BFL Canada launches own legal expense insurance with AI platform

BFL Canada has launched its own legal expense insurance product, bundling the coverage with an AI-assisted legal support platform, part of a move by the brokerage further into building and distributing its own insurance solutions.

The product was developed with LawVo, a Canadian legal technology company. It combines legal expense insurance (LEI) with a 24/7 legal assistance center, which includes a helpline and online intake. It also gives policyholders access to an AI tool that answers everyday legal questions, a library of legal document templates, and a marketplace of lawyers for specialized or jurisdiction-specific matters.

Where a dispute can't be resolved early and turns into legal action, the insurance component covers legal costs for eligible claims. BFL said the product is aimed at both organizations and individuals.

According to LawVo's client page for the program, the policy is distributed by BFL Digital, the brokerage's online commercial platform, and underwritten at Lloyd's. BFL's own announcement does not name the insurer. It also hasn't published coverage limits, pricing or the specific legal matters covered.

"They need more than coverage when something goes wrong," said Lisa Giannone, president and chief operating officer of BFL Canada. She said clients wanted timely legal guidance that would help them make decisions before problems escalated.

Fernand Vartanian, co-founder and chief executive of LawVo, said the partnership would let clients deal with legal issues earlier rather than waiting until they became expensive disputes.

From distributor to product owner

LEI is not new territory for BFL. The brokerage has previously offered legal expense cover through third-party specialist providers in programs such as its landlord and tenant offerings, and lists LEI among its products for municipalities and small businesses. The new solution is described as proprietary. It puts a BFL-branded product, its own technology partner and a Lloyd's market behind the cover.

That reflects a wider trend among larger brokerages that are building programs and digital platforms around specialty lines, which gives them more control over product design, client experience and economics.

For legal expense, where pre-claim support often matters more to policyholders than the insurance itself, owning the service layer is a significant part of the proposition.

The demand case is well documented. The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice's national Everyday Legal Problems and the Cost of Justice survey found that 48.4% of adult Canadians would experience at least one everyday legal problem over a three-year period. It estimated Canadians spend just over $7.7 billion a year trying to resolve them. Consumer, debt and employment issues were the most common.

But uptake of LEI in Canada has historically been limited outside Quebec, where it is more established. Wider take-up has been held back by low awareness and by many buyers thinking they won't need it.

Pairing coverage with an AI legal assistant is one attempt to change that. If clients use the tool for routine questions, the product delivers value even when no claim is made, which helps with renewal.

The model also raises questions brokers will want answered before recommending it. These include where AI-generated legal information stops and advice from a licensed lawyer begins, what the policy covers once a matter escalates, and how claims are handled between BFL, LawVo and the Lloyd's syndicate behind it.

BFL said the solution is now available to eligible clients through its representatives.