Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

PR Newswire Knights of Columbus, a Fortune 1000 insurer with more than $25 billion in assets, announced today that it has launched two more permanent life insurance products in The Knights Advantage Series in the U.S. and Canada: Limited Pay Whole Life and Single Premium Whole Life. Both the Limited Pay Whole Life and the Single Premium Whole Life plans offer a guaranteed death benefit as well as cash values with the opportunity for additional growth if future dividends are earned. Dividends are not guaranteed, but are distributed to policyholders, as there are no stockholders. Please visit www.kofc.org/insurance for more information. Ron Franzluebbers, senior vice president and chief actuary, said: “These new whole life products will be competitive additions to our life insurance product portfolio, providing access to all the benefits of whole life insurance, including guaranteed cash valuesi and death benefits, at an affordable cost. Offering a strong portfolio of products allows our agents to best meet the needs of our clients, who can feel confident knowing that their life insurance protection is in the hands of an insurer with a long-term history of providing financial assistance.” Limited Pay Whole Life Limited Pay Whole Life policy allows the client...

Business Wire Approximately 37.5 million U.S. households currently have no life insurance coverage, and nearly half of all households are underinsured, putting them at risk of not being able replace their income and missing out on a valuable financial tool.1 During Life Insurance Awareness Month (September), Lincoln Financial Group (NYSE: LNC) shares ‘9 Things You Need to Know About Life Insurance’ along with interactive tools to help you understand and plan for your life insurance needs. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190903005549/en/ Things You Need to Know About Life Insurance (Photo: Business Wire) “Life insurance can help families build, manage, protect and pass on their wealth,” said Mike Burns, senior vice president, Life Solutions, Lincoln Financial Group. “Yet often, life insurance is underutilized due to misperceptions. Today, there are diverse life insurance options that offer greater financial planning flexibility and a range in costs, as well as simpler and faster purchase experiences.” Here are the 9 things you need to know about life insurance today: It’s actually pretty affordable. The top reason people cite for not buying life insurance is it’s too expensive. But it may be possible to get coverage for less than your...

According to Doug Grant, partner at Insurance-Canada.ca, Inc., many of the folks who heard about Amazon in 1994 really thought that Jeff Bezos was chasing shadows. However, the Internet demonstrated  that ‘virtual’ efforts could not only deliver ‘real’ things, they could do so in shorter time frames and with lower costs. So, when executives engaged with experts at the Insurance-Canada.ca Executive Forum – “Insurance in the Platform Economy” – in Toronto last week, most skeptics stayed quiet while the majority sought deeper understanding to leverage the new tool sets. And they looked happy. I’ll highlight some tidbits from a few of the faculty, and what is coming next. For more details, refer to the topic outlines and presenters. What’s a Platform, Mom?  We were twice lucky to address this question. First, Denise Garth, SVP, Majesco – who opened the day – has been ahead of the curve in use of technology in the insurance community. And second, Denise can present and discuss the use of the technology with senior executives as well as line experts, without leaning on arcane content. With this in mind, Denise positioned highlights and examples for full portions of the day.  She focused on three trends...

Forty-four per cent of Canadian wealth management clients say they’re planning to move money from existing providers within the next three years, says a new report by EY. The 2019 Global Wealth Management Research Report indicates that increasing digitalization of wealth management activities and the rise of self-service offerings is empowering clients to seek out attributes such as competitive pricing (33%); personalized and connected solutions (30%); 24/7 access to their wealth management portfolio (28%) and more personal advice and planning (27%). Untapped opportunity EY says “the untapped opportunity for wealth management providers lies on the sidelines, where roughly half of Canadian consumers express interest in financial advice and planning but state they don’t currently receive any.” This is especially true for major life events, including leaving a job (67%); inheriting or receiving money (64%) and having a child (63%). “Canada’s wealth management sector isn’t immune to changes in consumer behaviour,” says David Hurd, EY Canada’s National Wealth & Asset Management Leader. “Canadians are seeking advice from an average of four different sources, and often turn to niche providers to solve specific problems. There remains a large opportunity for firms that can put themselves at the centre of clients’ financial ecosystem.”...

New quantum risk assessment and subscription services available to clients IBM Cloud will begin to provide quantum-safe cryptography services on the public cloud in 2020 IBM Research demonstrates world’s first quantum computing safe tape drive prototype IBM donates quantum-safe cryptographic algorithms to open source community Armonk, NY (Aug. 23, 2019) – At the Second Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization Conference organized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, IBM took a major step toward maintaining the highest level of security of its clients’ data and privacy in the future from fault-tolerant quantum computers. IBM is announcing that it will begin to provide what the industry would call quantum-safe cryptography services on the IBM public cloud in 2020 and is now offering a Quantum Risk Assessment from IBM Security to help customers assess their risk in the quantum world. Additionally, IBM cryptographers have prototyped the world’s first quantum computing safe enterprise class tape, an important step before commercialization. IBM is also committed to making quantum-safe algorithms available through the open source community. As an industry, we can only become secure if new quantum-safe algorithms are tested, interoperable and easily consumable in common security standards. To this end, IBM is donating algorithms and...

