Happy New Year 2019!

We would like to wish all of our clients, friends, family and associates a very Happy New Year and best wishes for health and happiness in 2019!

2018 was a very busy and somewhat challenging year for our Team and the Insurance industry in general.

As in previous years, 2018 started off with our Team attending the Calgary Motorcycle Show from January 5th – 7th. We gave away an awesome Motorcycle Metal Art piece as a grand prize, as well as two (2) metal motorcycle sculptures. We also had a separate draw prize for those interested in obtaining an insurance quote through our Brokerage. They were entered to win up to $!,000 off of their premium.

We also gave out our annual motorcycle calendars and Costen Insurance pens, keychains, fidget spinners and stickers. We will be attending the show again this year, from January 4th – 6th, 20198. Please stop by our booth to say hi and pick up your free 2019 calendar.  We also have a special gift for any of our Costen clients.  Ask us for your gift when you stop by!

Our Team attended the Calgary Boat & Sportsmen’s Show for the first time this year, which ran from February 8th – 11th.  We gave away more great Costen swag, including some bright orange fishing licence holders.  We still have a bunch in stock so please let our Team know if you would like one!

April brought with it some challenges to the automobile insurance industry.  For the  past couple of years, auto insurers have been losing money due to rising repair costs, fraud claims, weather related events, and bodily injury settlements.  Due to a rate cap placed by the Alberta government, auto insurers were unable to increase their premiums and looked to take other actions to reduce their losses, including cancelling some Brokers contracts due to high loss ratios.  Underwriting was becoming more strict and it became difficult for some insureds to get coverage.

Andrew, Phong and Crista attended the IBAA (Insurance Brokers Association of Alberta) Convention in May, which was held in beautiful Banff, Alberta. They attended some great seminars, enjoyed mingling with many of our Insurance Company representatives and fellow brokers, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and all the town of Banff has to offer.

June was a busy month, as we attended Two Wheel Sunday on June 3rd, giving away a $100.00 VISA gift card and some other great swag. 

Later in June, we made our big move to our new Head Office location at 76 Skyline Crescent NE.  We moved to a MUCH bigger building, with more parking and room to grow!  Incase you missed our video of the big move…

The summer flew by and September was even busier than our spring.  We hosted an Open House at our new office on September 7th.  Karen made some delicious goodies and we had a great turnout of clients, neighbours and our insurance company partners.

Sol Digaoan joined our Team later in September in the role of Broker Admin.  She had previously worked with us in a volunteer capacity while attending school at SAIT. 

September 20th -23rd  we attended the Calgary Fall Home Show for the  first time.  We gave away some of our new 2019 calendars, flyers, and had a draw prize for a Google Home.  We are excited to be attending the Calgary Home and Garden Show this coming spring.

Throughout the fall, we saw additional restrictions put into place by many of Alberta’s automobile insurers, including restricting physical damage coverage on risks and no longer offering financing plans.  We realize that the automobile industry still has a long journey ahead, but we are hopeful for some positive changes in 2019 and 2020.  In case you missed our blog post earlier this fall, please click here to learn more.

Andrew and Richard participated in Movember this year. They had hopes of reaching a goal of $1,000.00.  If they met their goal, Costen Insurance would match their $1000.00 and Richard would have cut off his long hair!  Unfortunately they didn’t quite reach their goal but they did raise a bunch of money for great cause. 

We celebrated several anniversaries again this year, the big ones being eleven (11) years for both Andrew Shareski and Nirmal Lombsar, eight (8) years for Kristel Wilson, and twenty (20) years for Crista Costen. We are so fortunate to have such amazing people are part of the Costen Family!

Our Charity of the Year for 2018 was Prairie Sky Equine Assisted Therapy.  2018 was another successful year with a lot of referrals (Thank You) and we are looking forward to sending them a large donation at the end of the year! Karen and Crista had the pleasure of volunteering with the charity for a Sunday morning and got to meet some of their great horses, students, and regular volunteers. For more information on this great charity or how you can help, please visit their website.

We hope that you have a wonderful holiday season! We look forward to providing you with excellent customer service and new and innovative products and services in the years ahead.  Happy 2019!

The Costen Insurance Team