Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Staff | November 18, 2019 The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is regrouping all of its private equity activities in Quebec and abroad under the leadership of Charles Émond, who has been appointed executive vice-president, Quebec, private equity and strategic planning. The move comes after Stephane Etroy decided to step down from his role as executive vice-president and head of international private equity to spend more time with his young family in London, England. Read: Caisse appoints two executives to key functions In the new role, Émond will continue to lead the Caisse’s investment strategy in Quebec, in addition to leading its private equity activities outside of the province. He was appointed executive vice-president of Quebec and global strategic planning in January 2019. Before joining the Caisse, Émond was at Scotiabank for more than 18 years, as head of Quebec’s investment banking group and more recently as global head of investment banking and Canadian corporate banking. Combining the private equity teams under one leadership will allow the Caisse to fully benefit from the expertise its teams have acquired over the years, in addition to making it easier to share best practices, noted a press release. Read: Caisse appoints Patrick De Roy as senior vice-president Read the full...

Staff | November 18, 2019 As the popularity of brand discount cards grows among Canadians, how much are people actually saving? And what’s the cost to insurers? In a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, researchers waded through 2.82 million prescriptions for 89 different medications for which patients used brand discount cards. It found patients saved seven per cent, or $3.49 per prescription, for using the cards. Notably, the study said the savings varied significantly between medications. Brand discount cards are growing throughout Canada. Patients can get them from several sources, including a physician’s office, and they are adjudicated at the pharmacy like an insurance plan to reduce how much an individual pays for the a branded product prescription. Read: 2019 Drug Plan Trends Report: What’s next for drug plans? The study found private insurance expenditures were 46 per cent higher when patients used brand discount cards than if they’d received comparable generic prescriptions. Public insurers were only slightly higher, at an increase of 1.3 per cent per prescription if patients used the discount cards. These elevated costs were consistent across the board, regardless of the medication, the study noted. “This increase in cost for the insurer occurs because the difference in cost between the branded product...

Julius Melnitzer | November 18, 2019 The Federal Court has certified a $100 million class action brought by former members of the Canadian Armed Forces reserves who alleged that the government illegally delayed their retirement benefits. “There were 1,300 complaints to the CAF ombudsman between 2006 and 2017,” says Adam Tanel, an associate at Koskie Minsky LLP and co-counsel for the class. The class action covers all members of the Reserve Force Pension Plan who were entitled upon release to immediate retirement benefits from March 1, 2007 to date. However, the precise size of the class won’t be determined until the federal government produces the relevant documents during the discovery process leading up to a trial or settlement. Read: Canadian Armed Forces sued for $100M over ‘chronic’ pension delays “What is known is that, when the administration of the plan was transferred from the armed forces to the public service in 2016, there was a backlog of 13,549 cases which had accumulated over a decade but which the new administration cleared in a year,” says Tanel. Jessica Lamirande, a spokesperson for the Department of National Defence, confirmed that no backlog currently exists. The service standard for commencement of pension payments was 45 days after retirement or...

A significant split opened up this week on applying tightened indexed universal life insurance illustration rules to in-force policies. A National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ subgroup is still working through the details, but has a mandate to clamp down on multipliers and bonuses that critics say enable insurers to get around Actuarial Guideline 49, approved in 2015. Whether it’s fair to apply the final changes to in-force illustrations produced much disagreement during an IUL Illustration Subgroup conference call this week. In late October, the Life Actuarial Task Force voted to add language tightening AG 49, leaving the details to the subgroup. The key wording is this: multipliers or other enhancements should not illustrate better than non-multiplier designs. ‘Create More Confusion’ Some say different illustrations on the same product will only confuse consumers. Vincent Tsang of the Illinois Department of Insurance said clients would be confused if their agents came back with a new illustration on a policy they already bought. Birny Birnbaum, executive director of the Center for Economic Justice, said the issue has already been decided by NAIC precedent, which requires application to in-force policies. “The whole purpose of these changes is to stop what people feel are misleading illustrations,”...

