Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Portal provides faster and easier access to robust product information and insight to product roadmaps and future of insurance technologies Morristown, NJ (July 16, 2020) – Majesco, a global provider of cloud insurance platform software, is pleased to announce a new product portal – providing customers fast and easy access to robust product information and insight to product roadmaps and future of insurance technologies that will expand and accelerate customer’s planning and use of Majesco solutions today and for the future. “We’re thrilled to provide our customers with a robust resource that allows them to stay on top of  Majesco’s latest product advancements, product roadmaps and assessment of future of insurance technologies,” says Manish Shah, President & Chief Product Officer at Majesco. “We’re constantly pushing boundaries and creating products that redefine the next generation of solutions that enable insurers to digitally transform to a new era of insurance. The new product portal enables our customers to keep a pulse on the latest innovative technology and enhancements we’re working on to create the future of insurance.” Within the product portal customers will have access to the latest information, including: Product Roadmap – Visibility into the release schedule of new product features...

Staff | July 20, 2020 The Association of Canadian Pension Management is calling on the Ontario government to consider amending the Employment Standards Act and the Pension Benefits Act to allow for auto-enrolment and auto-escalation features in capital accumulation plans. Specifically, it’s suggesting the government allow employers to automatically deduct employee contributions from payroll to facilitate these features. “The shift from defined benefit plans to [CAPs] over the last generation has shifted the burden of having adequate income in retirement from employers to employees,” said the ACPM in a letter to the province’s ministry of finance. “Many employees do not understand how much money they will need to retire comfortably or how critical it is under a defined contribution pension plan to save as much as possible as early as possible. Read: The case for incorporating automatic features into DC pension plans “Many studies have shown that employees are increasingly concerned about not having enough money in retirement, yet many employees are not taking full advantage of their retirement programs and leaving employer matching contributions on the table or otherwise failing to maximize the possible contributions.” The way CAPs are set up in Ontario today, employees begin from a default of not contributing because...

By Adam Winslow Many financial planning decisions benefit from early action. When it comes to saving for the long term, millennials and Generation Z have time on their side. Although we are currently in a period of extreme market volatility, if millennials and Gen Z start investing early, there is the potential for their assets to compound and appreciate over the next 40-plus years. Early action can be equally beneficial for another important financial decision — purchasing life insurance. Like budgeting, saving for the future and paying off debt, life insurance is an important part of a secure financial plan. For many young Americans, the hardest part may be getting started. Consideration of term life insurance can become that important first step. Advertisement Age and health are the most significant drivers of policy cost and insurability. By purchasing a term life insurance policy at a low price when young and generally healthier, millennials and Gen Zers can lock in a level of immediate protection. Then, if the policy allows, which most do, they are able to convert it to a permanent policy before the term expires – even if their health declines while the policy is in force. A Missed...

The country’s top life insurers are throwing their support behind the industry-wide fight to end racial discrimination. Manulife has announced that it is taking concrete steps toward a five-year goal of increasing Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) representation across its North American businesses. “We recognize how important it is to improve the diversity of our organization at all levels,” Manulife President and CEO Roy Gori said in a statement. “Establishing goals not only demonstrates our commitment to this important work, it will help us build a more inclusive culture to drive innovation and enable us to better serve our customers.” The company has pledged to further diversify its North American workforce, including John Hancock in the U.S., by raising BIPOC representation in leadership roles by 30% by 2025 and hiring at least 35% BIPOC talent annually in its graduate program. Aside from those commitments, Manulife has become a signatory to the BlackNorth Initiative Pledge in Canada, as well as the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion pledge in the U.S. The company shared details of these new steps several weeks after it announced that it will be investing more than $3.5 million over the next few years in...

Staff | July 17, 2020 While 33 per cent of global employees said they want to return to the physical workplace full time after the coronavirus pandemic in April, that number dropped to four per cent when respondents were asked the same question in June, according to a new survey by Perceptyx Inc. In its survey of more than 750,ooo global workers, the employee survey and people analytics platform found the percentage of favourable responses to “my remote work environment enables me to work productively” has shifted from 86 per cent in April to nearly 100 per cent in June. Read: Remote working, distributed workforces could be part of new normal post-coronavirus “In looking at this data collected starting back in March, there has been a clear shift as employees have had the time to create a suitable remote working environment and mastered remote work tools — the newness has paved the way to the familiar,” said Brett Wells, director of people analytics at Perceptyx, in a press release. “The combination of the growing experience with remote work and the additional flexibility and resources made available have negatively impacted the desire to go back to the office.” Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com

