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Bureau offers best practice guidelines     (Copyright Thompson’s World Insurance News     Not to be redistributed by individual recipients.)     The Insurance Bureau of Canada is releasing best practice guidelines for insurers and launching a web-based consumer education campaign aimed at improving the accuracy of the property valuation process for home insurance.     “Accurate home valuation is a complex problem that has troubled the industry for some time,” bureau policy vp Barb Sulzenko-Laurie said.     “With recent wildfires in Nova Scotia and British Columbia, and the tornado that struck Vaughan last summer, it became a priority issue.”     The best practice guidelines are the result of months of work by an IBC working group consisting of insurers, brokers and agents. It also involved consultations with property appraisers and property valuation software vendors.     It provides practical advice about the roles and responsibilities of insurers and their expectations of other principal stakeholders in the habitational valuation process.     The web-based campaign highlights the importance for consumers of having basic knowledge about their homes.     “Many homeowners are unaware of the factors that affect their home’s replacement value,” Ms. Sulzenko-Laurie said.     “The materials fill the information gap and encourage consumers to talk to their insurance provider.”     More in our May 17, 2010 edition        Thompson’s World Insurance News P.O. Box 1027,  Waterloo, Ontario,  Canada  N2J 4S1 Tel: 519-579-2500 Fax: 519-745-7321 mpub@sympatico.ca THOMPSON’S WORLD INSURANCE NEWS , Canada’s only independent weekly for p&c insurance professionals, has been the industry’s most trusted news source since 1988.