Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Staff | April 3, 2020 Canada’s defined benefit plans have had a rough quarter. According to Aon’s median solvency ratio, DB plans fell to an average solvency of 89.1 per cent at the end of the first quarter, from 102.5 per cent at the end 2019. Mercer’s pension health index also dropped, from 112 per cent at the end of 2019 to 93 per cent at the end of the first quarter of 2020. Ten percentage points of that fall occurred in March alone. Declining bond yields pushed pension liabilities higher during the quarter, coupled with overall asset returns of negative 6.6 per cent on average, according to Aon. Global equity markets saw double-digit declines, with the S&P/TSX composite falling a dramatic 20.9 per cent. Read: Canadian DB plan solvency drops off coronavirus scare: reports “March might have been the cruelest month for equities, but we are not confident the volatility has ended,” said Erwan Pirou, Canada chief investment officer at Aon, in a press release. “In this environment, it makes sense for pension plan sponsors to consider rebalancing their portfolios to move back to their targets, although constrained liquidity conditions mean they should be very cautious in making trades. “Sponsors should also remain...

Kelsey Rolfe | April 3, 2020 Walmart Canada has introduced a free virtual health-care platform for employees in response to the coronavirus. The service, through EQ Care, has been available to about 90,000 full, part time and temporary employees from the retailer’s stores and head offices since last week. It had started looking at virtual care options in the fall of 2019, but the plan took on new urgency when the public health emergency set in. Walmart Canada worked with its third-party administrator, SEB Administrative Services Inc., as well as EQ Care to make the app available within two days. Read: Selection Group launches virtual care for staff during coronavirus With employees becoming frontline workers in the pandemic, there was a pressing need to make sure they felt safe and well, says Ashley Jones, senior director of total rewards and global mobility. “When we have such an unknown, in terms of day to day, how the health-care system is responding to support us as Canadians, it’s terrific that we . . . are able to deliver a program that will help our associates to get through and get the help they need so they can feel mentally and physically well to come to work.” The app will be...

Jennifer Paterson | April 3, 2020 MindBeacon is launching a new digital mental-health program, called Stronger Minds, to support all Canadians through heightened stresses related to the coronavirus pandemic. “We, as an organization, have been very committed to trying to make mental-health support accessible to Canadians,” says Claire Duboc, managing director of MindBeacon Group. “That’s been a reality, that many are dealing every day with diagnosable mental-health issues, and there needed to be more effective options to help overcome barriers to care. And that’s what we’ve done with Beacon — opened up a new option for people to get therapy in ways that work for them. That personalized, individualized approach was something that was much needed.” Read: How to support employees’ mental health during coronavirus The free program, available on April 6, is not meant to be a course of therapy, she notes. Instead, it will provide participants with day-to-day guidance from MindBeacon’s team of clinical psychologists, through short expert Q&A videos, quick reads and resilience-building activities, all focused on protecting people’s emotional well-being as the crisis progresses. “Really, with the COVID-19 crisis, all Canadians are struggling, not just the 20 per cent with diagnosable problems,” says Duboc. “What we wanted to do with Stronger Minds is...

By Lloyd Lofton Do not sell insurance in person. It isn’t a suggestion; it’s the law – at least in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf joined many other governors across the U.S. in issuing a stay-at-home order. COVID-19 is changing insurance agents’ selling habits. In 2010, the Affordable Care Act trained consumers to feel more comfortable entering their personal information in an online application and buying insurance virtually. Today the COVID-19 virus crisis is retraining agents and advisors to become more proficient selling virtually. With Pennsylvania’s “stay at home” order, the governor closed non-life-sustaining businesses. Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Jessica Altman said, among other things “While insurance is considered a life-sustaining business, especially during the unprecedented health crisis that we’re experiencing today, in-person sales and brokerage are not designated as life-sustaining, and have a detrimental effect on the safety and well-being of all Pennsylvanians.” Any agent or broker who violates the stay-at-home order will be reported by the department to the state police and may have their insurance license revoked if they repeatedly violate the order. How Ominous Is This For The Industry? It was Napoleon Hill who wrote, “Within every adversity is the seed to an equal or greater benefit.”...

A newly passed bill in Nova Scotia that restricts third-party trades in life insurance has unfairly limited policyholders’ options in unlocking the value of their policies, says one advocate. Kahan owns Ontario Life Line, an actuarial consulting practice which provides actuarial Fair Market Valuation of life policies for donations to charities. Aside from having a subsidiary company called Atlantic Life Line Ltd. that’s still active in Nova Scotia, he has been working to create a virtual online exchange to match private lenders with policyholders to be based in the province. “I’m concerned that [the policyholders] weren’t event consulted on whether they agreed [with this change],” Kahan said in an interview with Life and Health Professional. Under the provisions of Bill 238, which received royal assent on March 10, any person other than an insurer or its authorized agent who deals or trades in insurance for the purpose of procuring the sale of insurance to the person, among other types of transactions, is guilty of an offence. The bill affects a business model Kahan first introduced in the province in 1995, for which he requested and got a green light from Nova Scotia’s Superintendent of Insurance. “When I set up Canadian...

