Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

PR Newswire On Thursday, Allianz SE and Microsoft Corp. announced a strategic partnership focused on digitally transforming the insurance industry, making the insurance process easier while creating a better experience for insurance companies and their customers. Through the strategic partnership, Allianz will move core pieces of its global insurance platform, Allianz Business System (ABS), to Microsoft’s Azure cloud and will open-source parts of the solution’s core to improve and expand capabilities. Syncier will offer a configurable version of the solution called ABS Enterprise Edition to insurance providers as a service, allowing them to benefit from one of the most advanced and comprehensive insurance platforms in the industry, reducing costs and centralizing their insurance portfolio management. This will increase efficiencies across all lines of insurance business, resulting in better experiences through tailored customer service and simplified product offerings. “Teaming up with Microsoft and leveraging Azure’s secure and trusted cloud platform will support us in digitalizing the insurance industry,” said Christof Mascher, COO and member of the Board of Management of Allianz SE. “Through this partnership, Allianz and Syncier strive to offer the most advanced Insurance as a Service solutions on Microsoft Azure. The ABS Enterprise Edition is an exciting opportunity, both...

Staff | November 13, 2019 Half (50 per cent) of employees said they considered their employer’s reputation for charitable and community work before accepting their position, according to a new survey by Imagine Canada. Its annual corporate community investment report, which surveyed more than 1,500 private sector employees, found 28 per cent of employee respondents would be willing to take a pay decrease to work for a company more strongly committed to community service. Read: How to tie workplace philanthropy into employee engagement, wellness Among employee respondents who believe their company is highly committed to community, 86 per cent said they’re extremely or very likely to stay in their job for the next two years. More than half (59 per cent) said they’re very likely to recommend their company to others. And 47 per cent said they strongly agree they share a common social purpose with their company. “This report sends a nuanced message,” says Bruce MacDonald, president and chief executive officer at Imagine Canada. “Employees who believe their company is genuinely committed to community are more likely to stay; more likely to be loyal; more likely to share common purpose and more likely to recommend their company to others. But the research also...

Staff | November 13, 2019 The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association has published a guide to help health-care providers and patients understand private health insurance. The guide, released during financial literacy month, was produced with the Extended Healthcare Professionals Coalition, a group that represents medical professionals, including psychologists, physiotherapists, audiologists, occupational therapists, chiropractors and pharmacists, among others. It’s geared toward helping health-care providers understand the services covered through private plans so they can support their patients. The guide describes the types of benefits plans available to patients through their employers and how these plans work. It also explains health-care spending accounts and outlines many other terms and concepts used by health insurers. Read: CLHIA withdraws compensation disclosure guideline “In order to provide the best care possible, many health-care providers want to be able to help their patients identify whether coverage is available, the amount of available coverage, what is eligible to be claimed and even [contact] insurance companies on their behalf,” said Stephen Frank, the CLHIA’s president and chief executive officer, in a press release. “The guide is intended to make those questions easier to answer.” The CLHIA said it plans to update the guide with new information on an as-needed basis and will continue...

New SMA Blog by Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action — Insurance fraud has been around since – well – the beginning of insurance. The ancient Greeks created a form of maritime insurance to indemnify against potential losses incurred with the sinking of a commercial ship in transit. It became a common scheme for the boat owner to hide the boat in a foreign port and collect the insurance money. Even in those early times, special investigators were hired to determine if the boat had indeed sunk. Fast-forward to the present, and for the last few decades, the industry has been using increasingly sophisticated technology to address fraud. So, is it useful to ask what is really different now? My answer is yes. There are several transformational technologies that can change the game for fraud detection. For example, machine learning, social media, and aerial imagery can all contribute to new solutions. All of these generate and rely on massive amounts of data, including many new data sources. Whether we are talking about opportunistic fraud or organized crime rings, these technology areas provide terrific new opportunities to combat fraud. Of course, fraud may occur during the underwriting OR the claims process....

Latest Aite Group report explains why vulnerability management is a complex and resource-intensive part of security operations Boston, MA (Oct. 15, 2019) – Cybersecurity vulnerability management is the art of identifying, remediating, or mitigating risks posed by hardware and software across an enterprise. Effective vulnerability management includes measurement, process improvement, and timely reporting to allow an organization to regularly assess cyber risk as part of overall enterprise risk. Aite Group’s latest report, Vulnerability Management: Take Your Program to the Next Level, highlights the extreme complexity and often fragmented approach to cybersecurity vulnerability management at midsize and large financial services organizations around the world. “Hardware and software vulnerabilities can present significant risk to an organization and allow attackers a path to broader and more damaging actions,” states Joseph Krull, senior analyst at Aite Group. “Vulnerability management is not a siloed security challenge—it requires the active and committed involvement of executives and staff across the entire enterprise,” he explains. This report examines the essential components of an effective vulnerability management program, provides some suggestions on how programs can be enhanced, and examines some methods (and tricks) to address today’s challenges in the vulnerability management process. It is based on the author’s experience...

