs often specialize in speciality lines of business, especially in areas that are more rural or remote than major cities.