Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Washington, DC (Sept. 3, 2020) – Equipping large trucks with forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems could eliminate more than 2 out of 5 crashes in which a large truck rear-ends another vehicle, a new study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety suggests. IIHS Director of Statistical Services Eric Teoh examined data on crashes per vehicle mile traveled from 62 carriers operating tractor-trailers and other trucks weighing at least 33,000 pounds. He found that trucks equipped with forward collision warning had 22 percent fewer crashes and trucks with AEB had 12 percent fewer crashes than those without either technology. Forward collision warning and AEB reduced rear-end crashes — the specific type of collision they’re designed to prevent — by 44 and 41 percent, respectively. Although their drivers crash less often per mile traveled, large trucks can be especially deadly because they can weigh 20-30 times as much as passenger vehicles. U.S. crashes involving large trucks have risen by nearly a third since hitting an all-time low in 2009, killing 4,136 people in 2018. Among those fatalities, 119 deaths resulted from large trucks rear-ending passenger vehicles. Overall, Teoh’s study covered some 2,000 crashes that occurred over more...

Transaction aligns with strategy to drive long-term growth in the U.S. retirement market, and positions Empower as a significant contributor to Great-West Lifeco’s earnings Winnipeg, MB (Sept. 8, 2020) – Great-West Lifeco Inc. subsidiary Empower Retirement is pleased to announce it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire the retirement services business of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), strengthening Empower’s position as the second largest player in the U.S. retirement market. The transaction expands Empower’s reach to more than 12.2 million retirement plan participants and assets to US$834 billion on behalf of 67,000 plans.[1] Based on the terms of the agreement, and subject to regulatory approvals, Empower will acquire the retirement services business of MassMutual for a total transaction value of approximately US$3.35 billion (C$4.4 billion). The value includes a reinsurance ceding commission of US$2.35 billion and US$1.0 billion of required capital to support the business. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2020. The MassMutual retirement services business comprises 26,000 plans with approximately 2.5 million participants and US$167 billion in assets.[2] With strong margins and earnings profile, it includes diversified capabilities across all plan types with significant presence in the highly attractive small-medium corporate...

Market leader transitions to CoreLogic solution to enhance customer experience Irvine, CA (Sept. 8, 2020) – CoreLogic®, a leading global property data and analytics-driven solutions provider, announced today Aviva Canada has adopted CoreLogic’s leading digital insurance hub. Aviva chose CoreLogic’s digital insurance hub because it enables the seamless unification of all parts of the claim supply chain on one cloud-native concurrent platform. CoreLogic simplifies claims workflows, enables innovation agility through best-in-class InsurTech solutions and integrates its supply chain partners into the claims workflow with a flip of a switch. “Our expanded relationship with Aviva is another milestone in providing leading global insurance companies with the most comprehensive and connected insurance workflow and management solutions available,” said Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “Our solutions are focused on providing our clients with fast, effective, user-friendly and innovative policyholder experiences, as well as reducing costs and improving workflow efficiencies.” “Aviva is known for its superior claims experience, and we take pride in getting customers back to normal quickly after a claim event,” said Hazel Johnson, Vice President, Property Claims at Aviva Canada. “By expanding our well-embedded global relationship with CoreLogic in Canada, we’ll be able to keep customers connected and involved...

Staff  | September 10, 2020 Acknowledging that the multi-faceted causes and consequences of climate change call for different methods, Quebec-based pension fund Bâtirente is publishing a new climate commitment. “Effectively supporting the transition to an economy that is aligned with the objectives of the Paris [Agreement] requires a multi-dimensional approach,” said Daniel Simard, the pension fund’s chief executive officer, in a press release. “It is essential to simultaneously reduce greenhouse gas emissions and facilitate the financing of solutions and resilience, while convincing companies to make the commitment to increase their energy efficiency, to migrate to renewable energies and even to transform their business models.” Read: How Bâtirente takes ESG reporting to the next level By 2025, Bâtirente will: Gradually reduce its exposure to climate risk by 50 per cent through the reduction of its investment in GHG-emitting companies, thus reducing the carbon footprint of its portfolios. Invest in the economy’s transition by doubling its capital allocation in impact investments — currently, 13 per cent of its assets under management — in order to actively contribute to environmental solutions, including those that promote a just energy transition, clean energy, innovation and job creation in these future sectors and to participate in the financing of climate-resilient infrastructure. Direct its shareholder commitment to improve the climate protection performance...

