Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Yaelle Gang | October 19, 2020 Over the last 40 years, the demographics of pension plan membership have changed drastically, said Michael Augustine, managing director and head of asset-liability management at TD Asset Management, during a webinar hosted by the investment manager earlier this month. “Forty years ago, when rates were a lot higher, pension plan demographics were quite different. For every one retired member in a pension plan receiving benefits, there were eight active members making contributions. Pension plans were in full accumulation mode and [they were] cash flow rich and the focus was clearly on growth. Then, over the next 20 years, something happened.” Read: Shifting demographics key catalyst to changing pension plan design In the 2000s, the ratio of retirees to active members changed to 3:1, then 2:1 in the 2010s and 1:1 in the 2020s. As such, pension plans are reaching an inflection point where benefits paid out are much richer than the investment being generated, making them cash-flow negative. The situation is a perfect storm with low interest rates, a greater requirement for cash flows and a need for asset growth to close funded status deficits, noted Augustine. He pointed to demographic-focused investing as a solution. “DFI begins with an...

Toronto, ON (Oct. 19, 2020) — Insurance has entered the decade in which it will face its biggest challenges ever. This year, the global spread of COVID-19 brought about dramatic changes, intensifying the industry’s digital transformation and accelerating a transition to enable Work From Home (WFH) amid the need for social distancing. Having seen what could be done, leaders now have a better sense of the possible. But the excitement is no longer about just leveraging technology – better and further – to improve all aspects of the business. It is about using the same leadership techniques to reinvent the whole business of insurance across the traditional insurance players, customers and providers and beyond to other industries for entirely new relationships. Insurance-Canada.ca is pleased to announce the launch of the World Insurance Forum to bring together perspectives about the changes that are already underway, with an eye on the business and technology landscape ahead. As a special introduction to this series, the first two virtual sessions of the WIF are being offered with our compliments: How Will InsurTech Shape The Future?Tuesday, November 17, at 11:00am (ET) Mark Dowds, Managing Director, Anthemis Ruth Foxe Blader, Partner, Anthemis Transforming Commercial Underwriting Through...

Pandemic travel medical insurance now available to all Canadians, covering up to $500,000 in COVID-19 related emergencies Vancouver, BC (Oct. 15, 2020) – Recently, both major Canadian airlines announced that customers booking flights through them may receive COVID-19 medical insurance. But be warned, these insurance policies have many stipulations that might not be suitable for you. For example, the first airline doesn’t include insurance for flights to the United States. And the second airline only includes insurance for flights booked by October 31, 2020. So, what should you do if you are traveling to the United States, you don’t book by airline’s deadline, or you are travelling with another airline? Or, what if you’re traveling by car? Your best option is to explore a stand-alone pandemic medical insurance policy like the one launched by Goose Insurance Services in partnership with Lloyd’s of London and MSH INTERNATIONAL (CANADA) LTD. For as little as $99 annually, Canadians will be protected up to $500,000 of coverage for pandemic-related emergency medical treatment while traveling. What’s more, the policy covers you when you travel 200kms or more outside of your principal residence within your home country or anywhere in the world. With this policy you...

Staff | October 19, 2020 The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System’s infrastructure arm is selling its interest in the Detroit River tunnel partnership to Canadian Pacific. The sale, which will give CP full ownership of the rail tunnel, is expected to generate approximately US$312 million for the OMERS. “We are very proud of the value we have created with this investment for OMERS members,” said Michael Ryder, senior managing director and head of Americas for OMERS Infrastructure, in a press release. Read: OMERS investing in Australian electricity firm, CPPIB in North American food company “Our work with CP represents a strong example of our global investment approach in action – collaborating with a trusted strategic partner as long-term owners and developers of a major international transportation link.” The OMERS first invested in the partnership in 2001. “It has been a pleasure to work with the CP team to ensure safe, reliable operations of this important infrastructure asset for commercial users and regional stakeholders,” said Peter Gray, director of OMERS Infrastructure. “We sincerely thank CP for its partnership and we wish them continued success.” Read: OMERS posts 11.9% return for 2019 led by public equities Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com

Staff  | October 19, 2020 The costs of employer medical benefits around the globe are forecasted to rise 7.2 per cent in 2021, outpacing general inflation by five per cent, according to a new medical trends report by Aon. “There is still a significant amount of uncertainty regarding COVID-19’s impact on deferred treatments and long-term health care,” said Tim Nimmer, Aon’s chief global actuary for health solutions, in a press release. “While countries navigate through different outbreak phases, the expectation is that medical plan utilization will return to normal levels during 2021 as medical services begin to reopen to the market.”  The projected medical trend rates vary significantly by region. In the Middle East and Africa regions, costs are expected to increase the most, with a forecast of 12.2 per cent in 2021. In contrast, Europe is expected to see an average medical trend rate increase of 5.5 per cent, while North America is expected to see a rate of seven per cent. Read: Canadian health benefits costs expected to grow 6% in 2020: report To mitigate costs, more employers are turning to well-being programs, such as preventive strategies like physical check-ups, screenings, healthy eating and physical activity promotional programs, to reduce chronic conditions,...

