Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Canada Life Reinsurance is solidifying its position in the longevity reinsurance space through a new agreement covering 5.3 billion euros of in-force liabilities. Under the agreement with NN Life, a subsidiary of international financial services company NN Group, Canada Life Reinsurance will reinsure nearly 82,000 in-payment defined benefit pensioners. NN Group is active in 18 countries, with a strong presence in several European countries as well as Japan. The group provides retirement services, pensions, insurance, investments, and banking services to roughly 18 million customers. “I’m pleased that despite a significantly altered work environment due to Covid-19, Canada Life Reinsurance and NN Life’s teams worked together to complete this major transaction,” said Jeff Poulin, global head of Canada Life Reinsurance. “It will allow us to further expand and diversify our global longevity business in 2020 and beyond.” Echoing the sentiment, Canada Life Reinsurance COO Derek Popkes said: “We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with NN Life. Our commitment to the Dutch market and our strong financials make us a good partner in the Netherlands.” Follow WP on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter Read the original article at https://www.lifehealthpro.ca/rss/

Old Republic Insurance Company of Canada (“Old Republic Canada”) is a Canadianfederally licensed insurance company that has been providing insurance solutions since 1887.They are focused on being industry leaders in the underwriting and administering of customized,private label products for distributors of travel, child accident, as well as the underwriting of longhaul trucking insurance. Old Republic Canada encompass the entire Canadian operations of Old Republic InternationalCorporation (“ORI” on the New York Stock Exchange) which is one of America’s 50 largestshareholder-owned insurance businesses and currently ranks among the Fortune 500 list of thenation’s biggest companies. What Sets Them Apart? Service Dedicated unit in place to answer all claims administration inquiries Call centre: 80% of calls answered within 30 seconds, less than 3% abandoned Complaints: Any written appeal requests or complaints requiring response acknowledged in writing by the next business day Claims Request for claim forms: Requested claim forms are sent the same day Assessment of claims: Complete claims files are assessed within 5 business days Assessment of additional information: Claim file correspondence is initially reviewed within 2 business days of receipt Claim payments: Over 90% of travel insurance claims reported annually are paid Products A full suite of products to meet most...

Staff | May 21, 2020 The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System is closing its previously announced investment in fibre technology company Deutsche Glasfaser Holding. The German company is a provider of gigabit internet connections through fibre-to-the-home to more than 700,000 households and 5,000 businesses across the country. The investment, alongside partner EQT Infrastructure Fund IV, was announced in February 2020. “This closing underlines both our ongoing interest in Germany as a high-quality jurisdiction and our continuing interest in telecommunications-related opportunities,” said Ralph Berg, global head of the OMERS Infrastructure, in a press release. “While we celebrate today’s success, our worldwide search for further solid investment opportunities maintains a steady pace.” Read: OMERS investing in German internet infrastructure, PSP in cloud security platform As previously announced, Deutsche Glasfaser will be combined with EQT Infrastructure Fund IV portfolio company Inexio to form a fibre-to-the-home player in rural Germany. “Our thesis continues to be that investing in the development of telecommunication infrastructure will generate, as the rollout approaches completion, strong and stable cash flows that are a good match with our long-term obligations towards our OMERS members,” said Philippe Busslinger, head of Europe at the OMERS Infrastructure, in the release. The news marks the pension fund’s third infrastructure investment in Germany, following...

Expect more grumpy old folks as companies have to turn away older applicants while COVID-19 plays out. The life insurance industry finds itself in an awkward position of finding increased demand from consumers intensely aware of mortality during a pandemic, just as companies have to restrict products because of the mysterious, novel coronavirus. The coronavirus is most dangerous to the elderly, who are increasingly shut out of life insurance because of the uncertain risk that companies cannot underwrite. The restrictions have busy independent agents and marketing organizations scrambling to find companies that will accept their applicants. A partial list of carriers who have suspended fully underwritten life policies. A spokesman for Mutual of Omaha notes that the company still offers non-underwritten whole life policies to those over the age of 70. The squeeze made mainstream news when The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that consumers were being turned down. Life companies depend on predictable mortality tables to price products, a process that’s been turned upside down by the pandemic, said The American Council of Life Insurers. “There’s no question that COVID-19 has raised underwriting challenges,” said Whit Cornman, ACLI director of media relations. “Information from a variety of...

U.S. life insurance application activity was down 3% year-over-year in April, according to the MIB Life Index — the second consecutive month of decline. On a monthly basis, April is showing diminished activity from historical April volumes due to COVID-19, MIB said. Application activity in April was off -5.5% from that of March. Year-to-date, the MIB Life Index remains above par at 0.6%, but is well off its year-to-date peak of 4% at the close of February 2020. April’s Life Index age groups patterned much as they did in March with younger buyers, ages 0-44 off -0.7%; ages 45-59 showed improvement from March, off -2.4%; and ages 60+ showed further declines, off -9.7% year-over-year. April’s age groups distinctly display pandemic purchasing preferences with younger ages showing a greater comfort with online life insurance purchases, MIB said. There was a sharp dip in older buyers (60+), showing the impact of COVID-19 on face-to-face sales and product changes at carriers. Advertisement Ages 60+ led all other age groups in YOY application activity in 2019. Year-to-date, ages 0-44 are up 2.4%, ages 45-59 are off -1.1% and ages 60+ are off -1.7%. Read the original article at insurancenewsnet.com

