Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Staff  | September 24, 2020 While the coronavirus pandemic is increasing employee burnout globally, the impact differs across countries, according to a new work trends index by Microsoft Corp. The survey, which polled more than 6,000 information and frontline workers in eight countries, including Australia, Brazil, Germany, Japan, India, Singapore, the U.K. and the U.S., found more than 30 per cent of respondents said the pandemic has increased their feelings of burnout at work. That figure rises to 44 per cent in Brazil and drops to 10 per cent in Germany. The causes of workplace stress also differed, with survey respondents asked to rank their top contributors from a list of 12 options. Globally, the top stressor was worry about getting the virus, followed by lack of separation between work and life, feeling disconnected from co-workers and unmanageable workloads or hours. Read: How can employers manage work-from-home burnout? Digging deeper into into the lack of separation between work and life, the survey found people are in significantly more meetings, taking more ad-hoc calls and managing more incoming chats than they did before the pandemic. Unfortunately, after-hours chats, between 5 p.m. and midnight, have also increased. In addition, it found the lack of a commute may be hurting,...

Staff | September 24, 2020 The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is acquiring a minority interest in Colisée Group, a Paris-based nursing home company. The investment, alongside an infrastructure fund formed by global investor EQT, will allow Colisée to explore growth opportunities in new markets, while consolidating its current service offerings, according to a press release. The company currently operates 270 nursing homes facilities, in addition to home-care service agencies, primarily in Belgium, France, Italy and Spain. Read: Caisse invests in sustainability, OMERS and Ontario Teachers’ sell stake in utility “For CDPQ, this acquisition represents a significant investment in health-care infrastructure, [which is] an essential sector where needs are growing and where Colisée is well-positioned,” said Emmanuel Jaclot, executive vice-president and head of infrastructure at the Caisse, in the release. “Colisée’s excellent track record in terms of quality of care and resident well-being is a crucial element of this partnership and is consistent with our [environmental, social and governance] approach.” Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com

Staff  | September 24, 2020 Proteus is promoting Teimaz Binesh, Lewis Powell and Michael Scott to senior investment consultants. In their new roles, they’ll continue to provide investment consulting and governance services to corporate pension plans, multi-employer plans, foundations and endowments, not-for-profit organizations and high-net-worth individuals, according to a press release. “I’m delighted to recognize these team members for their success, contributions and dedication to the firm,” said Gord Lewis, the organization’s president, in the release. “Supported by our firm’s independent research, Tei, Lewis and Michael provide our clients with unbiased and insightful investment consulting, while continuing to contribute to the leadership of our team.” Read: Hub International acquires Proteus Performance Management Since joining Proteus in 2011, Binesh has been part of manager research initiatives, performing due diligence and creating/amending in-house databases in terms of qualitative and quantitative metrics. Previously, he was a performance measurement analyst at Aon. Powell’s experience includes a background in portfolio management and credit analysis. Before he joined Proteus in 2011, he was an analyst of private debt instruments at Great-West Life and Annuity Insurance Co. Scott, who joined Proteus as a pension analyst in 2012, works closely with a number of institutional investors including defined benefit and defined contribution plans. Read: Aon appoints...

September 24, 2020 Transformative trends pension plans need to navigate Will COVID-19 mean the end of the office as we know it? How will advanced technology affect your real estate allocation? Does your portfolio contain hidden climate risks? These are among the unique challenges that can affect your real estate allocation in today’s complex investment landscape. Learn more about global real estate investing in our new report. Sponsored by: Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com

Staff | September 24, 2020 Canadians who’ve experienced mental-health challenges, or have taken time off for disabilities, are more likely to view a mental-health illness as a disability, according to a new survey by RBC Insurance. Half (51 per cent) of Canadians said they see mental-health issues, such as depression or anxiety, as a disability. That number rose to 59 per cent among those familiar with taking time off work for a disability and dropped to 39 per cent among respondents who don’t know anyone who’s done so or haven’t done so themselves. “Diagnosed depression and anxiety can indeed be debilitating, but the findings show that most of us don’t truly understand the impact of something until we’ve experienced it ourselves,” said Maria Winslow, senior director of life and health at RBC Insurance, in a press release. “There is still a large portion of Canadians who do not consider the sometimes invisible ailments of depression and anxiety as disabilities, yet mental illness causes the majority of disability claims at RBC Insurance.” Read: Plan Sponsor Week: Mental-health support starts with understanding barriers The survey found respondents are more comfortable overall with the idea of disclosing a mental illness (77 per cent) than they were last year (73 per cent)....

