Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Half of all consumers are interested in increasing or buying life insurance, but they are 90% certain that they don’t want to do business face-to-face. That is according to a survey conducted at the end of March, as COVID-19 and lockdowns were spreading nationally. Young people were also more interested in life insurance. With 37% of respondents age 18 to 39 likely to buy or increase life insurance, they doubled the percentage of those 40 and over who were interested in buying or increasing at 19%. Nearly nine out of 10 consumers of all ages did not want to go to an agent’s office, with 89% saying they would shop online. But when it came to filling out documents, only 8.95% of the respondents said they were OK with going to an office. Advertisements Consumers at that time were already cutting expenses, with 64.5% trimming their personal spending. Even at that point, they were not likely to have many spending opportunities, considering 82% were afraid to leave their homes. More than half (56%) were worried about their finances. In that first month of lockdowns, 24% contacted insurance across all lines with concerns about coverage. Only 27% were considering reducing their...

As the continuing pandemic creates a challenging environment for life insurers, Sun Life has hiked premium rates on some of its life insurance and critical illness policies, with some increases reaching 27% for new applicants. As per a release published on March 19, the company said it is raising level COI rates on its SunUnivesalLife II policies by an average of 5%, with limited pay COI rates increasing by an average of 23%. Sun Permanent Life plans, meanwhile, are seeing life pay rates increased by an average of 7%, with limited pay rates being hiked by an average of 27%. Focusing on Sun Critical Illness Insurance life pay and limited pay plans, the company said it is raising adult T75 and T100 rates by 10% for base coverage, return of premium on death, and return of premium on cancellation/expiry. The statement also indicated that maximum coverage amounts would be increased to $3 million, with special quotes available for coverage over $2 million. Citing CIBC World Markets analyst Paul Holden, Reuters said that the higher levels of increases to life insurance premiums apply to more specialized products. The move has taken place as record-low interest rates soften the potential returns of...

While life insurance is certainly a valuable product for Canadians to own, unlocking its value can be challenging. Policy owners can find it hard to collect benefits, even when they’re really needed; loans or cash surrender transactions are available to certain permanent life policyholders, but they can only get a fraction of the full monetary value of their policies. Karen Crozier wants to change that. “From talking to different stakeholders, I really saw this need to educate consumers and bring a new perspective,” said the founder of the Ontario-based Canadian Association for Life Insurance Policyholders (CALIP). “While we already have other stakeholder groups representing the interests of Canadian retirees, this is an issue that I think they haven’t really highlighted.” With a mission to be life insurance policyholders’ voice for choice, CALIP has launched its own website www.calip.ca, and has already opened chapters across the country through grassroots initiatives in each of the provinces. Crozier identified Nova Scotia as a priority jurisdiction, as it recently amended its insurance act to prohibit policyholders from engaging in any transactions with their life policies, unless it’s with the issuing company or one of its authorized agents. “We understand that the industry is concerned...

U.S. health insurers will likely remain profitable despite the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and its financial impact, Moody’s Investors Service said in a new report. However, U.S. life insurers could face some financial challenges, the analysts said in a separate report. Health Insurers’ Outlook Optimistic In looking at health insurers, although Moody’s had an optimistic view of their financial situation, the analysts cautioned that health insurers could experience lower revenues, tighter cash flows and declining enrollments as a recession emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic. “We devised three scenarios to assess possible impacts from the coronavirus: mild, medium and severe, with assumed infection rates of 2%, 10% and 40% of the US population, respectively,” vice president – senior credit officer Dean Ungar said. “While developing these scenarios we factored in assumptions regarding infection rates, testing rates, and outpatient versus inpatient needs.” The scenarios were further broken down to factor inpatient needs by intensive care unit, ICU with a ventilator and non-ICU admittance as well as outpatient services such as telehealth and urgent care amenities. Moreover, these were assumptions were customized for each customer type. For example, hospitalization rates for the Medicare population were significantly higher than those of non-Medicare patients, as COVID-19...

Staff | April 21, 2020 Morneau Shepell Ltd. and fitness app Lift are partnering to add artificial intelligence-based fitness programs and live coaches to Morneau Shepell’s LifeWorks well-being platform. Through the platform, plan members will be able to access virtual fitness programs built for their personal goals using AI. They will also be able to receive live virtual coaching and can join live group or one-on-one online training sessions.  “LIFT’s virtual fitness can help people maintain good physical health even when their normal routines are disrupted, as we are currently seeing worldwide in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Neil King, president of LifeWorks and executive vice-president at Morneau Shepell, in a press release. Read: How workplace fitness can improve employee productivity The consultancy also released its monthly mental-health index report, which found Canadians in the Prairies have seen the largest declines in their mental health and well-being since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. According to the index, the largest mental-health declines against the benchmark of 75 were in Alberta (-14.3), Manitoba (-13.5) and Saskatchewan (-12.9). The Maritimes (-12.4), Quebec (-12.2), British Columbia (-11) and Newfoundland and Labrador (-10.9) also saw notable declines, while Ontario had the smallest drop at -10.7. Looking at individual households, women were more likely to...

