PMR Insurance Services Ltd.

In commercial insurance, saying “no” is often easier than saying “yes.” Standard underwriting systems rely on checklists and algorithms, and unusual or high-risk requests are quickly flagged as “outside the box.”

Brokers are left to tell clients that the coverage they need simply cannot be done.

That is where PMR Insurance Services Ltd. steps in, specializing in finding solutions for complex, unconventional, and high-risk commercial insurance needs that others have declined.

Led by president and founding partner Nona McCreedy, FCIP, CRM, PMR has built its reputation on risks that others refuse. “I really like when somebody says it can’t be done, because everything can be done. You just have to think about it and find a way,” she says.

Early in her career, McCreedy encountered a helicopter labeled as a “prototype,” which made other insurers hesitant. She arranged for it to be shipped safely to Canada, where it underwent cold weather testing, and then transported it to Texas for hot weather trials. By treating it as valuable equipment, properly wrapped, documented, and insured, she ensured it was covered throughout the process.

This practical, detail-oriented approach continues to guide her work at PMR today; a facet that runs through PMR’s entire portfolio.

On the property side, the firm handles everything from contractors’ equipment in the oil patch to forestry machinery deep in the woods. On the cargo side, it has covered shipments ranging from tequila liqueur escorted out of Mexico to nuclear isotopes bound for northern mines. On the liability side, PMR can place primary, excess, or umbrella lines, assembling coverage in the tens of millions when needed. The common thread is an insistence on understanding the details rather than relying on canned assumptions.

Inside the office, PMR operates in a way that reflects this philosophy. Each morning McCreedy sits down with her staff to go over the quotes on their desks. They talk through the files, draw pictures, and swap questions. It is a process designed not just to find answers but to build knowledge. For younger underwriters, it is an education in how to balance curiosity with precision, asking enough to understand a risk without overwhelming a broker with needless queries.

One case illustrates the value of that deeper approach. A broker came in with a file on a liquor warehouse. The building was non-combustible and sprinklered, which seemed to check every box. Yet underwriters kept declining it. PMR asked the right question: what happens when sprinklers go off over stacked cardboard cartons of glass bottles? The boxes collapse, the bottles shatter, and the loss is worse than the fire itself. With that insight, the firm found an underwriter willing to write the risk, provided the warehouse used alarms instead of sprinklers. A problem that had baffled others became insurable because someone took the time to think it through.

Northern Canada presents another challenge that many insurers shy away from. In the Northwest Territories or Nunavut, replacement materials must be flown in at staggering cost or arrive once a year by cargo barge. Rates cannot mirror those in southern cities, yet a computer program will often block coverage outright. McCreedy, who has been to those communities, understands the realities and trains her team accordingly. By bridging experience with underwriting, she ensures brokers are not left stranded.

At PMR, those unusual files are not a nuisance. They are the reason the firm exists. The more unconventional the risk, the more engaged the firm becomes. That energy has shaped PMR into a partner that brokers turn to when their clients need a solution that does not already exist. It has made the firm a quiet but indispensable part of Canadian commerce, keeping goods moving, equipment covered, and businesses operating when others would have walked away.