OTC Insurance, an insurance broker providing service to clients across Nova Scotia, discusses the importance of keeping your broker in the loop about home renovations When people are doing home renovations, it’s probably not top of mind for them to contact their insurance broker, but it should be, and there are a few reasons why. [...]

OTC Insurance tells you how new legislation by the province of Nova Scotia is hoping to deter the theft of copper and what this means for commercial and homeowner policyholders Last week, the province of Nova Scotia introduced legislation that didn’t receive a lot of attention in the news. The legislation is designed to deter criminals [...]

Almost six months ago, the Town of Slave Lake was hit by a massive wildfire that evacuated 7,000 residents and eventually destroyed roughly 400 structures. The fire struck a 4,700-hectare area. The wildfire was the second most costly from an insurance standpoint in Canadian history. The damage has been pegged at $700 million, which is [...]

OTC commercial insurance brokers for Halifax and Dartmouth bring you the latest story from the CIP Society. The president of the New Brunswick Apartment Owners Association (NBAOA) and Moncton’s fire chief are calling for people who live in multi-unit buildings to get tenants’ insurance after a fire destroyed a 16-unit building in Moncton on Oct. 23, [...]

Although it’s still September, it might seem depressing to start talking about winter right now, but it is just around the corner. For vehicle owners, this means it will be necessary to get ready for winter. Today, we’re going to take a look at emergency car kits and in the coming weeks, we’ll also look [...]

After heavy rains in the Ottawa-Gatineau area, the Insurance Bureau of Canada has advised people affected by the rainfall to check their policies to see if they are covered for the property damage caused by sewer backup and water seepage. Between June 23 and 24, 50 mm of rainfall was recorded over Gatineau, while Ottawa [...]

With summer now upon us, it means many people will be spending more time outdoors, on vacation and at the beach, so it’s important people take steps to prevent themselves from becoming victims of crime. The Halifax Regional Police (HRP) recently posted some excellent tips on this topic. In today’s world of social media, one [...]

The Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators (CCIR), an inter-jurisdictional forum of provincial, territorial and national insurance regulators has been looking at the use of credit-based insurance scores. A credit-based insurance score is different from your traditional (financial) credit score. Both are derived using the information found in a credit report, but they have different mathematical [...]

Auto theft is up in Halifax this year. It’s something we’ve noticed at the OTC office and it’s backed up by police statistics. For the month of May, two cases of stolen vehicles were reported to our office. In one case, the vehicle was returned to a rental lot in Burnside and in the other case, [...]

While it’s already been a wet spring in Nova Scotia, researchers are predicting that it’s going to be an “above normal” hurricane season for the Atlantic basin. For the six-month season beginning June 1, the U.S.-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting there will be: “12 to 18 named storms (winds of 39 [...]