February 2006 ISSUE
WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?
APEGGA ENDORSES PERSONAL INSURANCE
As a member, you get the benefit of pooled risk when buying insurance. Some 25 per cent of members have no access to plans through employment, so APEGGA believes this is very much a professional workplace issue.
When we discuss APEGGA membership with new graduates and other potential members, a question often asked is, “What’s in it for me?”
The simple answer is that APEGGA provides you a licence to practice engineering, geology or geophysics, and under Alberta law, you need our licence to practice.
But there is much more that we do. Though licensure and the enforcement of
the EGGP Act make up our primary purpose, APEGGA offers a wide range of benefits
and other services to its members.
What’s In It For Me? is a series of articles describing these programs.
Of all of the benefit programs offered to APEGGA members by outside suppliers, the longest running and most used are the various personal insurance programs. These programs — for home, auto, life, health, dental and other types of personal insurance — may not appear to be related directly to the practice of our professions, but they are.
By APEGGA’s estimates, approximately 75 per cent of our members work as regular employees in some kind of corporate structure, and many of these have access to group insurance plans for what the industry calls “personal lines” of insurance — life, health (drug plans and the like), dental, and short- and long-term disability.
For the 25 per cent who are self-employed and for those who do not have access to plans through work, the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers has established group plans. These plans allow professionals across Canada to pool risk and thus have access to insurance programs at substantially lower costs.
Even if you do have insurance through work, having a CCPE-sponsored insurance plan can serve as a back-up in situations where you change jobs, either voluntarily or involuntarily. APEGGA’s provider for these programs is Manulife Financial.
Home and auto insurance programs exist for a different reason. These insurers
have
long recognized that certain groups of people present a lower risk and thus are
less expensive to insure. Professional engineers, geologists and geophysicists
are one such group.
In the 1970s, the company that was to become TD Meloche Monnex approached APEGGA and asked if it could provide an offer to our mem-bers for home and auto insurance. Today, over 23,000 of our members hold over 46,000 policies with TD Meloche Monnex.
As with all of our member services provided by outside suppliers, these programs are entirely self-supporting — no portion of your dues is used to pay for them. Further, members are under no obligation to use only these provi-ders — you are free to have your insurance needs met by other firms.
If you have any questions regarding this or any of APEGGA’s member benefits, please contact Ross Plecash, P.Eng., Director, Corporate and Member Affairs.