Finder officially launches in Canada with local headquarters in Toronto Canadian partners include TD Bank, BMO and The Bay Plans for Canadian growth over the next 12 months Toronto, ON (Nov. 12, 2019) – Global financial comparison website Finder is pleased to announce it is officially launching operations in Canada this month with local headquarters near Liberty Village in Toronto. The company has already secured partnerships with major financial institutions including AMEX, TD Bank, BMO, Fairstone and Mogo, as well as with leading retailers The Bay, Walmart and Zara. Over the next year, Finder will continue to bring more partners on board with a focus on mortgages, insurance and digital banking products. Fred Schebesta, Co-founder of Finder, said Canada is an exciting market for the brand. “The comparison market in Canada is less established than in countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, and we think there’s a huge opportunity to help Canadians make better financial decisions,” he said. “Canadians owe a combined $2.16 trillion in debt and households are only putting 14.9% of their disposable income toward principal and interest payments. That’s almost on par with the peak debt servicing levels we saw in 2007 in the...

Toronto, ON (Nov. 13, 2019) – CSIO is pleased to announce that the Commercial Lines Working Group has reached another milestone, finalizing a standard set of questions required for underwriting small contractor new business submissions. This is a significant step in implementing Commercial Lines Data Standards in the broker channel because it allows for frictionless data exchange between insurer and broker systems. This seamless interaction and structured data will enable CSIO members to automate aspects of commercial insurance underwriting while also advancing real-time quote functionalities. These finalized questions are critical for insurers to determine the appropriate industry group classification required to rate a risk. Once implemented by vendors, a broker can easily provide answers to a standardized set of questions captured in their BMS based on the applicant’s operation. As a result, brokers will be able to approach multiple markets for a quote with the same information, reducing the amount of double-entry and freeing up their time to spend on higher value-client activities. These questions become a harmonized extension of the minimum data set. The data set, established in November 2018, provides a foundation for carriers to underwrite commercial risks, regardless of complexity and size. “I’m thrilled that this Working...

MILWAUKEE, Nov. 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — A new release of findings from Northwestern Mutual’s C.A.R.E. (Costs, Accountabilities, Realities, Expectations) Study reveals the degree to which caring for a friend or loved one can shift work responsibilities and overall career paths. Two-thirds of caregivers (66%) are working while also providing care, and likewise, nearly two in three (62%) caregivers say their caregiving responsibilities are impacting their work and professional lives. A closer look at the generational breakdown shows a more pronounced impact on younger generations that are still in their prime working years: nearly three-quarters of Millennials (73%) and Gen Xers (75%) report balancing caregiving and employment, the highest across the generations. Both note that caregiving has an impact on their careers, at 70% and 69% respectively. “Caregiving has real, day-to-day and long-term implications for all aspects of people’s lives – emotionally, practically and financially. While we know that most caregivers embrace their responsibilities, it doesn’t negate the effects on their own career and earnings trajectories,” says Dave Simbro, senior vice president, risk products, Northwestern Mutual. “Beyond the day-to-day impact, caregiving can have repercussions for people’s careers that may not be fully understood until much later, which is why planning around...

BOSTON – Nov. 13, 2019 – One-third of 65-year-olds will likely live past 90, but many are underfunded for that long a life span and their families are often not prepared to cover the gap.  Launched today, AgeUp is a new product designed to provide financial protection for the adult children of the boomer generation who are concerned about their parents outliving their financial resources. AgeUp is issued by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) and was developed by Haven Life Insurance Agency (Haven Life), MassMutual’s in-house startup. “Traditional life insurance protects people from the financial strain of loved ones dying sooner than expected. AgeUp is the opposite: It protects people from the financial strain of helping support a loved one who outlives his or her resources,” said Blair Baldwin, General Manager for the AgeUp product. AgeUp was developed by a group that is uniquely qualified to help protect Americans from outliving their retirement resources.  Baldwin’s team was acquired by Haven Life with a mission to rethink the buying experience for longevity products and, specifically, how income annuitization can help address the financial concerns of future retirees. The AgeUp team developed what they believe is a first-of-its-kind annuity product that...

Staff | November 13, 2019 Four in five (80 per cent) global institutional investors are planning to significantly or moderately increase their allocations to investments in China over the next 12 months, according to a survey commissioned by Invesco. The survey of 411 asset owners and institutional investors from North America, Asia Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa, found that, in comparison, only four per cent are planning to reduce their exposure to China. Nearly 90 per cent of respondents have investments — including equities, fixed income or alternative assets — that are deliberately China-specific and not part of a broader regional grouping or some other subcategory. As for the 10 per cent without a China-specific allocation, two-thirds said they still pursued China exposure through a broader global, Asia or emerging-market basket of investments. Read: Are tensions between China and the U.S at trade war level yet? “The findings are promising and support our view that China’s massive growth and continuing efforts to allow greater access to its markets represents a significant and increasingly attractive opportunity for both domestic and global investors,” said Marty Flanagan, president and chief executive officer of Invesco, in the report. According to respondents without a dedicated China allocation, the...