The Canadian Press | July 17, 2020 The coronavirus pandemic has pushed women’s participation in the labour force down to its lowest level in three decades and rebounding won’t be easy, according to a new study by the Royal Bank of Canada. The report showed 1.5 million Canadian women lost their jobs in the first two months of the pandemic and said women accounted for about 45 per cent of the decline in hours worked over the downturn but will only make up 35 per cent of the recovery. Dawn Desjardins, RBC’s deputy chief economist, said women are being hardest hit because they tend to work in industries — hospitality and food services, retail trade, educational services, health care and social assistance — most affected by closures, earnings losses and layoffs. “In March and April, it was kind of evenly split between men and women with both having about 1.5 million [job losses], but it’s in the reopening where we have started to see a divergence. Read: Men offered flexible working options more often than women: survey “Men are already being rehired as certain industries get back on their feet, whereas women have been rehired, but that gap is bigger because there is still one million fewer women working.” Women are...

OMAHA, Neb. – Mutual of Omaha today announced several new initiatives to address issues of racial equity and social justice, including the removal of Native American imagery from its corporate logo and additional funding for initiatives and charities addressing these issues. “Mutual of Omaha has a longstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion, both within our company and in our community. As an organization and a leadership team, we are focused on taking additional actions to answer the call for racial equity and inclusion,” said Mutual of Omaha Chairman and CEO James Blackledge. “We have spent time listening to diverse perspectives among our associates, community leaders and diversity and inclusion experts, and are taking further action to advance racial equity and social justice to create meaningful change.” Mutual will stop using the Native American imagery associated with its corporate logo. The transition away from the current symbol will begin immediately. “We believe the decision to retire our corporate symbol is the right thing to do and is consistent with our values and our desire to help overcome racial bias and stereotypes,” Blackledge said. “We feel strongly our logo should reflect who we are as a company and our commitment to positive...

Lizann Reitmeier | July 17, 2020 The pandemic changed our world and our jobs overnight and stretched compassion, empathy and flexibility to the limit. There has never been a better time to reconsider everything about employee benefits. For me as a benefits consultant, the crisis has highlighted how unprepared the typical benefits plan is to truly support the needs of employees in crisis. As we look to the future, what can employers do to better support their people and give them the benefits they require at a particular moment in time? This is different from providing a benefits package that meets the needs of most employees, most of the time; it’s about providing individuals with choices, so they can navigate their day-to-day reality and adjust their benefits selections as circumstances change. In mid-March, as employees were sent home, the needs of entire generations changed dramatically. They required reliable internet, laptop computers, reasonable space at home to facilitate work and furniture that wouldn’t leave them with repetitive strain injuries. Many also needed the time and space to homeschool their children. Read: Benefits plan members nervous about in-person health care, finds survey On the other hand, employees no longer required dentists, massage therapy, physiotherapy, chiropractors, acupuncture or travel assistance. In fact, claims dropped...

Martha Porado  | July 17, 2020 While it’s likely a small mercy that defined contribution plan members, by and large, didn’t have knee-jerk reactions to recent market turbulence, plan sponsors have been rather quiet as well. Much of this is related to the reality that the people who typically deal with small to mid-size DC plans at their organization are busy with other matters, says Rahul Khasgiwale, senior investment director at Aviva Investors. “I think they’ve really struggled to have the time and focus to spend on the investment plans, just given the recent market volatility. Some of these [plan sponsors] don’t have the resources to be fully dedicated to the investment plan. So in light of all the turmoil, we’ve seen a lot of these small firms struggling with a whole bunch of issues, from [human resources] issues to ensuring mental well-being of their staff, dealing with work-from-home arrangements to potentially laying people off at the firm.” Read: Canadians reducing retirement savings due to coronavirus But recent shifts in investment offerings moved members into more defensive territory in many cases, he says, noting the ongoing trend of DC plan members buying into funds with diversification benefits — whether that means balanced, target-date or...

Martha Porado | July 17, 2020 Institutional investors are grappling with the long-term implications of how the coronavirus pandemic will affect demand for various real estate sectors. Many real estate assets will remain under pressure even as establishments across sectors are once again able to welcome customers, says Jeff Olin, president and chief executive officer at Vision Capital Corp., noting that retail is perhaps the most likely area to see a significant long-term shift in demand. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, e-commerce was already trending higher, taking up an increasing percentage of total retail sales. Then the pandemic hit. “What happened was you had an exponential increase from about 15 per cent to about 25 per cent due to pandemic,” he says. “So, if and when this is behind us, what happens? Does it go back to 15 per cent? No way.” Read: Caisse real estate arm partnering to provide retail tenants with e-commerce solutions The pandemic pushed demographics that hadn’t yet latched onto online shopping to start using it for the very first time, says Olin. And they’re unlikely to go back now that they’ve discovered it, especially groups like the elderly with limited mobility for whom services like online grocery delivery have more than just the advantage of convenience. Certainly, there...