Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

New SMA Blog by Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action — Technologies like machine learning, the IoT, RPA, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) were hot topics in P&C insurance before the world was turned upside down in 2020 due to the pandemic. These and many other “transformational” technologies have great potential for insurers in the rethinking and optimization of distribution, underwriting, claims, and many other parts of the business.[1] So, it is important to ask the question – how have the initiatives that leverage these technologies changed due to the pandemic? Are personal and commercial lines carriers still moving forward with projects in 2021? Do executives still have the same expectations about the potential of these technologies to transform their business? We answer these questions in detail for thirteen specific technologies in two new SMA research reports, one covering personal lines and the other covering commercial lines. However, I won’t leave you hanging in this blog, wondering about the answers to those questions. The short answer is yes – P&C insurers generally plan to move forward in 2021 with projects that leverage various technologies that have the power to deliver significant results and competitive advantage. The technologies we follow closely...

Are you waiting for your disability insurance carrier to APPROVE your claim? Attorneys Gregory Dell and Stephen Jessup discuss what you can expect while waiting for your disability insurance claim decision. Learn the factors that effect a disability insurance claim decision, what an “Elimination Period” is, and stalling tactics the carriers take advantage of. GREG…

A handful of solutions have acquired capabilities covering most of the separate components of the marketing life cycle; Novarica report profiles several of these solutions Boston, MA (Sept. 22, 2020) – Insurers looking to expand their MarTech stack need to assess the cost, maturity, and redundancy of tools they have already implemented, while developing a roadmap for their replacement or integration. In a new report, MarTech Suites for Insurers: Overview and Prominent Providers, research and advisory firm Novarica profiles seven holistic suites on the market today and describes the main components of their ecosystems, how they interact with each other, their development or acquisition history, and how well they address some of the specific challenges faced by insurers. “With agencies becoming savvier in digital marketing,” said Paul Legutko, VP of Digital Marketing and Analytics, and lead author of Novarica’s new report, “insurers need to maintain a certain level of maturity in marketing technology in order to integrate with systems that distributors might be using for marketing and sales.” Vendors profiled include Acoustic, Adobe, Epsilon, Google, HubSpot, Oracle, and Salesforce. Among the key findings of the report are: Solutions offer different mixes of software and professional services. Some vendors emphasize their services...

39 countries have ecosystems in a fragile state on more than one-third of their land Malta, Israel, Cyprus, Bahrain and Kazakhstan have the lowest Biodiversity and Ecosystems Services (BES) ranking 55% of global GDP depends on high-functioning BES Major economies in Southeast Asia, Europe and the US exposed to BES decline Swiss Re Institute BES Index enables businesses and governments to factor in biodiversity and ecosystem issues into economic decision-making Zurich, Switzerland (Sept. 23, 2020) – Countries across the world are reliant on a range of services that are based around their natural ecosystems. Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (BES) include such necessities as food provision, water security and regulation of air quality that are vital to maintaining the health and stability of communities and economies. Over half (55%) of global GDP, equal to USD 41.7 trillion,[1] is dependent on high-functioning biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, a staggering fifth of countries globally (20%) are at risk of their ecosystems collapsing due to a decline in biodiversity and related beneficial services, reveals a new study by Swiss Re Institute. The study, which is based on Swiss Re Institute’s new Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Index, shows that both developing and advanced economies are...

Montreal, QC (Sept. 22, 2020) – Koïos Intelligence, a developer of artificial intelligence tools designed specifically for the finance and insurance industries, is pleased to announce the addition of Christian Dufour to its team. Well known in the field of life and health insurance, Christian Dufour joins Koïos Intelligence as Acting Senior Vice-President, Strategic Partnerships. After more than three decades working in the insurance industry, i.e. 27 years at La Capitale Insurance occupying several executive roles, including Senior Vice President in Life and Health Insurance, and a few years serving Desjardins Insurance as Senior Vice President, Christian Dufour joins Koïos Intelligence as Acting Senior Vice-President, Strategic Partnerships to operationalize the commercialization, thus accelerating the globalization of the startup. He will work on strategy and business development for this promising new organization in the Quebec financial ecosystem. About Koïos Founded in 2017, Koïos Intelligence’s mission is to empower the financial industry with the next generation of intelligent and customised systems built upon artificial intelligence, statistics, and operational research. Combining the knowledge of their lead experts, Koïos is developing new technologies that will redefine the insurance and financial sector and improve customer experience. The fast-growing Montreal firm has developed many projects in...

