The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario has released a communications toolkit for insurers, brokers and agents ahead of sweeping changes to the province’s Statutory Accident Benefits system scheduled to take effect July 1, 2026.
The white-label package includes customer letters, email templates, fact sheets, Q&As, customer scenarios, landing page copy and self-assessment checklists intended to help the insurance sector communicate upcoming accident benefits reforms to Ontario drivers.
The reforms will make most accident benefits optional across personal and commercial auto policies while preserving mandatory medical, rehabilitation and attendant care coverage.
Income replacement, non-earner benefits, caregiver benefits, lost educational expenses, visitor expenses, housekeeping and home maintenance, damage to personal items, death benefits and funeral benefits will become optional.
FSRA material states insurers are expected to communicate the changes to policyholders before implementation.
The regulator said the materials were developed in consultation with industry and can be used “in full or in part” by insurers, brokers and agents while adapting tone and branding to individual organizations.
The toolkit repeatedly emphasizes four central messages: greater consumer choice, preservation of mandatory medical and rehabilitation coverage, elimination of duplicate coverage and the need for consumers to review workplace or private benefits before removing optional protections.
The regulator’s materials state existing policies will renew with the same coverage and limits unless consumers agree in writing with insurers to remove or modify benefits.
However, eligibility for optional benefits will narrow beginning July 1, 2026.
Optional benefits will apply only to the named insured, the spouse of the named insured, dependants of the named insured and of the named insured’s spouse and listed drivers.
FSRA states passengers, pedestrians and cyclists outside those categories may no longer qualify for optional benefits under a policy.
The communications package also repeatedly instructs consumers to review existing disability, health and caregiving coverage available through workplace or private insurance plans before making coverage decisions.
The reforms were first proposed in the Progressive Conservative government’s 2024 budget.
Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy stated the government would move forward with reforms intended to create “more affordable options, improved access to benefits and create a more modern system.”
The government argued many Ontario drivers already carried overlapping disability, health and caregiving coverage through employer-sponsored plans, extended health benefits and private insurance.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada supported the reforms, stating consumers should have greater flexibility to tailor coverage and avoid duplicate protection already available through workplace or private plans.
Broker organizations including the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario and Registered Insurance Brokers of Ontario broadly supported the implementation framework while emphasizing the need for consumer education and disclosure.
Personal injury lawyers and claimant-side firms criticized the reforms, warning some consumers may not fully understand the consequences of removing optional benefits until after a serious collision.
The reforms also change priority-of-payment rules.
Beginning July 1, 2026, auto insurance will become the first payor for medical and rehabilitation benefits arising from automobile injuries, excluding medication expenses.
The province states the change is intended to preserve workplace and private health benefits for non-automobile-related medical needs.
The reforms apply across private passenger, commercial, motorcycle, snowmobile and all-terrain vehicle policies.
For Ontario’s collision repair sector, the changes are expected to affect the broader claims environment surrounding repairs rather than repair procedures themselves.
Collision repair businesses routinely manage customer communication tied to insurer approvals, rental coordination, transportation disruption and claim progression.
Under the new framework, customers involved in similar collisions may carry materially different optional benefits coverage depending on selections made at policy purchase or renewal.
Commercial claims may create additional operational questions.
One customer scenario included in FSRA’s toolkit describes a delivery driver operating a company-owned vehicle insured under a commercial policy where optional benefits were not purchased. The scenario states the driver may consider optional benefits under a personal policy to supplement workplace coverage.
The reforms arrive as repairers continue managing increasing administrative and technical complexity tied to advanced driver assistance systems, OEM repair procedures, electric vehicle repairs and scan documentation requirements.