Toronto, ON (Apr. 21, 2020) – Apollo Insurance Solutions Ltd. (“Apollo Exchange”), Canada’s largest online insurance marketplace, has partnered with Berkley Canada, a niche Specialty Insurer, to offer a bind online Life Agents Errors & Omissions (E&O) insurance solution on the Apollo Exchange platform. The latest insurance solution to be added onto the Apollo Exchange platform is for licensed life agents and licensed accident and sickness agents, with limits up to $2 million. Premium starts at $495, and brokers receive 20% commission. The product is live and available to Apollo Exchange’s network of over 160 property and casualty brokerages. “We saw a lot of demand for this product from our broker network, and our partners at Berkley Canada put together a really great digital product,” said Apollo Exchange CEO Jeff McCann. “Berkley Canada has been a great partner of ours since we launched their first product, a Tech E&O package, last year — their dedication to the digital channel is admirable.” As with every Apollo Exchange product, the entire process, from quoting, binding coverage, and issuing policy documents is immediate, online, and paper free. In addition, life agents have the option to pay for the policy in 12 equal monthly...

In order to talk to prospective customers, marketers have to deploy and orchestrate a full suite of digital media to raise brand awareness, drive sales, and retain customers: Novarica Boston, MA (Apr. 21, 2020) – Insurance companies are increasingly leveraging digital marketing technologies (MarTech) across a range of functions beyond customer acquisition, including customer and distributor experience management in processes from new business to claims. In a new report, MarTech in Insurance, research and advisory firm Novarica explores the full suite of marketing technology solutions that deploy, manage, analyze, and improve digital marketing capabilities for insurance companies across the value chain. “It has now become possible for insurers to orchestrate and personalize every touchpoint that an agent or customer has with the brand,” said Paul Legutko, VP of Digital Marketing and Analytics, and lead author of Novarica’s new report. “But this requires a real partnership between marketing, distribution, customer experience, analytics, and IT in order to engineer these journeys seamlessly and effectively.” Click here for the table of contents or to access the report. Report Summary Adjacent to the systems within the Novarica Core Systems Map are a set of technologies, platforms, and processes that power digital marketing. These solutions...

Covid-19 pandemic underscores challenges for life insurers Palo Alto, CA (Apr. 20, 2020) – Omniscience is pleased to announce a new software suite that will, for the first time, automate life insurance underwriting decision-making by taking into account the many layers of complexity, breadth of data, and need for immediacy that modern providers face. Specifically, by using new underlying technology from Omniscience, this suite can accelerate life insurance decisions 1000 times or more and integrate requirements impacting the whole company in every result. The issues facing life insurance underwriting have grown exponentially over the past few years. These result from the constantly updated availability of data from diverse sources, the evolving regulatory environment in each country, and market growth. Simultaneous to this, the number of experienced underwriters has not grown at the same rate. The Covid-19 pandemic has multiplied the factors companies need to account for in their current environment. “Our customers, many of whom are in Asia, are reporting that they are experiencing a dramatic increase in their workloads,” said Sunil Rawat, Co-founder and CEO of Omniscience. “There are both many more claims due to the pandemic and more applications for life insurance than in the past.” This change...

The global pandemic has altered driving behaviors and exposed a need for a more flexible, data-driven, pay-as-you-go auto insurance model Waterloo, ON (Apr. 21, 2020) – IMS, a subsidiary of Trak Global Group (TGG) and one of the world’s top three providers of connected car data solutions to insurers, mobility operators and governments, is pleased to announce the availability of a usage-based insurance (UBI) program model for North American insurers that enables the implementation of a mileage-based UBI product in just a matter of weeks. “Recent world events and resulting economic pressures have highlighted the importance of auto insurers being able to offer their customers a flexible product that allows them to only pay for what they use – essentially, a ‘pay as you go’, mileage-based insurance program,” said Nino Tarantino, CEO of IMS (Americas). “We have already launched a number of successful programs with carriers, creating a variety of customer propositions and using a wide range of low-cost telematic sensors to collect the necessary data. There is both proven and growing demand for this kind of solution, so the fact that we can offer insurers speed-to-market will be critical.” During the COVID-19 crisis, global driving patterns have been significantly...

Staff | April 21, 2020 Equitable Life Insurance Co. of Canada is offering premium relief for all of its traditional and myFlex group plans for health and dental benefits. Since many health practitioners have closed their offices due to the coronavirus pandemic restrictions, plan member use of dental benefits and some health benefits has declined. As a result, Equitable Life is applying a 50 per cent reduction on dental premiums and a 20 per cent reduction on vision and extended health-care rates (excluding prescription drugs), which is an eight per cent reduction on health premiums. Read: Manulife cutting group benefits plan premiums for May The reductions, which are retroactive to April 1, 2020, will appear as a credit against plan sponsors’ next available billing. In addition, Equitable Life will assess the situation on a monthly basis and expects to continue with monthly refunds for as long as the crisis period continues. “We know this is a difficult time for Canadian employers and that many of our clients are facing financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dave Bennett, senior vice-president of group at Equitable Life, in a press release. “We continue to look for ways to help employers manage while still supporting...