Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Staff | November 8, 2019 Hub International Ltd. has acquired the assets of Winnipeg-based benefits consulting firm W.R. Carey Corp. W.R. Carey provides a wide range of programs to employers, including benefits plan consulting and group retirement services. Bill Carey, the firm’s president, and all of its employees will join Hub International Manitoba Ltd. Read: Hub acquiring Alberta-based employee benefits consultancy “Carey Corp. has an excellent and established reputation as an employee benefits consultant and broker, with over 30 years of experience,” said Keith Jordan, president and chief executive officer of Hub Manitoba, in a press release. “They will further expand our platform to deliver a best-in-class employee benefits service to our clients.” Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com

Betterview’s three-year commercial agreement with Betterview to use its proprietary computer vision & machine learning technologies deepens relationship with original venture capital investor Columbus, OH (Nov. 7, 2019) – Betterview, which is quickly becoming the platform essential to every transaction around buildings and properties, and Nationwide today announced a three-year commercial agreement enabling the insurance carrier to utilize Betterview’s predictive roof analytics and risk management platform for commercial property renewals. The partnership demonstrates a deepened relationship between Betterview and Nationwide, after the insurer made its initial investment in the artificial intelligence-powered startup in May 2018. Betterview’s predictive analytics for buildings and properties uses proprietary computer vision, machine learning and data science to help predict the likelihood of a claim on residential and commercial roofs. “Nationwide recognized the potential of Betterview’s insights around roof imagery and the data stream that flows from their machine learning platform, which is why we made our initial investment last year,” said Eric Smith, senior vice president of Commercial Lines at Nationwide. “This three-year agreement will enable us to add Betterview’s predictive analytics into our underwriting operations. Going forward, we’ll be able to leverage our underwriting expertise and talent where it is needed most – on...

Manitoba-based independent employee benefits consulting firm Hub’s latest acquisition Chicago, IL (Nov. 8, 2019) – Hub International Limited (Hub), a leading global insurance brokerage, announced today that it has acquired the assets of W.R. Carey Corporation (Carey Corp). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Carey Corp is an independent employee benefits consulting firm providing a broad array of benefits programs, including benefits plan consulting and group retirement services. Bill Carey, an actuary, along with all the employees of Carey Corp will join Hub International Manitoba Limited (Hub Manitoba). “Carey Corp has an excellent and established reputation as an employee benefits consultant and broker, with over 30 years of experience,” said Keith Jordan, President and CEO of Hub Manitoba. “They will further expand our platform to deliver a best-in-class employee benefits service experience to our clients.” The move continues to reinforce Hub’s ongoing Canadian employee benefits growth and services strategy[1] to expand its best-in-class employee benefits and pension solution to address the challenges clients are facing, including in benefits communication, health and wellness, and retirement. “Ongoing and expanded service to our clients is of utmost importance to us,” said Mr. Carey. “All Carey Corp employees,...

Andy Blatchford, The Canadian Press  | November 8, 2019 Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says there’s a “compelling case” to be made for his province to exit the half-century-old Canada Pension Plan, an idea sure to face increasing scrutiny over the coming months. With growing frustrations in his province about its place in the federation, Kenney has revealed that a deeper analysis is on the way to consider Alberta’s potential withdrawal from the national pension plan. The move, if it goes forward, would pull Albertans’ multibillion-dollar share from the $400-billion pool of assets that are handled by the investment manager, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The proposed departure, said Kenney, will be examined by a panel his government intends to create as a way to assess “fairness” for Alberta within the federation. Read: Editorial: Federal election promises must focus on Canada’s evolving workforce  Talk of the CPP withdrawal follows a federal election result late last month that many say exemplified Prairie frustration toward the Liberal government in Ottawa. The federal Liberals were reduced to a minority mandate after failing to capture a single seat in Alberta or Saskatchewan. There’s also been momentum behind separatist sentiments in the two resource-dependent provinces, where their...

Kelsey Rolfe | November 8, 2019 The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has dramatically increased its investments in renewable energy companies, from $30 million in 2016 to $3 billion as of June 2019, according to its annual sustainable investing report. The substantial increase is part of the fund’s expanded climate change program. “We have a number of groups involved in efforts that will help our portfolio take advantage of not just the risks, but also the opportunities created by climate change,” says Deborah Orida, the CPPIB’s senior managing director and global head of active equities. Another highlight in the report is that, as of April, the organization’s investment teams are required to conduct bottom-up analyses of climate change risks and opportunities for every major investment under consideration, with the results included in their screening memos and final investment recommendations. Read: CPPIB buying U.S.-based renewable energy developer The CPPIB is also looking at its portfolio design to determine how various climate change and energy transition scenarios could impact its targeted exposures to different countries, and is undergoing a climate change portfolio risk assessment and scenario analysis work. “The work done by the total portfolio management group is looking at how will climate change transition...

