Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Aside from straight cash donations, gifts of life insurance are one of many ways by which charitable organizations are able to receive support from philanthropic donors. But the province of British Columbia could have set an uneasy climate for charities using that strategy, based on recent communications from its financial-services watchdog. In a recent blog post, Susan M. Manwaring and Sarah Fitzpatrick of Miller Thomson LLP explained that donors can use life insurance to facilitate charitable giving in several ways. But concerns of legal liability arising from the practice have been raised in BC, particularly because of provisions against trafficking of life insurance policies laid out in section 152 of the province’s Insurance Act: “Any person, other than an insurer or its authorized agent, who advertises, or holds himself or herself out, as a purchaser of life insurance policies or of benefits under them, or who traffics or trades in life insurance policies for the purpose of procuring the sale, surrender, transfer, assignment, pledge or hypothecation of them to himself or herself or any person commits an offence against this Act.” In a bulletin issued in May, the BC Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) sought to offer reassurance, clarifying that “solicitation...

Capital (Annapolis, MD) By Daniel Bortz As a young entrepreneur with no kids, Jesse Silkoff hadn’t purchased life insurance before the coronavirus crisis. “I just didn’t think I needed it yet, and I’ve committed most of my financial resources to my business,” says Silkoff, 31, the president and co-founder of MyRoofingPal.com, an online marketplace that connects property owners with roofing contractors. COVID-19, though, forced Silkoff to consider his mortality. “I don’t want to leave my wife in debt should something happen to me,” he says. “Also, during the slowdown, I had more time to do the research.” So Silkoff purchased a 10-year term life policy with $500,000 of coverage for about $30 a month. Nicholas Mancuso, life insurance expert at Policygenius, an insurance comparison website, says the site is seeing an “uptick” in life insurance searches. “Pandemics and major catastrophic events can serve as a catalyst for people to reassess their financial security, including life insurance.” Advertisement Mancuso says most people should get term life insurance over whole life insurance because, dollar for dollar, term gives you the most protection for your money. How much coverage you need, though, depends on your age, the size of your family, your health...

Staff | August 28, 2020 More than 2,000 former Foodora Canada couriers will receive compensation for losing their contracts when the food delivery service abruptly exited the Canadian market in mid-May. The $3.46-million settlement between the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, non-unionized couriers represented by Koskie Minsky LLP, Foodora Inc. and its German parent company Delivery Hero will resolve the CUPW’s ongoing labour claims against Foodora Canada before the Ontario Labour Relations Board. Delivery Hero will compensate all couriers for the termination of their contracts after Foodora Canada filed a notice that it planned to make a proposal under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. Read: Foodora couriers attempting to unionize for better pay, benefits “We’re happy to see Foodora has acknowledged its workers deserve a settlement,” said Iván Ostos, a former Foodora courier and union organizer, in a press release. “It’s a big change for gig workers. If employers believe it is not worthwhile to do business here, we will fight to make sure workers receive what they’re due.” Andrew Hatnay, partner at Koskie Minsky, highlighted the importance of the courts appointing representative counsel to vulnerable groups in insolvency proceedings, like the couriers who weren’t represented by the union. “This settlement will provide significant compensation to riders who...

Attorneys at Dell & Schaefer disability insurance law firm reveal the most common causes of disability insurance claims, including common medical conditions.

Staff | August 28, 2020 The U.S. Department of Labor is taking jabs at the inclusion of environmental, social and governance products in capital accumulation plans — and it could be to members’ detriment. In late June, the Department of Labor proposed new rules around ESG products in retirement accounts. “The proposal is designed, in part, to make clear that . . . plan fiduciaries may not invest in ESG vehicles when they understand an underlying investment strategy of the vehicle is to subordinate return or increase risk for the purpose of non-financial objectives,” noted a release from the department. However, a recent blog by Jennifer DeLong, head of defined contribution at AllianceBernstein, and Michelle Dunstan, the firm’s global head of responsible investing, said the regulations proposed could unnecessarily deter plan sponsors from offering ESG options. Read: CFA Institute proposing industry standards for ESG disclosure They noted the proposed rules aren’t a major shift from what’s already in place. “The new rules wouldn’t prohibit ESG options, but they could encumber the selection and monitoring process. For example, plan sponsors would need to do a lot more documenting to validate any ESG considerations on top of the current ‘all else being equal’ test. The rules would also all...