By Dan Gordon, CTO, Sønr — If you want to stay on top of technological innovation in insurance, you need to consider far more than just insurance startups. You need to be looking at all technology that can impact the sector. Tech and Deep Tech have the potential to refashion the industry, so to stay on top of the next big innovations, you need to watch and respond to a much wider set of organizations. You should be considering all the technologies that can be viewed as both a competitor insurance and an enabler to help bring change. Suddenly this is a much wider horizon to scan and the number of organizations grows massively. But so does the number of opportunities. Now we have a really interesting problem to stay on top of it all. Let’s dive into the data to get a better understanding of how big the space is. What innovation should you be tracking? When we first launched Sønr at the start of 2018, we were presenting around 6,000 startups focused purely on insurance and major insurance companies and an additional 6,000 associated organizations. What quickly became apparent was that this was only a small subset of...

Systemic barriers in the legal medical cannabis system are forcing patients into unregulated and recreational markets without support from a health care professional, according to national non-profit group Medical Cannabis Canada (MCC). In its inaugural Medical Cannabis Patient Survey (MCPS), the organization found that only 37% of Canadians who use cannabis medically have a “medical document,” which is similar to a prescription from a health care practitioner. That creates a catch-22 for many patients, MCC said. The medical system requires patients to have a medical document, but patients without a medical document report substantially less engagement with health care practitioners. Against that backdrop, a greater number of patients without the document report going to unregulated markets to access their treatment. Based on the MCPS findings, 74% of marijuana patients who have a medical document go to a health care practitioner or pharmacist to guide their use of medical marijuana. In contrast, just 24% of those who’ve never gotten a medical document said the same. “Unfortunately, there is little incentive to access a medical document or use the legal medical channel and many are being left to manage their treatment alone,” said Max Monahan-Ellison, Medical Cannabis Canada Board Member and MCPS...

Systemic barriers in the legal medical cannabis system are forcing patients into unregulated and recreational markets without support from a health care professional, according to national non-profit group Medical Cannabis Canada (MCC). In its inaugural Medical Cannabis Patient Survey (MCPS), the organization found that only 37% of Canadians who use cannabis medically have a “medical document,” which is similar to a prescription from a health care practitioner. That creates a catch-22 for many patients, MCC said. The medical system requires patients to have a medical document, but patients without a medical document report substantially less engagement with health care practitioners. Against that backdrop, a greater number of patients without the document report going to unregulated markets to access their treatment. Based on the MCPS findings, 74% of marijuana patients who have a medical document go to a health care practitioner or pharmacist to guide their use of medical marijuana. In contrast, just 24% of those who’ve never gotten a medical document said the same. “Unfortunately, there is little incentive to access a medical document or use the legal medical channel and many are being left to manage their treatment alone,” said Max Monahan-Ellison, Medical Cannabis Canada Board Member and MCPS...

Star (Shelby, NC) Oct. 18–When Christina McKinney took on a career in the insurance sales business, she not only found a job she loved, but she carried on a tradition that has now been in her family for four generations. McKinney said her grandfather was in insurance sales, then her father, and when she turned 18 she wasn’t sure what she wanted to pursue. She said she grew up in Shelby and her dad managed an agency in town. “My dad said just try it,” she said. She ended up getting her license and going to work at 19. “I loved it,” she said. “It was something I fell in love with.” Advertisement She discovered she enjoyed working with and helping people and has been in the business ever since. Now her sons both work in the field as well, carrying it on for a fourth generation. McKinney has run a successful business, CRM Insurance Services, in Forest City since 2006 and just opened a new office in Shelby earlier this month on North Morgan Street beside the license plate agency. CRM Insurance Services provides home, business, auto and life insurance. McKinney said her husband also has an insurance business,...

Staff | October 16, 2020 Manulife Investment Management Holdings (Canada) Inc. has been named to the Principles for Responsible Investment’s PRI leaders’ group 2020 in recognition of its ‘cutting edge’ practices in climate reporting, one of 36 signatories honoured this year. In its assessment, the PRI awarded Manulife Investment Management an A+ in the areas of strategy and governance, equity integration and sovereign, supranational and agency debt fixed-income integration. It was also given an A in real estate, equity active ownership and fixed income (corporate financial, corporate non-financial and securitized) and a B in infrastructure and private equity, two asset classes that were submitted for the first time. Read: Benefits of integrating ESG include long-term alpha, minimized risk: survey Manulife Investment Management included the PRI’s grading in its second annual sustainable and responsible investing report. Highlights from private markets in 2019 included the formalization of a robust governance structure for its sustainable investing program and active participation in industry associations, while in public markets, the investment manager advanced the integration of environmental, social and governance factors and active engagement across its equity and fixed-income capabilities. The report also includes the inaugural update by the company’s task force for climate-related financial disclosure, which details the firm’s approach to climate-related sustainability governance and...