Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Luke Kaplan is “bullish” on the 10-year outlook for independent distribution in the life and annuity space. But there are hurdles that need to be cleared. Kaplan was part of a panel discussion Thursday on succession planning, mergers and acquisitions during the virtual annual conference of the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies. Three hurdles, in particular, said Kaplan, president of life and annuity brokerage for Gallagher: • Succession planning. The industry is great at doing succession plans for others, but very poor at doing their own planning, Kaplan said. That planning is related to the need to identify the next generation of talent to lead independent distribution, he added. “What are we going to do to play our role in the war for talent?” Kaplan asked. “I think there’s a real talent void. We all talk about bringing the future into the business. But I don’t think as an industry on a macro level we’ve done a very good job.” Advertisement • Technology. A bigger commitment to technology is needed to maintain profitable balance sheets and to meet prospects and clients in a manner they are used to, Kaplan said. • New business opportunity. Alternative forms of distribution...

Staff  | November 20, 2020 Morneau Shepell Ltd. is appointing Gavin Benjamin as partner in its retirement solutions business. With more than 30 years of experience in the pension industry, he was most recently senior director of retirement and actuary at Willis Towers Watson. As a consulting actuary, he advises plan sponsors on all aspects of pension plan management, including design, financing, asset/liability modelling, governance, mergers, spinoffs, surplus withdrawals, windups and collective bargaining. “Gavin is a great addition to our team and his experience and name recognition in our industry will help us continue to build on our brand in the Ontario market” said Idan Shlesinger, president of retirement solutions and executive vice-president at Morneau Shepell. Read more People Watch news. Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com

Yaelle Gang | November 20, 2020 Despite the low interest rate environment, it still makes sense for defined benefit pension plan sponsors to adopt a liability-driven investment strategy, said Serge Lapierre, global head of LDI at Manulife Investment Management, during a webinar it sponsored on Monday. LDI investing is a risk management framework, he noted. “It’s not an asset class or a strategy that you get in or out [of] depending on market conditions; it’s really something that’s fundamental to the management of your pension plan.” Further, LDI is for all types of plans, whether they’re closed or open. As cases in point, two very different pension plan sponsors — Nav Canada Corp. and Goodyear Canada Inc. — co-presented during the webinar, sharing their journeys in implementing LDI strategies. Read: Plan Sponsor Week: HOOPP looking to LDI strategy 2.0 amid low interest rates Nav Canada has an open DB plan with about $6.5 billion in assets under management that’s fully funded on a going-concern basis. “Our LDI approach was first implemented in 2009 following the impact of the global financial crisis on the funded status of the plan,” said Donna Mathieu, the civil air navigation services company’s chief investment officer. “We realized then the...

Staff  | November 20, 2020 The Alberta Investment Management Corp.’s chief executive officer, Kevin Uebelein, is stepping down early, most likely by July 2021. Uebelein and the AIMCo board have agreed to begin the process of a leadership transfer, with the goal of filling the role by June 30, 2021. “This decision is Kevin’s,” wrote Dénes Németh, director of corporate communications, in an email to Benefits Canada. “His natural term ending date is in the not too distant future and, accordingly, he believes the board should begin the search for his successor now.” With that goal in mind, the board has created a CEO recruitment committee, which will be chaired by the AIMCO’s chair Mark Wiseman. It will begin the search process immediately, said Németh, with candidates both inside and outside of the organization to be considered for the role. Read: AIMCo calls reports of losses on volatility strategy ‘dramatically’ overstated In other news, the AIMCo is entering into an agreement with AES Corp. to merge the sPower development platform, an independent, U.S.-based solar developer, with AES’ clean energy development business. “sPower has been one of our key infrastructure platforms since our initial investment made in partnership with AES in 2017,” said Uebelein, in a press release. “Our experience...

Staff | November 20, 2020 Canadian employees are seeing significant workplace shifts amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report by payroll and benefits company Humi. It found employees took 40 per cent less vacation time in 2020 compared to 2019. Meanwhile, the number of sick day requests was “drastically higher” in the months leading up to the pandemic compared to the rest of the year. And the average salary in Canada was also affected, dropping 4.5 per cent from $61,200 in January to $58,400 in July. “This could be a result of employees taking a pay cut to stay employed when their workplace is struggling financially, high-paying employees who were laid off or employers, on average, could be paying less than they normally would for a role due to budget limitations,” noted the report. Read: Employee burnout surges amid coronavirus pandemic: survey It also found only 21 per cent of C-suite positions were held by women in 2020. Companies with women in these roles showed a more even gender distribution, employing on average of 47 per cent women compared to 53 per cent men. However, women continued to be underrepresented in the technology sector, where they comprised just 30 per...

