Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Aetna International is hoping to help address a key challenge among Canadian independent business owners through a newly announced partnership. The benefits giant is teaming up with EIO Solutions, Canada’s leader in the emerging Employee Investment Optimization Industry, to put competitive health benefits solutions within the reach of small-business owners around the country. Citing figures from the government of Canada, Jason McCormick, senior director of Sales and Service for Aetna International Canada, said 70% of Canadians in the private sector work for small businesses, equating to eight million workers in all. As small-business owners tend to budget less for employee benefits than their larger competitors, they often face struggles to attract the right talent. The workers and their families, meanwhile, run the risk of being left with sub-par coverage. “We were drawn to re-enter the Canadian market to support this group,” McCormick said. “To engage with them and create high-value policies, we turned to a Canadian partner on a similar mission.” Under the partnership, clients stand to save an average of 35% on their premiums through tailored plans that include both traditional and self-insured options; those savings can then be reinvested in higher-value benefits. EIO Solutions also offers clients support...

Some recent studies show that Black households are more receptive than other races to life insurance  — but the key is reaching that market. Nearly 80 percent of Black Americans said having life insurance is a goal for them, a 2019 New York Life study found, versus 63 percent of all adults. More than 90 percent of Black Americans said they believe life insurance helps future generations succeed. Many of the barriers to life insurance ownership in Black communities can be traced to several myths about the process. Five myths, in particular, keep Black Americans from buying life insurance, said Delvin Joyce, a financial planner with Prudential. “Not only is there a racial wealth gap, there’s also a knowledge gap in certain areas and where we see that knowledge gap is in life insurance,” said Joyce during a recent webinar sponsored by Life Happens, a nonprofit group supporting the life insurance industry. Myth #1: Final Expenses Only Many Black Americans come from communities that have come to view life insurance as a way to cover final expenses. That narrow view grew out of a proud desire to cover all debts, Joyce said, even in death. Advertisement It is common in...

By Jason Patterson “We just got a notice that my wife’s life insurance policy premium is set to triple.” That’s what a friend told me when he realized that I work in the life insurance industry. I’m sure you can guess the issue – it’s a term policy about to enter into the annually renewable term phase. He didn’t understand what was going on and was looking for help, and their life insurance agent was missing in action. After reminding him that I’m neither a licensed insurance agent nor in sales, I offered to visit their house to verify what was going on and to give them some ideas on life insurance options before they reconnected with their insurance agent. The results of that meeting were a good reminder to me of the importance of this field and of the work to be done in educating and serving those in our sphere of influence. Kitchen Table Education When we began our discussion, I knew it would be a fruitful time for two reasons: They were very interested, and we were sitting around the mythical kitchen table that I always hear about! It turned out that not only was her 15-year...

The Canadian Press | August 12, 2020 A former Starbucks Canada employee is suing the company for unpaid overtime for himself and other store managers. Trevor Hopman is the lead plaintiff in a proposed class action that claims Starbucks was wrong to class store managers as exempt from overtime pay for work in excess of 44 hours per week. He worked for Starbucks in Toronto from 2010 through 2017 and is making the claim on behalf of all current and former managers at Starbucks-owned stores in Ontario from Oct. 1, 2014 or later. Read: A summary of Ontario’s changing employment and labour legislation The suit, filed Aug. 7 by Toronto-based Goldblatt Partners LLP, asks the court to declare that Starbucks violated Ontario’s Employment Standards Act. The claim, which requires court certification to proceed as a class action, seeks $50 million in general damages and $10 million in punitive damages, although it leaves the amounts to the court’s discretion. A Starbucks representative says the company is aware of the suit and will respond to its allegations in the course of litigation. Read: Ontario government unveils new labour standards bill Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com

Staff  | August 12, 2020 The University of Toronto Asset Management Corp. has received its highest scores in the United Nations’ principles for responsible investing’s annual assessment of its approach to responsible investing. It received A+ marks in all six categories evaluated by the PRI, scoring above the median in each. The UTAM became a signatory to the PRI in 2016 and is committed to following its six responsible investing principles. Read: UN PRI releases guide for institutional investors addressing income inequality “The PRI is the pre-eminent responsible investing organization in the world and we are pleased to once again receive excellent scores from its assessment process,” said Daren Smith, UTAM’s president and chief investment officer, in a press release. “Our goal has been to develop a comprehensive, best-in-class [responsible investing] program that applies to all asset classes and we believe our PRI scores are a strong indication that we are on the right track.” Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com

Staff | August 12, 2020 The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association is recommending the federal government develop a strategy for high-cost drugs for rare diseases, potentially by harmonizing catastrophic drug coverage across the country. In its August federal budget submission to the standing committee on finance, the association noted specialty drugs, including those for chronic and rare disease, made up just two per cent of total prescription claims, but 33 per cent of total costs, in 2018. “High-cost drugs are a challenging and evolving class of prescription medications. Their unique characteristics and high costs may require a separate strategy around coverage to ensure Canadians have access,” wrote the CLHIA, adding it commended the government’s $500-million commitment in its 2019 budget toward funding for high-cost drugs for rare diseases.  Read: Budget 2019: Feds to develop a strategy for high-cost drugs for rare diseases The association also recommended the federal government work with provinces, territories and private insurers to develop a standard list of medicines for which all Canadians would be covered. “Private insurers want to work with governments to ensure access across the country, not only to this standard list of medicines, but also to high-cost medicines,” wrote the CLHIA. “Governments should work together to make sure anyone...

