Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Staff | November 21, 2019 Morneau Shepell Ltd. is appointing Neil King as executive vice-president and president of LifeWorks, effective Jan. 1, 2020, as Rita Fridella retires at the end of 2019. In the role, King will also take direct responsibility for all of sales and marketing activities for LifeWorks, a group that currently reports to Jamie True. True will focus on his role as chief digital officer and executive vice-president, according to a note from Stephen Liptrap, the company’s president and chief executive officer. With more than 10 years at Morneau Shepell, King was most recently U.S. chief commercial officer. Previous roles include senior vice-president of business development at LifeWorks and senior vice-president of sales for U.S. administrative solutions. Before he joined the consultancy, he worked at ADP and Wolters Kluwer Health. Read: What you don’t know about your employee assistance program Fridella joined Morneau Shepell in 1980 as its first employee assistance program counsellor, a position she held for seven years. After 20 years as president and executive coach at 20/20 Corporate Coaching, she returned to the company in 2001 as vice-president of operations and chief clinician for its employee support solutions business. Since then, she’s held successive leadership roles within the business. “Some of her greatest accomplishments here at Morneau Shepell included the work she did...

Ontario mutual insurer to leverage EY-hosted Guidewire Core and Data products to improve operational efficiencies and accelerate business growth Waterloo, ON (Nov. 20, 2019) – Heartland Farm Mutual, Inc., an Ontario-based mutual insurer, and Guidewire Software, Inc., provider of the industry platform Property and Casualty (P&C) insurers rely upon, today announced that Heartland Farm Mutual has selected Guidewire InsurancePlatform™ products to modernize its infrastructure and transform the way it does business. The company will be deploying the products in an EY iNexus private cloud, with implementation, ongoing services, and support provided by EY, a Guidewire PartnerConnect™ Consulting Premier member. Heartland Farm Mutual plans to implement all of the products simultaneously across all lines of business in Ontario. Heartland Farm Mutual selected Guidewire InsuranceSuite™, Guidewire Client Data Management™, Guidewire Rating Management™, and Guidewire Reinsurance Management™ as its new systems for policy administration, underwriting, claims, billing, client data, rating, and reinsurance management. The company also selected the Guidewire Digital™ applications Guidewire ProducerEngage™ and Guidewire VendorEngage™ to offer a seamless, omnichannel digital experience to its agents, brokers, and vendors. In addition, Heartland Farm Mutual selected Guidewire DataHub™ and Guidewire InfoCenter™ as its enterprise-wide data management and analytics systems. “We selected Guidewire to help...

Toronto, ON (Nov. 21, 2019) – Apollo Exchange has been nominated in the Best Innovation category in the 17th annual Small Business BC Awards. The Small Business BC Awards recognize the contributions and achievements of BC small business owners. The Best Innovation Award recognizes businesses that develop advanced or innovative technologies to meet the needs of industry in B.C. These businesses contribute to making the province a strong and rapidly growing innovation economy, and create a positive impact in their industry and community. “We are proud of the advancements Apollo has made not only as a small business ourselves, but in advocating for and initiating a modern insurance buying process for small businesses across BC and Canada,” said Apollo CEO Jeff McCann. “We believe in supporting the broker channel, and many of the insurance brokerages who leverage the Exchange are small businesses themselves.” There are 8 award categories in total. To be eligible for the Best Innovation Award, nominees must have been in operation for a minimum of 12 months in BC. All nominees must have less than 50 employees. Vote For Apollo To vote for Apollo, visit sbbcawards.ca/award/innovation/apollo-exchange/. The winners will be announced at the 2020 Small Business BC...

The cost of a first-time ticket will more than double; repeat offenders to pay even more Regina, SK (Nov. 1, 2019) – Drivers in Saskatchewan who make the unsafe decision to drive while distracted will soon be paying more for a ticket, with escalating fines for repeat offences within a 12-month period. Changes take effect Feb. 1, 2020. Driver distraction or inattention is one of the top causes of collisions, injuries and fatalities on Saskatchewan roads. In 2018, it was a factor in more than 6,000 collisions, 774 injuries and 22 deaths. “Enough is enough,” Minister Responsible for SGI Joe Hargrave said. “Despite increased enforcement by police and significant awareness efforts by SGI, 22 people lost their lives on Saskatchewan roads in 2018 due to distracted driving or inattention. That is 22 deaths too many.” Currently, a distracted driving ticket[1] costs the recipient $280 plus four demerits, with vehicle seizures for repeat offenders. Starting Feb. 1, 2020, the cost of a ticket will more than double, and the cost of subsequent tickets will escalate. Here are the consequences distracted drivers can expect: First offence – $580 ticket plus four demerits. Second offence within a year of being convicted of the...

New quarterly report and webinar series on intersection of legal compliance and technology strategy for insurers; open webinar on January 9th: New report by Novarica and Locke Lord LLP Boston, MA (Nov. 21, 2019) – Insurers need an integrated cybersecurity and data privacy strategy with a CISO at the helm to contend with the growing number regulations, and an open dialogue with regulators about innovation, according to Insurance Technology Strategy and Regulatory Compliance, Vol. 2, the second of a new quarterly series by Locke Lord LLP, a full-service global law firm, and Novarica, a research and advisory firm for insurer IT leaders. This edition reviews: Similarities and differences between NYDFS Cybersecurity Regulation and NAIC Data Security Model Law Recent updates to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 Potential innovation opportunities and limitations surrounding insurance regulatory sandboxes “Regulators seem to be in a constant game of cat and mouse with carrier innovation, and finding a balance is something legislators continue to struggle with,” said Mitch Wein, Senior Vice President of Research and Consulting at Novarica and co-author of the new report. “New products and increased consumer data collection are exacerbating the relationship between innovation and regulation. Carriers find it best...