Staff | November 20, 2020 The majority (70 per cent) of Canadians said they believe virtual health care represents the future, according to a new survey conducted by Environics Research and sponsored by Dialogue. The survey also found the demand for more convenient virtual-care services is on the rise, with nearly half (46 per cent) of respondents saying the coronavirus pandemic has made it more difficult to access health care. In addition, 82 per cent of respondents said their employer should provide access to virtual health care, while 66 per cent said they’d be likely to use virtual health care if it was available through their workplace benefits plan. Read: ‘New reality’ of workplace includes virtual health care, enhanced mental-health support: survey “Keeping employees safe and providing the appropriate care for their teams is expected from employers now more than ever,” said Jeff Gladwish, vice-president of marketing at Dialogue, in a press release. “Employers are recognizing that providing employees with access to quality health and well-being resources has a direct connection to workplace productivity as well as the overall health of their business.”  Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com

Staff | November 20, 2020 The Public Sector Pension Investment Board is part of a group investing $1 billion in Convex Group Ltd., a specialty insurer and reinsurer. In April 2019, Convex launched with $1.7 billion of committed capital. Its initial invested capital was raised from its management team, Onex Partners V, the PSP and a consortium of co-investors. The additional capital has been committed by the original investors, as well as multiple new investors.  “We are pleased to continue our successful partnership with Onex and Convex by supporting the company’s accelerated growth strategy,” said Martin Longchamps, managing director of private equity at the PSP, in a press release. “The Convex management team has established an agile, world-class specialty insurer with a strong operational foundation. This transaction is in line with our strategy of making sizeable, direct investments in high-quality companies alongside experienced partners.” Read: PSP Investments acquiring Copenhagen real estate In other investment news, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System’s private equity arm is acquiring Kentucky-based TurnPoint Services, a provider of residential services, including heating, ventilation and air conditioning. “Over the last 15 years, OMERS private equity has successfully executed on a strategy of partnering with top management teams at industry-leading companies to support accelerated growth,” said Mark Dolfato, senior managing director for the private equity arm,...

For my part, I’ve caught up with colleagues on Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business, attended a baby shower and a baby naming ceremony over Zoom, bought clothes and other incidentals online and watched basically everything on the streaming channels. Of course, as I’ve spent more time with these platforms, they’ve gotten to know me quite well. Sometimes I feel like they’re reading my mind (don’t get me started on the social media sites). They often know what I want before I even know I want it, with Amazon recommending additional products based on my previous purchases and Netflix suggesting my next binge-worthy television series based on what I’m currently watching. Read: A look at consumer-grade benefits plan technology, communications Of course, none of this is news, but it sets the scene for this month’s Benefits Feature, as well as our latest Employer Strategy. Both articles explore how this type of technology, as well as its proficiency in targeting consumers at the exact right moments, is ripe for use in the world of employee benefits and communications. Indeed, as these technologies raise consumer expectations — more so in the virtual-forward world of the pandemic — they also highlight opportunities for...

E-app use grew substantially during 2020’s year of COVID. If you want your brokerage agency to scale exponentially, you’ll have to leave your gut at the door. That’s because data is what helps agencies grow efficiently and quickly – more quickly than relying purely on experience as a guide, according to panelists during the session “How Data is Driving Better Performance and More Business” during the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies’ virtual conference. David Libesman, associate vice president, analytics, iPipeline, said companies that are data-driven rather than experience-driven have had a good year despite the historic challenges thrown their way. “Even with the industry being down about 2.11%, the companies that are actually focused on leveraging data are actually up year on year compared to the industry median,” Libesman said. Greater efficiency played a role, with e-apps and e-delivery use up significantly this year. However, agencies that have tracked not only their own performance, but have also compared it to industry data, have been able to achieve substantial growth. Advertisement A key to this improvement is keeping a close eye on placement ratio and cycle time, said Dan Stanley, vice president of operations, Lion Street. “I think what...

Green Shield Canada (GSC) has announced a partnership to give plan members much-needed access to virtual health services as concerns surrounding COVID-19 and seasonal flu are set to persist through the winter. Starting on December 1, GSC will offer free access to leading Canadian telemedicine provider Maple for group and post-secondary plan members for a three-month period. “As a leading advocate for evidence-based digital health technologies and the impact they can have on the health care experience for Canadians, it was an easy decision for GSC to step up and support our plan members during the ongoing health crisis,” said GSC President and CEO Zahid Salman. The newly announced initiative expands on GSC’s initial collaboration with Maple in December 2019, under which it offered telemedicine access as an optional product addition and provided preferred pre-visit rates for plan members. “We are very excited to be partnering with GSC to expand access to health care across the country,” said Maple co-founder and CEO Dr. Brett Belchetz. “It has never been more important to remove the obstacles that Canadians face when it comes to health care, like long travel times, fear of infectious illness, needing to leave home or work, or requiring...