KPMG buys insurance claims practice

Professional services firm KPMG in Canada has purchased an insurance claims practice that offers income replacement benefit and related calculations, as well as commercial loss claims calculations for insurance companies and their customers.

The acquisition of the claims practice of BDO Canada effectively doubles the size of KPMG’s regional forensic practice in southwestern Ontario and eastern Canada both from a revenue and people perspective, the firm told Canadian Underwriter.

The acquisition closed Jan. 15. KPMG’s Oakville, Ont. office will be home for the team joining KPMG.

KPMG’s regional practice already has 13 people, and the acquisition brings on 13 more, Kas Rehman, a partner in KPMG’s forensic practice and national insurance claims leader, told CU.

Among the professionals joining KPMG Canada is Janet Olsen, who co-founded H&A Forensic Accounting in 1993. H&A Forensic Accounting was acquired by BDO in 2015.

Olsen has more than three decades of experience in accident benefit and income loss calculations and has prepared or reviewed more than 19,000 AB, income loss and financial dependency reports.

“We want to continue to grow, and this practice catapults us into the accident benefits space and allows us to service the insurance clients from a commercial loss space as well,” Rehman said, adding that commercial losses include things like complex calculations related to business interruption policies.

The acquisition also significantly grows KPMG’s footprint in P&C insurance claims, strengthening the firm’s suite of services to insurance clients and expanding its Insurance Claims Centre of Excellence for Canada.

“With this acquisition, KPMG’s national forensic insurance claims practice will be able to better serve insurance carriers across the country by providing a more robust claims service, leading to more efficient processing and a better overall experience for insurers and their customers,” he added.

While Rehman said he’s never been involved in acquiring another practice, he has been active in insurance claims for more than 30 years.

“Our firm is really focused on the insurance industry and we do lots of work in that space from cyber and project management and claims modernization, all these types of different services,” he said. “This is just one more service that we really weren’t big into for our insurance clients, and now we are.”

He noted KPMG has typically grown organically in the insurance claims space, but the timing was right and the specific practice was right. “I don’t think we have a plan of acquisition for growth from an insurance claim perspective, but we want to continue to grow this business as it exists across the country, and certainly with the clients that we have in this area.”

As part of the deal, KPMG inherits a virtual office that provides income replacement benefit, interest and other calculations, and also streamlines the file referral process and provides a value-add tool for insurance claims handlers. The technology tool has been enhanced by KPMG and is the same tool insurers use to interface with the firm.

“They just go in, they can refer files to us, they can use calculators that are already built in if they’re granted access, and it helps them with their day-to-day job.”

Olsen said the team is thrilled to join KPMG.

“Its trusted brand, scale and expertise will help take the business to the next level,” she said. “I started my tax career at KPMG and became a senior manager in our tax practice, so in a way, it feels like I’m coming home.”

Feature image by iStock.com/Mohamad Faizal Bin Ramli