Foundation commits $2 million in donation matching to support charities across Canada through CanadaHelps’ COVID-19 Cause Funds Toronto, ON (Apr. 2, 2020) – At a time when charities dedicated to supporting COVID-19 relief efforts are struggling to keep up with demand, CanadaHelps, in partnership with Gore Mutual Foundation, is making it possible for Canadians to double the impact of their charitable donations. With a single donation, Canadians can support broad COVID-19 response efforts in Canada  through the newly launched CanadaHelps COVID-19 Cause Funds. Each donation to the Funds will be doubled by Gore Mutual Foundation which has committed $2 million in matching funds to be split between COVID-19 Community Care Fund and COVID-19 Healthcare and Hospital Fund. “Charities are critical in the response to  COVID-19, and play a crucial role both during a crisis and when we begin to recover afterwards. We are proud to provide a digital platform that enables Canadians to give safely, quickly and easily,” says Marina Glogovac, President and CEO of CanadaHelps. “Gore Mutual Foundation’s generous support, along with CanadaHelps’ innovative COVID-19 Cause Funds, means more money will get into the hands of Canadian charities quickly. Canadians will have a way to support all the charities...

Toronto, ON (Mar. 31, 2020) – As Canada and its health care system continue to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, Sun Life is taking action to help support Clients and Canadians in need of enhanced medical support while social distancing. Starting today, Sun Life is progressively rolling out free access to virtual health care services for its Group Benefits Clients with an Extended Health Care (EHC) benefit. In partnership with Dialogue, Clients will be able to use the virtual clinic to connect directly with a health care professional. The service – Lumino Health Virtual Care – is being offered free of charge for an initial period to support Clients through the global health crisis. Sun Life is including the service into Clients’ EHC Benefit, giving employers, employees and their families convenient access to health care, when and where they need it. Lumino Health Virtual Care brings the best of two offerings together – Lumino Health and Dialogue. Lumino Health is Sun Life’s online digital platform that connects Canadians with local health care providers, offers health-related content and shares innovative health solutions to help Canadians live healthier lives. The virtual care service will be powered by Dialogue, Canada’s leading telemedicine provider,...

Martha Porado | April 2, 2020 With a world in turmoil, some of Canada’s public pension plans and investment managers are considering how they can use their economic clout to help. The British Columbia Investment Management Corp. realized there was a responsibility in its staff working from home because of the coronavirus. Normally, staff are encouraged each year to take a day of paid leave to volunteer with a cause of their choice. “Since we’re all at home working, we can’t volunteer anymore,” says says Ben O’Hara-Byrne, external communication manager for the BCI. In a bid to replace that opportunity for charity, the BCI donated $75,000 to the Victoria Foundation’s Rapid Relief Fund, which will directly support those in the area where most BCI employees live. Read: How HSBC Bank Canada supports employee volunteering, charity work As the outbreak escalated, Gordon Fyfe, the BCI’s chief executive and investment officer, suggested employees add to the donation. “They were so impressed with the amount of employees that donated that the management team then donated an extra $50,000 of their own money to the same fund,” says O’Hara-Byrne. “So it was a total of $125,000 — $75,000 from BCI, $50,000 from management, as well a not-tabulated number donated by other...

Martha Porado | April 2, 2020 It normal circumstances, pension plan members don’t respond well to being inundated with information about their plans. Typically, a deluge of content can turn off plan members, says Jillian Kennedy, leader of defined contribution and financial wellness at Mercer Canada. But today’s circumstances are far from ordinary. “ Right now, you can’t over communicate.”  In 2008, the financial crisis gave plan sponsors some experience in how to communicate with members in a crisis, but the market fallout from the coronavirus pandemic is very different, she says. “This is something that’s personally affecting people. It’s emotional. It’s psychological. And we’re getting calls from employers saying they’re getting inundated with hundreds of requests from employees. So we knew pretty quickly that a macro communication was not going to be enough.” Read: Managing a capital accumulation plan through coronavirus To inform effective communications, plan sponsors can seek out reporting from their record keepers on how their members are reacting to the crisis, says Zaheed Jiwani, a principal at Eckler Ltd. “You can see how often they’re looking at their investments and how often they’re logging into the website and really just understanding what’s happening within your membership.” Other prudent information gathering in a crisis includes...

Staff | April 2, 2020 The Public Sector Pension Investment Board and the Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund Board have completed the purchase of all 30,000,000 common shares of AltaGas Canada Inc. Through the all-cash transaction, which was announced in October 2019, each share was sold for $33.50, coming to a total of $1.005 billion. AltaGas will now be known as TriSummit Utilities Inc. The two pension funds will also be sending representatives to join the company’s board of directors. From the PSP, Sam Langleben and Patrick Chabot, both directors of infrastructure investments, will join the board, along with Jason Munsch, head of infrastructure at the ATRF. Read: PSP, Alberta Teachers’ to buy Canadian natural gas and renewables company “I am pleased to see good continuity with the board of directors and management and welcome the new directors,” said David Cornhill, chair of the AltaGas Canada board, in a press release. “Finally, I would like to congratulate the team at [AltaGas Canada], PSP Investments and ATRF on the completion of the arrangement, which I believe is a positive outcome for all stakeholders.” PSPIB Cycle Investments Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of TriSummit Cycle Holding Inc., made the purchase. Both companies were set up for this arrangement. The PSP holds a majority indirect economic interest in TriSummit Cycle Holding Inc, while the...