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People Moves: Morisato joins Sentry Board of Directors

Article 0 Comments Susan Morisato Susan Morisato has joined Sentry’s Board of Directors. Sentry is headquartered in Steven’s Point, Wisconsin. Morisato, based in Des Plaines, Illinois, brings over 30 years of health insurance experience to Sentry’s board. She is a former president of insurance solutions at UnitedHealth Care Medicare & Retirement. Morisato also served as chief operating officer of UHC’s Medicare Advantage business. Before UHC, she worked at Bankers Life and Casualty in various management roles. Was this article valuable? Thank you! Please tell us what we can do to improve this article. Submit No Thanks Thank you! % of people found this article valuable. Please tell us what you liked about it. Submit No Thanks Here are more articles you may enjoy. The most important insurance news,in your inbox every business day. Get the insurance industry’s trusted newsletter

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Ultra-Rich Should Pay to Save Social Security: Poll

Benefit programs for elderly Americans are one of voters’ top priorities in November — only the economy, immigration, abortion and protecting democracy were chosen more often when respondents were asked what single issue was most important to their voting decision. The poll also found that swing state voters trust Biden more than Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump to preserve Social Security and Medicare, with 45% trusting Biden and 39% trusting Trump. Trump has not articulated a clear vision for the benefit programs. His campaign website says he will “always protect” Social Security without providing details. In a March interview, he said “there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements in terms of cutting,” but later walked back that statement, saying he would never do anything to “jeopardize or hurt” the payments for older people. Republicans in Congress have proposed raising the retirement age and using a new cost of living adjustment metric that would result in lower payments over time. Nikki Haley, who challenged Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, proposed scaling back Social Security benefits for future generations and higher income retirees. Methodology The Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll surveyed 4,969 registered voters in seven swing states: 801 registered...

WTW’s Engage platform adds generative AI feature to improve the employee experience 0

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WTW’s Engage platform adds generative AI feature to improve the employee experience

Arlington, VA (Apr. 9, 2024) – WTW, a leading global advisory, broking, and solutions company, is pleased to announce the launch of Engage Coach AI, a generative AI assistant that guides effective manager action. The new AI feature of the company’s employee listening platform, Engage, helps leaders and managers improve employee experience and business performance. Engage Coach AI offers advice and insights related to a manager’s survey findings. In addition to AI-generated recommendations, managers can access the platform’s curated library of content from WTW experts, including videos, book summaries, and articles. Engage Coach AI is GDPR compliant and does not share any data for subsequent training or storage. “This is a big step forward in improving the employee experience. By introducing generative AI to our Engage platform,” said Adam Zuckerman, Global Product Leader for Engage. “Managers will have even more options for how to address employee issues raised in surveys – including issues unique to their teams.” WTW’s Engage platform supports organizations with employee listening. It helps employers capture and respond to employee needs, understand variations among workforce segments, make better people decisions, and build more effective HR programs and work experiences. Learn more about Engage. About WTW At WTW...

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Standard Chartered Faces £1.5 Billion UK Claim in Iran Sanction Case

Article 0 Comments Standard Chartered Plc is facing about £1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) worth of investor claims at a London trial over allegations it systematically breached Iranian sanctions to win new business. A London judge ruled on Friday [April 19] that the trial, that will also probe accusations of bribery, should be split into two parts with the first scheduled for October 2026. The bank was sued by hundreds of investors over the claims of widespread misconduct, which has so far cost the bank more than $1.7 billion in penalties. The lender is facing the claim after it told watchdogs that it processed hundreds of millions of dollars in clearing transactions between 2008 and 2014 through its Dubai offices on behalf of Iranian entities. The case over alleged lack of shareholder disclosure is “without merit” and the bank “will continue to vigorously defend the claim,” a spokesperson for the bank said in an emailed statement. “We consider that the bank fully complied with its reporting and disclosure obligations throughout the relevant period.” The ruling follows a decision last year when the court had refused the bank’s request to strike out claims that the alleged sanctions violations and bribery was more...

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FTC Bans Worker Non-Compete Rules

Tuesday’s vote fell along partisan lines with the FTC’s three Democrats in favor and the agency’s Republicans opposed. Melissa Holyoak, the former solicitor general of Utah who joined the agency last month, said she was opposed to the rule because there was “no clear congressional authorization” for the FTC to issue it. Republican Andrew Ferguson also voted against the rule, saying he was sympathetic to the policy in the rule but doesn’t believe courts will uphold the FTC’s rulemaking authority. “The administrative state cannot legislate because Congress declines to do so,” Ferguson said. In a call with reporters Monday, the Chamber’s Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley said the FTC doesn’t have the authority to issue the rule. ‘Micromanaging’ Economy The rule “opens up a Pandora’s box where this commission or future commissions could be literally micromanaging every aspect of the economy,” Bradley said. “Agencies can’t exercise authority that Congress hasn’t given them. Congress has not given the FTC the ability to write regulations with respect to competition.” The agency’s Democrats, however, maintain that the FTC does have authority to issue rules defining unfair methods of competition. The final rule also rejected the idea that the agency doesn’t have the authority to issue...

