Happy New Year!
I hope you celebrated the start of 2023 in good health with family and friends. As we move into the new year, I’d like to take a moment to thank you for your continued trust and support of CDSPI. It is this trust that our clients have in us that has helped us to grow and thrive together for over 60 years. We pledge to support you in every way that we can as your insurance and investment partner—helping you achieve and maintain a state of financial well-being.
Unfortunately, not everything goes according to plan all the time. The final insurance rates for malpractice and TripleGuardTM experienced unforeseen processing delays by about two months at year end, that resulted in some clients receiving their annual insurance invoices later than they should have. This is not the level of service our clients have come to expect from us. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by having our invoices issued later than has been our norm. You have my commitment to ensuring next year’s annual invoicing notice will be issued in a timely manner. We truly appreciate your patience through this time. Please reach out by phone or email if you wish to discuss any negative consequences you’ve experienced because of this delay. We will work to make things right.
2022 was another transformative year for CDSPI. It was a year in which we began a successful new relationship with Zurich Insurance Company Ltd (Canadian Branch) for malpractice and dental office insurance (TripleGuardTM). While TripleGuardTM insurance premiums have increased due to challenging claims conditions in the commercial insurance market and higher inflation impacting the cost for replacement equipment and construction, we were pleased to be able to lower malpractice premiums by 10% for 2023 which may help to offset some of the added financial concerns.
This past year we also launched a new strategic alliance with Scotiabank that supports our mission of arranging programs for the benefit of members of the participating dental associations. With this banking offer, CDSPI has become a more robust and full-service financial services organization. Today over 65% of Canadian dentists and 68% of dental students are protected by a CDSPI product and we manage over one billion dollars of investments on behalf of our clients.
In November, we held the inaugural meeting of our new Corporate Members Council (CMC). The CMC is comprised of a representative from each of CDSPI’s eleven corporate members as appointed by the respective dental associations they represent. The purpose of the CMC is to provide our corporate stakeholders and the Board of CDSPI with a formal means to meet, communicate and discuss issues of mutual interest that are affecting the dental profession, our association corporate stakeholders and members of the associations, both regionally and nationally. This important exchange of knowledge and information will ultimately be used by CDSPI to continue to develop solutions and enhanced customer experiences for the dentists we both serve.
My sincere thanks to our clients, our corporate stakeholders – the provincial and territories dental associations, the Canadian Dental Association – and the CDSPI Board of Directors, whose continued passion and commitment to this organization has driven our many achievements.
Year in and year out, our priorities continue to include delivering quality insurance products, investment excellence and being a trusted advisor to our clients. More than the products and services we offer, our team is one of the best in the business for their passion and dedication to serving dental professionals. As part of our customer experience research, we solicit feedback from dentists and overwhelmingly, we receive comments like this one:
“I am so happy and satisfied as a client of CDSPI. The advisors are professional and always consider the benefits of the client and they work very fast. I like this company. Thank you so much.”
This new year is set to be another exciting one, even as the economic backdrop appears uncertain. One can either become paralyzed by fear and foreboding or, one can focus on the things within our control to continue forward towards making positive change. We choose the latter. We look forward to continuing our work on several initiatives to enhance and deliver the best services, products, and outstanding customer experience to you.
I wish you and your loved ones a happy and successful 2023!
Thank you for choosing CDSPI.
Ed Dermit
President & Chief Executive Officer