Greg Lindberg A North Carolina judge refused to overturn insurance magnate Greg Lindberg’s conviction on bribery charges and also denied a motion for a new trial. Lindberg, a Durham, N.C., billionaire, was convicted of using the promise of millions in campaign money to bribe state insurance commissioner Mike Causey. Lindberg owns Global Bankers Insurance Group, a managing company for several insurance and reinsurance companies. Lindberg’s lawyers submitted a 69-page document, claiming court errors, the government failed to meet the standard of “beyond reasonable doubt,” and that Lindberg was entrapped by Causey. Lindberg has filed a separate lawsuit against Causey that is pending. Judge Max O. Cogburn was not swayed by the appeal, denying every claim in a 55-page response. “In sum, the Court’s instructions of law regarding criminal intent were correct, and the jury reasonably applied those instructions to find that the defendants’ actions were undertaken with the specific intent to influence an official act,” the judge wrote. Advertisement The federal jury also found Lindberg associate John Gray guilty on two public corruption charges. Associate John Palermo was found not guilty. Lindberg and Gray could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for one of the charges and...

Rise People, the company behind one of Canada’s leading digital people-management platforms, is supporting the modernization of group insurance sales and administration in the country with a Canadian first. Rise has announced Canada’s first advisor engagement platform, which offers tools to streamline back-end processes while offering a smooth, paperless front-end experience for group benefits clients of Sun Life. Advisors can potentially reap competitive advantages from selling, administering benefits, and collaborating on group plans with Sun Life in a more convenient and efficient way. “Technology is playing an increasing role in the advisor-client relationship as more clients have come to expect a highly personalized and efficient experience from their advisors,” Rise President Julie Bevacqua said in a statement. Serving as a technology backbone to connect advisors with clients and their employees, the platform helps advisors sell group life and health benefits as well as individual insurance. The client experience is also improved through digital enrolment, access to an online marketplace, and ongoing benefits administration, A practice management function lets advisors store client data and generate comprehensive reports. The built-in dashboard promises convenience and a complete overview of the most current client information, including changes to plan member benefits information and enrolment...

A prominent third-party administrator of group insurance benefits is teaming up with an established virtual healthcare service provider to support Canada’s workforces amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Elmira-based RWAM Insurance Administrators and Montreal-based EQ Care have forged a new partnership to allow thousands of Canadian families to access virtual healthcare services. Through the collaboration, RWAM’s members are given 24/7 access to EQ Care’s secure, home-grown online platform, available in both official languages. “Gaining the confidence of Canadian ground-breakers in the Third Party Administration space is incredibly validating for our team as we work tirelessly to exceed expectations in the Benefits industry,” EQ Care CEO Daniel Martz said in a statement. “RWAM Insurance’s history of innovation and commitment to personalized, superior service makes this partnership a logical fit, and one that will further help to relieve pressure on the public healthcare system at a critical time,” Martz said. The virtual healthcare services open to RWAM clients include medical consult sessions, triage, and medication prescribing. They may also get in touch with mental health specialists, who can provide virtual cognitive behavioural therapy (vCBT) and digital cognitive behavioural therapy (dCBT), which together can help patients faced with stressful mental and emotional challenges. “The focus...

The Life Insurance and Annuities Committee granted two time extensions today to allow state regulators to finish work on a pair of key disclosure issues. Holding its summer meeting via Zoom call, the committee granted extensions to these two working groups: The Annuity Disclosure Working Group for its work to increase the time indexes must be in existence to be used in annuity illustrations from 10 to 15 years. Regulators are concerned that consumers are being misled by unrealistic indexed annuity illustrations. The Life Insurance Illustration Working Group for its work to develop policy summary disclosures across the various life insurance products. Annuity Disclosure The annuity disclosure group met for many calls to settle on the 15-year number. It represents a compromise between hardliners pushing for a 20-year requirement and those who wanted 10 years. But the group has a couple more issues to iron out, said Mike Yanacheak, Iowa actuarial administrator. In particular, the working group needs to decide whether it wants to “make a recommendation to the A Committee related to whether there is a need for product approval standards for proprietary indices and whether there needs to be standards surrounding the relationship between the hedging provider and...