Staff  | August 28, 2020 Aon and Willis Towers Watson’s proposed merger has received approval by their respective shareholders. The merger, announced in March, remains subject to customary regulatory and other closing conditions. It’s expected to close in the first half of 2021. Upon closing, Willis Towers Watson shareholders will receive 1.08 Aon shares in exchange for each Willis Towers Watson share they held immediately prior to the closing. Read: Aon and Willis Towers Watson set to merge “On behalf of Aon’s board of directors and executive team, I would like to thank our shareholders for their overwhelming support of the proposed combination with Willis Towers Watson,” said Greg Case, chief executive officer of Aon, in a press release. “Our combination, which will accelerate innovation and strengthen our capability to provide more relevant solutions for clients, has only become more important through the COVID-19 pandemic. “The events of 2020 are illustrative of the exact type of transformative long-tail risk our new organization will be best positioned to address, creating significant value for clients, colleagues and shareholders.” Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com

Martha Porado  | August 28, 2020 Globally mobile employees may be feeling more discouragement, burnout and stress during the coronavirus pandemic compared to their domestic peers. Indeed, outside of the crisis, expatriate employees are generally more prone to these hurdles, said Nancy Brown, national sales director for Canada at Metlife Worldwide Benefits, in a session at Benefits Canada‘s 2020 Plan Sponsor Week earlier this month. “These stresses and challenges may affect these employees’ success at work and impact their overall productivity levels, which can be detrimental, especially as organizations work through a crisis globally.” By this logic, stressors affecting domestic employees are likely amplified for globally mobile workers, she said. In an April 2020 survey by MetLife, expat respondents said they were less satisfied with their jobs and less committed to their organization’s goals than the year before. Read: Anxiety on the rise, overtaking depression as top mental-health concern: analysis “As the world works through the challenges of COVID-19, organizations need to take extra steps to keep their globally mobile employees healthy and well-informed,” said Brown. “These employees face more personal and professional challenges than their domestic peers. Business leaders need to take care of these employees as they’re away from their traditional safety nets of...

Kelsey Rolfe | August 28, 2020 Plan sponsors have to move beyond benefits plan reporting and dig into analytics to better understand medication non-adherence and the top disease states affecting their workforces. “Leveraging plan-specific data can help answer the fundamental questions needed to manage your benefits program,” said Shawn O’Brien, Telus Health’s principal of data enablement and drug, health, dental product roadmaps, during a session at Benefits Canada‘s 2020 Plan Sponsor Week earlier this month. While reporting summarizes data from individual sources and can give plan sponsors insight into their past and present drug plan experience, analytics goes further, he said, by providing insights into future trends and drawing connections between separate sources of data to drive strategic decision-making. Read: Mental-health conditions, specialty meds driving drug plan cost increases in 2019: report Drug non-adherence is a key area for plan sponsors to watch as it accounts for a large percentage of overall eligible claims cost. Non-adherence is calculated using a medication possession ratio — the time between when a plan member refills their maintenance medication compared to the number of days’ worth they have. Four of Telus’ top 10 drug classes by eligible amount were found to have significant non-adherence rates. Depression, which accounted for 5.1 per cent of total eligible claims for the organization’s book...

Jennifer Paterson | August 28, 2020 With almost 100,000 employees in 30 countries, Scotiabank’s approach to global benefits provision is more about aligning philosophy or guiding principles than it is around aligning specific tactics of the benefits plan. “No surprise, every country, every region has its own set of legislation, social norms, priorities, different health-care infrastructure and different maturity in terms of the technology space,” said Simone Reitzes, the bank’s vice-president of global pension and benefits, during a session on the first day of Benefits Canada‘s 2020 Plan Sponsor Week earlier this month. “So to take one benefits plan and try to fit it into all of our countries is like trying to put a square peg in a round hole.” Scotiabank looks at its guiding principles around total well-being and works with its business partners in all of the countries in which it operates to fit each benefits plan into the local infrastructure, she added. Read: Plan Sponsor Week: Globally mobile workers need extra help dealing with pandemic stress The bank also works closely with its vendors to collect current data and then looks at trends in its own experience, as well as its vendors’ other plan sponsor clients, to find opportunities to implement different...

Jennifer Paterson | August 28, 2020 While the vast majority of Canadians say the coronavirus pandemic is impacting their mental health, just 60 per cent are receiving the treatment or social support they need. “We’ve asked them, what are the barriers? Why aren’t they accessing the resources?” said Sophie Ouellet, vice-president of business development at Sun Life Canada, during a session on the fourth day of Benefits Canada’s 2020 Plan Sponsor Week earlier this month. The top reasons, according to a Sun Life survey conducted in April, are affordability, accessibility and stigma. “So while we’ve made a lot of progress as a society on that, it’s clear it’s embarrassment or people don’t feel comfortable talking about that in particular.” Read: 56% of Canadians say coronavirus negatively impacting mental health: survey Digging a bit deeper, Sun Life has seen mental-health incidences increase in the past few years, she added, noting it accounts for 30 per cent of the claims seen by the insurer. So what can employers do? Ouellet suggested they start by understanding the barriers, such as awareness of treatment and how to access it, issues around wait times and cost and the pervasive issue of stigma. “Many people might say, ‘We’ve made so...