Staff  | September 10, 2020 Historically, many institutional investors have been wary of emerging markets despite their growing role in the global economy, but the tide may be shifting, according to new research by Vontobel Asset Management. “In many cases, [institutional investors and discretionary wealth managers’] allocations to emerging market assets have stalled in single figures as a percentage of their portfolios — below the levels that would materially capture the enhanced returns available and provide diversification benefits,” said the report. “The reasons for this range from the natural home bias of investors to concerns about elevated risk. This is now set to change.” Read: Are institutional investors about to dive back into emerging markets? Surveying 300 global institutional investors and discretionary managers, the research found institutional investors are looking to raise exposure to emerging markets equities (65 per cent) and fixed income (59 per cent) over the next five years. And the proportion of North American investors interested in emerging market equity and fixed income was even higher than their global peers, at 66 per cent per cent for both asset classes. Reasons cited for the shift include better returns (38 per cent) and more diversification (35 per cent). “There has...

In this video and article, disability insurance Attorneys Gregory Dell and Cesar Gavidia discuss how to ask your doctor for disability.

Life insurance application activity jumped shot up 9.1% in August in a year-over-year comparison by MIB Life Index. On the heels of a record-setting July, the August data represents the biggest gain on record for the month, MIB said in a news release. Strong July activity put August’s activity -1.2% behind that of the prior month. At August’s close, the MIB Life Index is up 3.9% year to date. U.S. age groups remained consistent as those of July with applicants under age 60 showing unprecedented year-over-year growth in August: ages 0-44 up 12.4%; ages 45-59 up 10.1%; and ages 60+ off slightly -0.3%. Year-to-date, applicants ages 0-44 are up 6.3%; ages 45-59 are up 3.2%; and applicants ages 60+ are off -1.3%. Submissions for older age applicants 60+ continue to lag as they have in the previous six months of 2020, the release said. Advertisement Read the original article at insurancenewsnet.com

Staff  | September 9, 2020 The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is appointing Edwin Cass as its first-ever chief investment officer. In the new role, he’ll be responsible for total fund management, including capital allocation between investment programs, long-term investment department signals, medium- and near-term portfolio guidance and balance sheet management. “Our investment governance structure has served CPP Investments well for many years,” said Mark Machin, president and chief executive officer at the CPPIB, in a press release. “However, the fund is on a trajectory to grow to $1 trillion by 2033. The time is right in CPP Investments’ evolution to create a dedicated, fit-for-purpose, chief investment officer role. Ed is very well positioned for this role, with his considerable investment expertise, enterprise-wide knowledge and global experience.” Read: CPPIB appointing Zubaid Ahmad as U.S. senior advisor Since joining the CPPIB in 2008, Cass has served in various public markets roles, as the organization’s chief strategist and as global head of real assets. Prior to joining the CPPIB, he held roles at Fortress Management Group, Deutsche Bank Securities Ltd. and TD Securities. In other personnel news, the CPPIB has promoted Deborah Orida to senior managing director and global head of real assets. In...

Staff  | September 9, 2020 Canadians’ mental health continues to be affected by the impact of the coronavirus, including concerns about a second wave, ongoing economic uncertainties and the added concerns of students returning to school, according to Morneau Shepell Ltd.’s latest mental-health index. For the fifth consecutive month, it showed a negative mental-health score, at negative 11, a slight decline on July’s score of negative 10. The index, which also tracks sub-scores against the benchmark, measured the risk of anxiety (negative 12.9), depression (negative 12.7), optimism (negative 12.7), isolation (negative 12.1) and work productivity (negative 11.1). All sub-scores were worse compared to the improvements seen the previous month, excluding work productivity, which remained unchanged. Read: Canadians’ mental health remains low even as country reopens from coronavirus lockdown “The financial and economic impact of the pandemic can’t be ignored; however, there also needs to be more attention to the ongoing toll the pandemic is having on the mental well-being of Canadians,” said Stephen Liptrap, the organization’s president and chief executive officer, in a press release. “This decline is cause for concern. Canadians’ initial feelings of optimism as we started to reopen does not erase the impact of the pandemic. To avoid further declines,...

New SMA Blog by Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action — The options for digital communications keep expanding. Insurers’ mobile interactions with prospects, producers, and policyholders have become common, while methods like e-mail, web portals, and even fax are extensively used. Now there is a whole new world of messaging platforms, chatbots, business texting, voice assistants, and more. All of these methods are in widespread use in the world today, but not necessarily in insurance. It raises questions – how do you determine which methods to employ, for which types of interactions, and for which constituents? These are important questions since many insurers have implemented various newer communication technologies only to find that the take-up was low. This was a painful discovery after significant effort and dollars were spent to develop and roll out the new digital communication option. There is no magic answer to this dilemma, but the key to success lies in taking an outside-in approach. Traditionally, it has been more common to design system capabilities from an inside-out approach – taking into consideration the organization, products, IT systems, and channels to reach out to external parties. These are critical factors to be sure. But the better approach...