Kelsey Rolfe | May 21, 2020 Defined contribution pension plan sponsors may face workforce planning challenges coming out of the coronavirus pandemic as older plan members whose account balances were hard hit by this year’s market volatility delay their retirements. “We saw a lot of presenteeism coming out of the [global financial crisis] — are we going to see that again?” asks Janet Rabovsky, an independent investment consultant. “[We could] see older workers not retiring when they should and basically stop the advancement for people that should be progressing in their career. . . . Certainly, all you need to do is go back to the recession [in] the late ’80s and early ’90s, where it was very difficult to get jobs; people went back to school because there was nothing out there. We saw some of that in the [global financial crisis] as well.” Read: 2020 CAP Member Survey: Retirement savings, financial well-being in the era of coronavirus In Benefits Canada‘s 2020 CAP Member Survey, plan members expressed concern for the impact of the coronavirus crisis on their savings and planned retirement age. Two in five (43 per cent) said the recent market downturn has impacted their target retirement age, with 12 per cent saying...

COVID-19 “accelerated the inevitable shift” toward using digital tools in the life insurance industry, said Susan Neely, CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers. Neely spoke during the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors’ Advocacy In Action Day on Wednesday. The pandemic is forcing everyone to take stock of what needs to change and what needs to stay the same, Neely said. As for the life insurance industry, the biggest change coming from COVID-19 will be a more sophisticated use of technology. “The world was headed toward pervasive e-signatures, e-notaries, online exams and CE,” she said. ACLI is advocating to make these temporary technological advances permanent, describing the current period as “a modernization phase of our regulatory environment.” These advances “will bring more products to more people,” Neely said. Despite the technological shift in an industry that was known for being slow to change, Neely said some things about the life insurance industry won’t change in the COVID-19 world. Advertisement “We will still be a people business,” she said. “And the battles will continue – we need to tell our story to policymakers to keep negative and onerous things from being laid on our industry.” Families and individuals...

Staff | May 20, 2020 The vast majority (96 per cent) of institutional investors feel they have an important role to play in addressing the world’s most pressing challenges, including climate change, social and economic inequality and the need for infrastructure development, according to a new survey by Natixis Investment Managers. About half (48 per cent) of survey respondents said institutional investors should put capital to work to address environmental, social and governance issues. The same amount said they should champion corporate governance including enhanced diversity and inclusion policies and practices, while slightly more (49 per cent) said they should use their investment clout to influence the companies in which they invest. Read: Coronavirus casting light on different ESG issues Two-thirds (65 per cent) of institutional investors said they believe ESG analysis has a valid place alongside fundamental investment analysis and 54 per cent said ESG is a method for discovering alpha. Some 70 per cent said they expect that using ESG will be standard practice in the investment industry within the next five years. Even so, 71 per cent said it remains difficult to evaluate which ESG data is material to investment analysis. Looking to asset classes, three-quarters (78 per cent) of survey respondents said they’re invested...

Staff | May 20, 2020 Competitive total rewards programs are a critical component of Canadian organizations’ human resources and corporate strategy, according to a new survey by WorldatWork. The survey, which polled 150 Canadian employers in February, found 96 per cent offer drug, dental, life insurance/accidental death and dismemberment, long-term disability and employee assistance programs. Additionally, 93 per cent of survey respondents offer vision benefits and 92 per cent offer short-term disability. While the survey found only five per cent of organizations offered unlimited paid-time-off programs, it’s likely this is because of government-mandated paid-time-off regulations, noted the survey. The law differs in each jurisdiction, but Canadian employees are generally entitled to sick and personal leave. And sick and personal leave beyond what’s required by law is the most popular paid-time-off policy, with 87 per cent of companies offering paid sick and personal leave pay. Read: A refresher on Canada’s leave policies as coronavirus escalates Performance-based merit systems are very common in Canada, as 90 per cent of companies have one in place. Additionally, 75 per cent of survey respondents said they offer individual performance-based incentives (cash bonuses). Only 10 per cent offer cash profit-sharing and only about half of companies offer long-term incentives with...

Staff | May 20, 2020 The Investment Management Corp. of Ontario is committing US$250 million to Apollo Global Management Inc.’s new Accord Fund III series B. The fund is focused on acquiring credits that have traded down due to liquidity-driven selling and non-economic reasons. “This is an example of IMCO adapting to market conditions and exploiting our liquidity very quickly so that clients have access to dislocated opportunities as they arise,” said Jennifer Hartviksen, managing director of global credit at the IMCO, in a press release. Read: IMCO reaches more than $70 billion AUM in 2019 Notably, the IMCO recently launched a global credit program with the aim of achieving higher risk-adjusted returns than traditional fixed income, as well as further diversification benefits. “As our program scales, we are initially relying on experienced strategic partners,” said Christian Hensley, senior managing director of private equities and credit at the IMCO, in the release. “The investment in this fund is an example of the types of opportunities we’re pursuing — investments with sponsors that we believe have deep expertise, delivering diversifying and differentiating exposures, who are transparent, opportunistic and value-oriented.” The IMCO’s global credit team closed the commitment with Apollo in April. Read: IMCO focusing on liquidity, cost-efficiency amid coronavirus crisis Read the...