Clearwater, Fla. – September 23, 2020 ‒ AmeriLife Group has acquired a majority interest in The Achievement Group. TAG is a leading annuity and life organization that has been assisting financial institutions, insurance agencies and insurance professionals to maximize performance and return, and meet the needs of the pre-retirees and retirees they serve. Along with the recent acquisitions of Brookstone Capital Management, Agent Support Group and JD Mellberg, the partnership with TAG reinforces AmeriLife’s goal in providing protection and retirement planning services. AmeriLife is focused on the further expansion of these services, along with its other insurance products, as the demand for quality products and outstanding service for Americans continues to grow. Founded in 1994, TAG is known for its personal touch and uncommon results in helping agents and agencies make a bigger difference through the relationships that they build. Providing more than just off-the-shelf products, the TAG team brings years of expertise, along with actionable ideas, technology, and support that makes them the brokerage marketing partner of choice. TAG was formed by Brad Tison, and today, the company has offices in Iowa and Florida to support agencies and advisors nationwide. Tison will continue to lead the organization while also...

Staff | September 23, 2020 The Pension Investment Association of Canada is expressing its support for the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario’s draft guidelines for pension plan sponsors dealing with missing members. In a letter, the PIAC said the draft guidelines would be helpful on a go-forward basis, but also noted plan administrators need more options regarding current missing member situations. The FSRA’s draft guidelines included specifications on plan member responsibilities, such as promptly informing plan administrators of pertinent changes to their contact information, and best practices for plan communications and administration where the potential for missing members is concerned. Read: FSRA creates new advisory committees on pension sector matters The PIAC also expressed its support for the work of the FSRA’s missing members technical advisory committee — established earlier this year — in suggesting unlocatable members be found using an optional missing member registry, as well as the committee’s exploration of partnerships with other government entities in Ontario and Canada more broadly to discover information-sharing arrangements that could aid administrators. It also agreed with the committee’s recommendations that the FSRA “provide for asset transfers related to missing members on plan windup or consider automatic small benefit unlocking where FSRA has appointed an...

While the benefits of annuities as guaranteed income products have long been touted by insurance companies, they’ve faced significant challenges from advisors who refuse to take them up – but that could change. In the Annuities, Past, Present and Future panel conducted during the recently held Morningstar digital annual conference, three experts weighed in on the different shifts that have made the guaranteed income products more attractive to advisors than before, reported ThinkAdvisor. David Lau, founder of DPL Financial Partners, said the fact that annuities were commission-driven presented a conflict of interest for fee-based advisors, whose technology also didn’t accommodate annuities. But Lau said several macro trends are working to change advisors’ thinking, including a broad shift toward financial planning driven by the commoditization of asset management; the elongating life expectancies of clients; and the rise of commission-free insurance products, to name a few. Matt Carey, co-founder and CEO of Blueprint Income, which has a digital platform that offers annuities, cited research showing a 26% drop in fixed-income annuity sales between Q1 2019 and Q2 2019. But over the same period, his firm saw 336% growth. He suggested that the broader decline in sales can be attributed to not just...

Traditionally, the role of a benefits plan provider has been purely to provide a financial safety net in case a covered member goes through a disruptive health event. But as Donna Carbell, head of Group Benefits at Manulife notes, there’s an opportunity for carriers to do so much more. “Historically, benefit programs have really boiled down to being quite transactional: pay claims, pay them fast, pay them accurately, and don’t make any errors,” Carbell told Life and Health Professional. “Looking forward, we have the privilege of being able to engage with millions of people on a regular basis and work with them as they’re embarking on a health journey.” That approach, which she said Manulife had been working on for a decade, is called Health by Design, which works either by providing members with critical pieces of information, or nudging them toward a particular product or service. Whatever the case, the goal is always the same: to maximize the amount and quality of time that people spend at work by helping them maintain or return to their optimal level of health. “We kind of think about this in three buckets,” Carbell said. “The first is prevention; the second is intervention,...

Staff | September 22, 2020 Three-quarters (76 per cent) of Canadian business leaders say the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy is a good investment to help the economy rebound and get Canadians back to work, according to a new survey by KPMG in Canada. The same amount said they’ve relied on funds from the wage subsidy to keep employees on payroll and more than half (53 per cent) said the resulting reduction in costs has helped them deal with other coronavirus-related expenses. A quarter (23 per cent) said the CEWS has helped them hire back previously laid-off employees. The survey, conducted last month, received nearly 300 responses from senior leaders in a broad range of industries and sectors, including energy, manufacturing, automotive, mining, construction and real estate, travel and tourism, professional services, telecommunications and media, retail, agri-food and not-for-profit organizations. Read: Considerations for employers rehiring with help from federal wage subsidies “Our clients have told us that the federal wage subsidy program is helping them not only to retain their employees, but also to cope with pandemic-related costs and rehire workers who have been laid off,” said Lucy Iacovelli, Canadian managing partner of KPMG’s national tax practice, in a press release. “While there has been an upturn in the economy,...