Dufferin Mutual Insurance marks 125 years in Shelburne

June 11, 2020 · 0 Comments

Written By MARNI WALSH

Situated in the Town of Shelburne since its rural beginnings, 125 years ago, Dufferin Mutual Insurance President and CEO Ed Forbes, says the company feels like “a little secret tucked away in town.”

Mr. Forbes calls Dufferin Mutual “a full-fledged insurance company to meet all of our policyholders needs.” He says, “No call centers answer our policyholders enquires or settle their claims. We are your neighbors.” Dufferin Mutual currently serves just under 4,000 policyholders.

The pandemic has “thrown plans off” to celebrate the insurance company’s 125 year milestone. However, Ed Forbes says, “This is a year in which our policyholders and our community want us to step up to the plate. We plan on doing just that.”

Mr. Forbes told the Free Press, “Our board recently approved a significant increase for our charitable contributions this year. Considering our heritage is in Shelburne and Dufferin County, that’s exactly where our efforts will be concentrated.”

Dufferin Mutual was originally “founded by farmers who had no place to insure their farms from Fire,” says Ed Forbes. “At the time, the British Insurers were suffering too many losses and decided to stop insuring farms in Ontario. The Ontario Government created legislation so that each County in Ontario could create an insurance company that would be owned by the members. That of course is where we got our name, Dufferin Mutual.”

“It is difficult to find records of how many employees were with the company back in 1895. We suspect there was only one – the General Manger. Since the company was owned by the farmers, they were responsible to hire one employee to manage it for them, the General Manager. Today we employ 12 employees in Shelburne and another four in our office in Mount Forest,” says Mr. Forbes.

The CEO says, “The company started off only insuring farms for fire. Over the years, we started to cover other risks such as wind and vandalism. We eventually expanded into other lines of business to the point where we are today, offering full coverage on farms, homes, commercial businesses as well as automobile coverage.”

The company is still owned by the policyholders, Mr. Forbes says.

Policyholders elect a board of directors annually. “We currently have a board of six directors. Five of them live in the local area as well as one who lives in Burlington,” says CEO Forbes. “The board is responsible for how we operate and to protect the financial assets that have been built up over multi generations of policyholders.” He says, the “board has the responsibility to hire one employee (just like in 1895), the CEO. It is then the CEO’s responsibility to run the day to day operation of the company and report back to the board.”

He calls Dufferin Mutual, “A true grassroots policyholder owned company.”