Martha Porado | September 24, 2020 With employers and employees still suffering through the limbo of the coronavirus pandemic, Wednesday’s throne speech clarified how the federal government plans to continue to support Canadians. In her speech, Governor General Julie Payette said the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy will be extended into 2021. She also said the government intends to shift away from emergency benefits in favour of beefing up the current employment insurance system to fold in pandemic-related support. Although, regarding these and other promises, the speech gave no specific timelines or numbers. “Canadians should not have to choose between health and their job, just like Canadians should not have to take on debt that their government can better shoulder,” she said. Read: Survey finds 76% of Canadian businesses used federal wage subsidy to keep employees The speech also highlighted the particular burdens Canadian women have taken on during the pandemic. The speech noted many women have taken on more unpaid care at home, while at the same time, low-income women have been hit hardest by cuts to paid work. In a bid to support parents — in particular, women — Payette said the government intends to make a long-term investment in creating a national early learning and...

NEW YORK, N.Y., Sept. 23, 2020 – The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America’s Board of Directors announced today that Andrew J. McMahon will become Chief Executive Officer and President on October 1 and has joined the Board. He succeeds Deanna M. Mulligan, who will serve as Board Chair through year-end, when she will retire after leading the company for a decade. The appointments are consistent with the company’s leadership transition plan announced in May. “We are grateful to Deanna and Andrew for working closely together to ensure a smooth transition,” said Guardian Lead Director, Deborah Duncan. “With Deanna acting as Chair, Guardian is taking the final step in our CEO transition. We thank her for her exceptional leadership over the last 10 years.  Deanna strengthened the company in so many ways, creating a solid foundation on which Andrew will build the Guardian of the future. Andrew’s growth mindset, focus on putting customers first, deep industry experience and digital expertise are critical to our success going forward.” Ms. Mulligan joined Guardian in 2008 to lead the company’s Individual Life & Disability business. She was named President and Chief Operating Officer in November 2010 and appointed CEO in July 2011.   Her...

Staff  | September 23, 2020 The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and multi-stage investment firm S2G Ventures are creating a co-investment partnership whereby the Caisse will invest up to US$125 million over the next three years in ventures that aim to make the food and agriculture industry more sustainable and climate friendly. “By enabling investments in ventures and growth equity companies involved in the production, supply chain and consumption stages, this partnership will help reduce the agri-food industry’s carbon footprint,” said Kim Thomassin, executive vice-president and head of investments in Quebec and stewardship investing at the Caisse, in a press release. “S2G is a leading investment firm in this sector and we are delighted to partner with them to support cutting-edge entrepreneurs who will make the food and agriculture industry more sustainable.” Read: Caisse investing in Quebec agricultural cooperative Since 2017, the Caisse has committed to reducing its portfolio’s carbon footprint by 25 per cent per dollar invested by 2025. As of Dec. 31, 2019, its portfolio of low-carbon assets was US$34 billion, up 95 per cent from 2017. For the last six years, S2G has invested behind the founders of food and agriculture companies from soil to shelf including: Apeel Sciences, Beyond Meat, Greenlight Biosciences...

Staff | September 23, 2020 L’Oréal Group is launching a new employee share purchase plan in 57 of the countries in which it operates.  The latest offering comes on the heels of the global beauty company’s first worldwide employee share plan two years ago. “This year, after the success of the first plan in 2018, we want to once again involve our employees in the prosperity of our group,” said Jean-Paul Agon, chairman and chief executive officer of L’Oréal, in a press release.  Read: Back to basics on employee share purchase plans “This second employee share ownership plan is a new opportunity to allow those who wish to do so to support the development of the company and participate in its strategic project. This new plan reaffirms our ambition to unite our employees even more closely with L’Oréal’s future.” The plan is limited to 500,000 shares, including employer contribution. Employees will be able to purchase L’Oréal shares in a subscription formula, where the value of their investment will vary with changes in the company’s share price. Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com

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...