Michael Stickney will have a unique mandate. He has been appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer of iA Financial Group. His appointment, effective Sept. 1, was announced to the insurer’s employees Aug. 28 by Denis Ricard, CEO of iA Financial Group. Ricard explained to Insurance Journal why he created this position. “Michael has been with us since 1999, when we acquired Seaboard Life. He will oversee the growth initiatives for all lines of business. I hope that our management team can benefit from his breadth of experience at this level.” Stickney will also continue to be a member of the company’s Planning Committee. He holds a bachelor’s degree in science (mathematics) and an MBA from the University of British Columbia. He is also a fellow of the Society of Actuaries and of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries. This announcement comes on the heels of another appointment by iA Financial Group. Lilia Sham was appointed Executive Vice-President, Corporate Development in May. She will play a significant role in acquisitions. Sham held similar roles for 13 years at Intact Financial Corporation. Read the original article at insurance-journal.ca

Chicago, IL, September 01, 2019 –(PR.com)– As a leader in the insurance industry of Illinois, Insurance Navy has added life insurance policies to its list of insurance services. Life insurance is the perfect service for those whose families depend on their income. Life insurance rates vary between men and women. However, for both, rates increase with age. The best time to get life insurance is at a young age. At a young and healthy age, people can enjoy an affordable and simple life insurance policy. Most insurers allow customers to add terms to an exisiting policy as time goes on. This is done to meet the changing needs of an individual as time progresses. President of Insurance Navy, Fadi Sneineh, is happy to announce the agency’s growing insurance services. “People often think of Insurance Navy as auto insurance brokers, but we do so much more,” said Sneineh. “With the addition of life insurance, Insurance Navy really is your go-to place for insurance at a reasonable cost.” Getting life insurance sooner rather than later can help people save money. Additionally, its gives everyone peace of mind knowing their family will be okay financially when they pass. For more information about life...

Franklin Templeton Canada today announced changes to its fund line-up, including 11 proposed mutual fund mergers and five mutual fund terminations. “Our firm is focused on simplifying our mutual fund offerings to make it easier for advisors and investors to select a suitable fund from a streamlined range of investment options,” said Duane Green, president and CEO, Franklin Templeton Canada. “We continue to focus on providing high quality investment solutions to deliver better outcomes for Canadians.” Pending regulatory and investor approval, each terminating fund will be merged into the corresponding continuing fund on or around the proposed merger date, as indicated in the table below. 1 Investors in series A, F and I of this fund also need to vote at the series level due to the different fee structures of these series in the continuing fund. 2 Previously announced via press release on June 25, 2019. 3 Series I of both funds will be liquidated after the close of business on or around November 15, 2019, regardless of whether these mergers take place. Franklin Templeton says that at the close of business on Aug. 30, each terminating fund will cease distribution of its securities to new investors until the applicable merger listed...

The Insurance Council of British Columbia (ICBC), on August 1, issued an order to Darwin Bernard Peter Braun (the licensee), cancelling his license and imposing a number of conditions, effective August 16. On August 15, Braun appealed the order to the Financial Services Tribunal. The ICBC consented to an interim stay of the order on the condition that the licensee be directly supervised during the appeal process. Under the order, Braun’s license would be cancelled with no opportunity to reapply for five years. Braun was also fined $10,000 and assessed investigation and hearing costs of $3,125 and $48,903.20, respectively. In light of the fact that Braun’s son has been the nominee of his agency since October 2017, Braun is also prohibited from being a shareholder, partner, officer, director or employee of any licensed insurance agency for a period of five years. “The hearing committee believes that this additional order is necessary to protect the public interest by ensuring that the licensee is not able to continue working within the agency in an unlicensed capacity,” the hearing committee’s chair wrote in the order. Although Braun argued that council could meet its public interest mandate in this instance with a one year...

Edmonton, AB (Aug. 27, 2019) – The hailstorm that took place on August 2, 2019 in the Edmonton area caused an estimated $90 million in insured damages, according to Catastrophe Indices and Quantification (CatIQ) Inc. Initial estimates of insured damage by type of insurance are as follows: Personal Property​: $39.5 million​* Commercial Property: $3.4 million​* Auto​: $46.9 million​* The storm began with heavy rain, followed by thunderstorms and heavy winds that reached 91 km/hr. Large hail damaged house siding and vehicles in west Edmonton, Spruce Grove and Stony Plain. The storm also damaged crops to the northwest of Edmonton. “Severe weather is causing headaches for homeowners and is costing insurers, governments and Albertans significantly,” said Celyeste Power, Vice-President, Western, IBC. “Last year, insured damage from severe weather across Canada reached $2 billion, the fourth-highest amount of annual losses on record. Unlike the 2013 Calgary floods or the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, no single event caused the high amount paid out for 2018’s losses. Instead, Canadians and their insurers experienced significant losses from a host of smaller severe weather events from coast to coast to coast.” As the financial cost of a changing climate has increased, IBC is working closely with...