Staff | November 15, 2019 Digital mental-health platform Snapclarity is appointing Karen Steward as its chief commercial and health innovation officer. Previously, Adams was president of Cira Health Solutions and executive vice-president of marketing and business development at Morneau Shepell Ltd.  “Karen brings deep expertise in mental health and wellness and an understanding of how to scale a rapidly growing company that’s disrupting a market,” said Terri Storey, Snapclarity’s co-founder and chief executive officer. “Karen has driven the evolution of health care through innovation for more than 20 years and we’re very fortunate to have someone of her caliber leading our commercial team. She is passionate about our vision and will be critical in making change possible during this time of accelerated growth.” Read more People Watch news. Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com

Dan Healing, The Canadian Press | November 15, 2019 The former chief executive officer of the organization that would administer a separate Alberta pension plan says the proposed switch from the Canada Pension Plan doesn’t make much sense from an efficiency point of view. Leo de Bever, who retired from the Alberta Investment Management Corp. in 2015, says the threatened move by the Alberta government to pull out of the national plan is really about asserting the province’s place in the country in the face of opposition to pipelines for its vital oil and gas industry. “Look, it would be better if all of Canada had one plan, OK, from an efficiency point of view,” he said in an interview Thursday, noting there are economies of scale from having one investment manager. “But I think this is just a symptom of something much deeper. . . . If you’re invading our turf and telling us what we cannot do, then maybe we should take away some stuff that we’ve given to you to administer.” Read: Alberta launches panel to examine involvement in CPP, national pharmacare Last weekend, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney appointed a panel to conduct research and hold public meetings on independence-related topics including...

Staff | November 15, 2019 The Toronto Transit Commission has settled a 2016 lawsuit against its insurer for the alleged failure to detect a benefits fraud scheme involving orthotics store Healthy Fit Inc. To date, 10 people — nine former TTC employees and Healthy Fit owner Adam Smith — have been convicted in relation to the scheme. More than 250 TTC employees resigned or retired to avoid dismissal, or were dismissed outright, while an additional 14 were disciplined. “While terms of the settlement are confidential, the TTC is pleased to see this matter resolved in a way that allows both companies to move forward with a renewed commitment to preventing benefits fraud and penalizing those who commit it,” the TTC said in a press release. Read: TTC benefits case: Store owner sentenced to two years, Manulife facing lawsuit In 2016, the TTC sued its insurer Manulife Financial Corp. for allegedly not having appropriate fraud controls in place to detect unusual trends or patterns, seeking up to $5 million in damages for negligence, negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract for all losses incurred by the TTC. The benefits fraud scheme involved Healthy Fit issuing receipts to TTC employees for either inflated amounts or without delivering a product or service. The...

Martha Porado | November 15, 2019 With India attracting the attention of Canadian pension plans, what opportunities and risks exist in the country? Across all asset classes, 2018 saw US$47 billion in foreign investment transactions into India, according to Sanjeev Krishan, deals and private equity expert at PwC India, during the Canadian Investment Review’s podcast “Pension Passport.” And this year could very well surpass that number, he said, with US$21 billion in deals already completed in the first six months of 2019. Private assets are ripe for allocation by institutional investors, with opportunities to buy at a significant discount, said Krishan, referring specifically to infrastructure, renewables and real estate. Read: CPPIB invests in Indian logistics company But as with any market, India isn’t without its risks. Driven by the country’s strong consumer base, sectors like technology and health care are no longer especially cheap, said Krishan, noting pension plans looking to invest can consider adjacent sectors for a better deal. “For example they may be investing in e-commerce logistics [rather] than investing in e-commerce itself.” Deal hunting, or looking for stressed assets, is another area where pension plans might want to be cautious, he said, noting that, in recent years, regulatory roadblocks aimed at turning these assets around have been...

Nov. 15– A Stone Mountain woman was convicted this week of plotting to kill her husband on several different occasions, officials said. DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston’s office said she recruited people– including the victim’s own son– to kill her husband, Kentrick Lindo, 46.. The murder-for-hire plot stemmed from a 2011 incident during which Lindo… This article is available to INNsider Pro subscribers only. Sign in or register to be an INNsider Pro and access all locked articles. Read the original article at insurancenewsnet.com

Gazette (Colorado Springs, CO) Nov. 15–CRIPPLE CREEK — Blood found in Kelsey Berreth’s Woodland Park townhouse — on a toilet, a baby gate and underneath the living room floorboards — is almost certainly the missing woman’s, a DNA expert testified in the trial of the Florissant rancher accused of killing her. The testimony Wednesday buttressed allegations that Berreth, 29, was bludgeoned to death with a bat by her fiancee, Patrick Frazee, in her home on Thanksgiving Day last year, spattering blood all over. It came as prosecutors moved into a final phase of their case against Frazee, 33, sifting through DNA evidence and unveiling a possible motive for Berreth’s killing as they prepared to rest their case by Friday. Authorities believe that after Frazee beat Berreth to death he had his mistress clean up the blood before they both burned the body, which has not been found. Also on Wednesday, investigators said they could not link two tooth fragments found where they believe Berreth’s body was burned — the only body parts discovered so far — to Berreth. Both fragments appear to have been taken from a burn area where prosecutors say Frazee incinerated Berreth’s body in the driveway of...