Meet the Lifestyle Technical Team

A small but mighty team of three works behind the scenes to ensure Aviva Lifestyle policies are clear and helpful – and that claims are processed as efficiently as possible.

They may not know it, but while your customers are enjoying their cottages, boats, motorcycles, snowmobiles and other recreational fun, there’s a small team here at Aviva dedicated to optimizing our Lifestyle policies and claims processes.

“Our team launched in January 2021 as part of the growth and development of Lifestyle. We specialize in Lifestyle products,” said McKone.

The Aviva Lifestyle technical team is comprised of Shawn McKone (technical lead), Kim Johnston (automobile and recreational vehicles (RV)) and Tanya Leclair (habitational products and watercraft).

“All three of us are Lifestyle veterans. I joined Aviva Lifestyle when it was created in 2019, Kim was part of a specialized team that managed collector car products and Tanya is a long-time field adjustor who had already transitioned to Lifestyle before our team was formed.”

What exactly does the Lifestyle technical team do?

“We provide the technical expertise and oversight that allows for the management and improvement of the Lifestyle department as a whole,” said McKone.

That typically entails:

• Ensuring adherence to existing processes
• Helping resolve various technical claims, including managing complex investigations
• Collaborating with Underwriting/Product to improve our product offerings
• Implementing new processes to improve handling overall that lead to better customer experiences, e.g. speeding up the claims process

One of the first items the team tackled was standard co-insurance on RV policies. Customers could choose to lower the coverage limit on their RV to become a co-insurer, but they were penalized if there was a claim because they weren’t paying enough of the premium.

 “We were getting consistent feedback that [co-insurance] was confusing people. We dug deeper and found that it’s a complicated process and more typical to commercial insurance. Our expertise allowed us to articulate why it wasn’t a good fit. We worked collaboratively with the underwriting team and discontinued co-insurance for RV,” said McKone.

“The benefit to brokers and customers is that they no longer have to worry about this clause popping up in RV claims.”

What should brokers know about the Lifestyle technical team?

“We would hope that brokers are aware that we’re a specialized team here to provide consistency in how Lifestyle claims are handled coast to coast. Our job is to ensure there is very little variation between adjusters, managers, provinces, etc.,” said McKone.

“We’re also able to speed up claims. When there’s a claim with a technical issue, our team can step in and guide adjustors on how to proceed and resolve any problems quickly. We know how to interpret policy and get to the next step.”

With Shawn in Alberta, Tanya in British Columbia and Kim in Ontario, the team also has a unique national perspective.

“One thing that’s important to our department is not seeing things through a static lens. We like to look at all processes from the perspective of always evolving. If there’s something that doesn’t work anymore, we want to move on that quickly.”

If you have any questions, please contact your Broker Operations Specialist or your Broker Relationship Manager.