Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

We think that demographics and health care are favorable over the long haul. So health care is a growth area we like to invest in. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): In the businesses of pharma and medical devices, the diversified company has a super-high-quality triple-A credit rating, a 3% dividend yield and a terrific balance sheet. It’s taken a meaningful step toward final resolution of the multi-year litigation — which will cost $13.7 billion payable over 25 years — concerning the pending talc lawsuits against the company and its affiliates in the U.S. The MedTech segment is expected to grow revenue north of 6% in each of the next few years. We think the litigation will eventually play out, and that certainly could be a catalyst for the stock to come back. The multi-year consolidation in shares offers a great entry point for investors to pick up a defensive, long-term growth opportunity at a reasonable P-E. Molson Coors (TAP): An amalgamation of three brewing companies, Molson, Coors and Miller, the company offers brands across the value spectrum. The stock is inexpensive, trading for less than 10 times earnings per share projected in each of the next few years, though management is faced with...

Behavioral finance uncovered investors’ weaknesses. That’s helpful, as long as their vulnerabilities aren’t subjected to exploitation. Regrettably, that isn’t always the case. “There’s a dark way to use behavioral finance that emphasizes the foibles of the individual investor en route to selling them expensive products and telling them that that’s the only way forward,” Daniel Crosby, psychologist and chief behavioral officer at Orion Advisor Solutions, argues in an interview with ThinkAdvisor. The latest book from Crosby, the bestselling author and ThinkAdvisor 2024 Luminaries finalist who focuses on the intersection of mind and markets, is “The Soul of Wealth: 50 Reflections on Money and Meaning.” While its theme is how love and money coexist, the tome also offers practical financial solutions. Only 33% of Americans have a written plan, the psychologist writes. That’s because “people take a, sort of, ostrich mentality” with their money, he maintains in the interview. With automation’s increasing capabilities to create financial plans and design portfolios, together with clients’ need for their financial advisors to understand them, “the role of an advisor will look a lot more like a life coach,” forecasts Crosby, rather “than someone who deals strictly with people’s money.” Here are excerpts from our conversation:...

What You Need to Know In some markets, agents and brokers are coping with big waves of plan withdrawals or shrinking benefits. Consumers appear to be weighing their plan options earlier in the period than usual. The future of Medicare is a top priority for voters, a survey finds. The annual enrollment period for Medicare Advantage plans and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans starts Tuesday and runs through Dec. 7. The question of the moment appears to be, “Is it really going to be that bad?” In some markets, agents and brokers are coping with big waves of plan withdrawals. In other markets, the main effect is shrinkage in extra dental and fitness center membership benefits. But the Google Trends tracker shows that recent search activity for the term “Medicare Advantage” has been very high. For Google, the all-time search activity peak for “Medicare Advantage” came during the week ending Oct. 21, 2023, when the annual enrollment period had already started and people were rushing to shop for coverage. Google gives “Medicare Advantage” search activity for that week a score of 100. The trend tracker tool rates activity for other weeks in terms of how they compare with the all-time peak week. For...

Biden on Friday said the U.S. Coast Guard was leading efforts to reopen the port and he said work was underway to help restore power to communities hit by Milton. About 2.2 million customers are without power across the state of Florida, according to PowerOutage.us. Trump on Friday said that if elected he would provide a tax break for consumers who purchase a generator for their homes, allowing them to fully deduct the total cost for tax purposes. The break would be retroactive to Sept. 1, 2024 and be available until August 31, 2025, Trump said, announcing the proposal in a post on his Truth Social network and citing it as a step to help parts of the country prone to storms. Florida Trip The White House announced Biden’s plans to travel to Florida in a statement on Friday. It’s unclear if Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will meet with Biden during his visit Sunday, but when asked about the possibility, Biden said “if he’s available, yeah.” “He’s been very cooporative, we’ve gotten along very very well,” Biden said. DeSantis joined the president in 2022 when they surveyed the damage from another powerful storm, Hurricane Ian, and in 2021 after the Surfside building...

What You Need to Know The closing of the firm’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners adds $116 billion in assets to the firm. With the boost from GIP, BlackRock’s alternative assets tally now puts it closer to industry leaders like Blackstone, Apollo and KKR. BlackRock also is sitting on a $70 billion opportunity to grow in private credit if it flipped just 10% of its insurance clients’ money. BlackRock Inc. reaching $450 billion in alternative assets is putting a finer point on a case it has been making all year: it’s not just an ETF powerhouse. The closing of the firm’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners adds $116 billion in assets to the $334 billion that the firm managed at the end of September in real estate, private equity, hedge funds and illiquid infrastructure, as well as liquid credit funds. With the boost from GIP, BlackRock’s alternative assets tally now puts it closer to industry leaders like Blackstone Inc., Apollo Global Management Inc. and KKR & Co. BlackRock’s $375 billion in fee-paying alternative assets ranks above Carlyle Group Inc.’s $307 billion at the end of the second quarter. The four alternative investment firms have yet to...