Staff | November 8, 2019 Globally, 10 per cent of mining companies’ tailings dams have experienced stability issues, according to an analysis by a group of global institutional investors representing US$13.5 trillion in assets. The investor group, which includes pension funds and other institutional investors led by the Church of England Pensions Board and the Council of Ethics of the Swedish National Pension Funds, first called for an independent global tailings dam database in the wake of the devastating tailings dam failure at Brazilian miner Vale S.A.’s Brumhadino iron ore operation in January that killed 270 people. The group requested that 726 mining companies answer a series of 20 questions on each individual tailings facility they operate. The information is expected to be entered into the new database by the first anniversary of the disaster. Of the 1,635 tailings dams, 166 reported stability issues in their history. Read: Half of companies in carbon-intensive sectors aren’t considering climate risk: report “Tailings dams are among some of the largest engineered structures in the world and we have seen the catastrophic consequences earlier this year in Brazil when they collapse,” said Adam Matthews, director of ethics for the Church of England Pensions Board, in a press release. “While...

Benefits Canada | November 8, 2019 On Oct. 24, the 2019 Calgary Drug Trends Summit featured presentations to educate plan sponsors and advisors about specific disease states and their challenges, new drug treatment categories and key drug trends facing benefits plans. Here’s what you missed! New drug therapies for common conditions could impact private plan sustainabilityWhile medical advancements and drug therapy innovations have been life-changing for patients and plan members, they also come with increasing costs. Read more. Health-care cost of migraine rising as patients face reduced wages, lost productivityAlthough migraine is disabling, it’s also very common, with 2.7 million or 8.3 per cent of Canadians suffering from the condition. Read more. Current vaccines could eradicate up to 95% of all HPV-related cancersOnly eight per cent of Canadian women who are eligible for a vaccine that covers nine strains of the human papillomavirus are actually receiving it. Read more. Switch from biologic to biosimilar drug requires monitoring, patient-informed discussionWhen it comes to switching from a biologic to a biosimilar drug, patient choice and engagement is extremely important. Read more. Fluor Canada shares journey of move to a managed drug formularyAlongside Fluor Canada’s recent move to a flexible benefits plan, it also introduced a managed drug...

Cassandra Williamson-Hopp | November 8, 2019 While medical advancements and drug therapy innovations have been life-changing for patients and plan members, they also come with increasing costs, said Victoria Shaw, drug benefits manager at Alberta Blue Cross, speaking at Benefits Canada’s 2019 Calgary Drug Trends Summit on Oct. 24. Between 2011 to 2017, the number of high-cost drugs doubled. From 2016 to 2017, in particular, 31 out of 37 non-cancer-related medications that came to market cost more than $10,000 annually. “Historically, high-cost drugs were used for more rare and complex conditions, but we’re seeing a trend of them moving to treat more common conditions.” Read: Growing use of specialty drugs putting pressure on plan sponsors: report Looking at a private plan with around 1,000 members, Shaw said about 120 people would be receiving drug treatment for depression, 110 for asthma, 17 for migraine and one for multiple sclerosis. While there’s a range of use within these conditions, they all take up a large portion of drug spend on private plans. Mental health is also an increasing issue and can be a leading cause of disability for employers. Referring to a new therapy marketed for treatment-resistant depression that’s currently under priority review with Health Canada, Shaw noted the drug...

Cassandra Williamson-Hopp | November 8, 2019 Although migraine is disabling, it’s also very common, with 2.7 million or 8.3 per cent of Canadians suffering from the condition, according to Dr. Farnaz Amoozegar, a neurologist and clinical assistant professor at the University of Calgary.  The condition affects one in seven people and is the second-leading cause of disability worldwide, she said during a session at Benefits Canada’s 2019 Calgary Drug Trends Summit on Oct. 24. In addition, women are two to three times more likely to be affected by migraine than men. With only about a third of migraine headaches actually diagnosed, the reasons include barriers to treatment, such as poor access to physicians, especially neurologists or headache specialists; the high costs associated with medications and treatments; medication overuse; and lack of physician empathy.  Read: How employers can better address migraines “Unfortunately, migraine is still not very well understood, even sometimes by family members or friends of a suffering patient,” said Dr. Amoozegar. “Awareness continues to be an issue. We need to provide more education.” Episodic migraines — when a patient experiences less than 15 days of headache each month — occur in about seven per cent of the population, while chronic migraines — when a patient experiences more than...

Cassandra Williamson-Hopp | November 8, 2019 Only eight per cent of Canadian women who are eligible for a vaccine that covers nine strains of the human papillomavirus are actually receiving it. While one barrier is a lack of knowledge among health-care professionals and patients alike, another is the lack of coverage in group benefits plans, said Dr. Angel Chu, an infectious diseases physician at Foothills Medical Centre, during a session at Benefits Canada’s 2019 Calgary Drug Trends Summit on Oct. 24. “That’s one of the biggest frustrations because these are patients at high risk of cancers and we have the tools, but they just can’t get it because of financial barriers.” Read: How HPV is causing more than just cervical cancer Every day, nine Canadian women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and three lose their lives to the disease, said Dr. Chu, noting the No. 1 risk factor for the cancer is HPV. It’s estimated that about 400,000 women will have an abnormal pap smear each year, while one in 149 will be diagnosed with cervical cancer and one in 478 will die from it.  HPV is essentially a sexually transmitted cancer, she said, and it’s estimated that eight out of every 10 Canadians will get an HPV infection at some point in their lives....