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Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Acquires Australia’s Prasidium Credit Insurance

Article 0 Comments Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., the Rolling Meadows, Illinois-based broker, announced the acquisition of Australia’s Prasidium Credit Insurance. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. North Sydney-based Prasidium is a specialist trade credit insurance broker serving clients throughout Australia. Mark Smith, Stuart Prendergast, Mark Browning, Paul Daniele and their team will join Gallagher offices across Australia under the direction of Sarah Lyons, head of retail property/casualty brokerage operations for Gallagher in Australia and Asia. “Prasidium has a strong record of growth and will enhance our trade credit capabilities in Australia,” said J. Patrick Gallagher Jr., chairman and CEO. “I am very pleased to welcome the Prasidium team to our growing, global company.” Source: Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Topics Mergers & Acquisitions A.J. Gallagher Australia Was this article valuable? Thank you! Please tell us what we can do to improve this article. Submit No Thanks Thank you! % of people found this article valuable. Please tell us what you liked about it. Submit No Thanks Here are more articles you may enjoy. Interested in Mergers? Get automatic alerts for this topic.

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New Stock ETFs With ‘100%’ Downside Protection Are Coming

It sounds like a surefire, slam-dunk trade for stock investors playing defense: ETFs that will bet on equity markets without — the pitch says — going down. Calamos Investments filed Monday for so-called “structured-protection” exchange-traded funds that will track a portion of the returns of the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and Russell 2000 while hedging 100% of the downside via the options market, according to a Monday filing. The first fund launching within the suite is the Calamos S&P 500 Structured Alt Protection ETF, which aims to match the price return of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (ticker SPY) up to a cap of 9.20% to 9.65%. The catch: Investors looking to reap the full protection will need to buy it on launch day — May 1, 2024 — and hold it, come rain or shine, through April 30, 2025. After that, a new defined period of cover kicks in. CPSM, like others in the upcoming ETF lineup, will primarily invest its assets in derivatives by buying and selling a combination of call and put options to cushion against market volatility, according to the fund’s prospectus. A regulatory filing notes there’s no guarantee the fund will be successful in...

Deloitte Expands Strategic Alliance With Intel to Help Enterprises Optimize Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI Capabilities 0

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Deloitte Expands Strategic Alliance With Intel to Help Enterprises Optimize Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI Capabilities

Deloitte and Intel are teaming to deliver AI-driven transformation, utilizing next-gen hardware and software for machine learning, deep learning and Generative AI Toronto, ON (Apr. 16, 2024) – Deloitte and Intel are pleased to announce a major expansion of their alliance to help enterprises around the world deploy their AI solutions cost efficiently with the latest hardware and software optimizations. These new offerings address the growing needs as the marketplace evolves from experimenting with AI to scaling implementations for distinct use cases that deliver real value. This collaboration can help clients meet and exceed their performance requirements and budget targets by shifting AI workloads to a more cost-efficient architecture. “Together, Deloitte and Intel are committed to better serve clients with robust AI capabilities and in the coming months Deloitte will be significantly ramping up this capability by accelerating the adoption of Intel’s most advanced AI software and hardware methodologies. Deloitte professionals and engineers will be training on Intel-specific technologies,” said Dounia Senawi, chief commercial officer, Deloitte Consulting LLP. Organizations today face several AI challenges that can prevent them from deploying fully scaled solutions to production due to cost, performance or energy inefficiencies. One of these challenges is the right infrastructure...

Federal government details Canada’s first national flood insurance program 0

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Federal government details Canada’s first national flood insurance program

Budget 2024: Canada’s first national flood insurance program to be launched in partnership with property and casualty insurers Winnipeg, MB (Apr. 16, 2024) – In today’s federal budget, the government took another step forward to partner with the country’s property and casualty (P&C) insurers to continue developing Canada’s first low-cost national flood insurance program for households at high-risk of flooding. In response, Celyeste Power, President and CEO, Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), issued the following statement: “Today’s commitment by the federal government will help ensure that over 1.5 million homeowners at high risk of flooding will have access to affordable insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program when it’s launched next year. This is the single most important step Canada can take to better protect homeowners across the country from the financial risks of climate change that they are already facing. Our industry is ready to support the government in the operationalization of this critical program. We have been working in concert with federal and provincial governments over the past seven years to design a program that suits Canada’s particular geography and housing market. Canada’s P&C insurance industry and the federal government have already begun working to rapidly scale and start delivering...

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Progressive Gains as Drivers Shop Around for Auto Insurance—Again

Article 0 Comments Although it may have seemed like drivers had thrown in the towel on trying to find cheaper auto insurance prices late last year, a new study of consumer behavior finds they’re back to shopping around. In addition, when they decide to switch carriers, Progressive is the big winner among the top auto writers. The latest loyalty indicator and shopping trends (LIST) report from J.D. Power, conducted in collaboration with TransUnion, shows the shopping rate (or quote rate) for March 2024 came in at 13.5 percent—marking the highest rate for a single month since September 2020, when this data was first captured. “It looked like consumers responded to continual premium increases by shopping in the first-half of [2023] and relented to higher premiums in the second-half of the year when better deals were harder to find,” says the LIST report. But with insurers continuing “to take rate in the background of this change in consumer behavior,” customers are back to shopping—and switching carriers, the report shows. The report also notes “predictable seasonality” as another factor explaining why increased shopping followed three months of decreases in October, November and December 2023. The January 2024 shop rate came in at...