Clients to gain greater insight into effectiveness of cybersecurity investments New York, NY (Nov. 19, 2019) – Marsh, the world’s leading insurance broker and risk adviser, is pleased to announce the launch of an enhanced suite of cyber risk quantification consulting capabilities that offer clients new insight into the impact of their cybersecurity investments. The enhanced consulting capabilities are powered by Blue[i] Cyber, a new cyber risk analytics engine that integrates Marsh’s market-leading cyber risk quantification models with X-Analytics, Secure Systems Innovation Corporation’s patented cyber risk model for which Marsh is the exclusive insurance broker and risk consulting provider. With these enhanced cyber risk consulting capabilities, Marsh clients for the first time will be able to quickly and easily: Evaluate the effectiveness of cybersecurity controls and prioritize risk mitigation accordingly. Engage in data-driven “what-if” scenarios to evaluate existing and future cyber investments. Evolve cybersecurity from technical jargon to a board-level conversation. Meet cyber risk disclosures and reporting requirements more easily. Use financial analysis of cyber risk exposure to inform their risk management strategies, including risk mitigation and risk transfer decisions. “Although cyber often ranks high on risk agendas, many organizations struggle to understand how their cybersecurity strategy impacts their financial...

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–New York Life, America’s largest mutual life insurer, today announced that the company expects to pay eligible participating policy owners a dividend payout of $1.9 billion in 2020, the largest in the company’s history. This record milestone will mark the 166th consecutive year that New York Life has paid a dividend to policy owners, underscoring the company’s continued financial strength. New York Life is the only major U.S. mutual life insurance company to declare a record total dividend payout in each of the last six years. According to Chairman and CEO Ted Mathas, “New York Life’s record total dividend payout exemplifies our ongoing commitment to our noble purpose as a mutual company and to delivering long-term value to our policy owners. As we prepare to celebrate New York Life’s first 175 years in 2020, we continue to deliver on our promises by investing wisely, building on our financial strength, and ensuring our policy owners’ interests are fully aligned with our mission of providing financial security and peace of mind.” The dividend payout declared for 2020 highlights the strategic benefits of the company’s commitment to human guidance which is delivered in communities across the U.S. by New York Life’s...

Staff | November 21, 2019 Roughly 3,200 Canadian National Railway Co. workers are on strike with outstanding issues including time-off provisions and lifetime caps on certain benefits. The strike, which began at midnight on Nov. 19, has seen conductors, train personnel and yard workers represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference pushing for further bargaining progress on these issues and others, including safety and fatigue. Specific to benefits, the company wants to implement a lifetime cap on prescription drug benefits, which would be “tantamount to denying workers — and their families — proper treatment for some forms of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and other diseases,” according to the union. Read: Saskatchewan school support workers could strike over unused sick leave retirement benefits “CN is telling our members that they are facing tough times, but the reality is that they made over $3.8 billion in the third quarter of 2019,” said Lyndon Isaak, president of the TCRC. “They should be ashamed to be pleading poverty.” Meanwhile, an update from CN Rail highlighted improvements made to workers’ compensation and benefits established in other recent negotiations. The company said, in agreements made with other unions earlier this year, it made adjustments to annual compensation at rates better than inflation in 10 out of 11 agreements....

Staff | November 21, 2019 Millennials appear to understand how to use fixed income as part of investing for retirement better than older generations, according to a new survey by BNY Mellon Investment Management. The survey, which polled more than 2,000 American adults about the appropriate time to add fixed income to an investment portfolio, found 45 per cent of baby boomers said they didn’t know, compared with 36 per cent of millennials. Notably, more millennials (43 per cent) said they currently have fixed income in their portfolios compared to baby boomers (32 per cent). Read: How is fixed income faring amid renewed market volatility? Most of the survey respondents said they fundamentally misunderstood how fixed income can be used. Some 80 per cent of baby boomers said fixed income is only meant to be used for retirement planning, while 70 per cent of millennials and generation X said the same. Three-quarters (76 per cent) of baby boomers said they believe all bonds carry the same level of risk, while 65 per cent of millennials agreed. “This research demonstrates that, regardless of age, there remains confusion around fixed income investing, as well as the important role it can play in long-term financial planning,” said Liz Young, director...

Staff | November 20, 2019 The University Pension Plan is appointing Gale Rubenstein as the inaugural chair of its board of trustees. The UPP will be the province’s first jointly sponsored defined benefit plan on its official registration date of Jan. 1, 2020. The plan will involve sponsorship from the University of Toronto, University of Guelph and Queen’s University, along with the relevant local chapters of the United Steelworkers and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, as well as faculty associations. “I am delighted to take on this role with the UPP,” said Rubenstein, a partner at Goodmans LLP, in a press release. “I look forward to building relationships of trust with all stakeholders. Working together, we will create a sustainable defined benefit pension plan that will be there for generations of university sector employees to come.” Read: Employee groups from Ontario universities vote to form new joint pension Once the plan is up and running, which is anticipated to be around July 1, 2021, the UPP’s asset base will be more than $10 billion. The pension will also be open for other Ontario universities to join. During 30 years at Goodmans, Rubenstein has worked extensively in corporate restructuring, pensions and regulatory matters, including negotiations with the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan,...