Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Brampton, Peel Region, GTA, ON (July 3, 2019) – Peel Regional Police Commercial Auto Crime Bureau joined forces with investigators from Halton Regional Police,York Regional Police and Canada Border Services Agency in a 4 month long investigation resulting in multiple arrests and high-end vehicle seizures. “Project Baijin is a perfect example of the quality of work that can happen when the expertise of multiple agencies share information and work together for one common goal.” said Chief Chris McCord. In April 2019, investigators from the Commercial Auto Crime Bureau began a vehicle theft investigation called Project Baijin. The investigation revealed that the stolen vehicles were being prepped to be shipped overseas in containers to China and other European countries. On Wednesday, April 10, 2019, investigators from the Commercial Auto Crime Bureau recovered six high-end vehicles from a business in the area of Kestrel Road and Meyerside Drive in the City of Mississauga. A 2015 Jeep Wrangler A 2016 Mercedes GLE350 A 2018 Mercedes C300 A 2018 Audi A7 A 2018 Dodge Ram A 2019 Range Rover On April 10, 2019, two international students, He Cui, a 24-year-old man that currently resides in Markham and Wenqi Li, a 26-year-old man that currently...

PR Newswire MCKINNEY, Texas, July 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Globe Life And Accident Insurance Company, the country’s top volume issuer of life insurance policies, is excited to announce a new, multi-year relationship with the Dallas Cowboys. Globe Life is proud to be the Official Life Insurance of the Dallas Cowboys. The sponsorship includes advertising and corporate events at both AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX and The Star in Frisco, the Dallas Cowboys World Corporate Headquarters and Training Facility in Frisco, TX and special speaking engagements with key leadership from the Cowboys. “We are thrilled to be associated with a global sports organization like the Dallas Cowboys and their owner Jerry Jones,” said Jennifer Haworth, Sr. Vice President, Marketing of Globe Life. “The Cowboys organization’s emphasis on giving back to the community aligns nicely with Globe Life’s community-focused efforts. This relationship complements what we are already doing in the sports marketing space and will enhance our agents’ sales and recruiting efforts by being associated with such a well-known sports team.” “We are proud to designate Globe Life as the Official Life Insurance of the Dallas Cowboys,” said Dallas Cowboys Chief Operating Officer Stephen Jones. “Globe Life is a respected brand that...

Kelsey Rolfe | July 25, 2019 The federal government has reached a tentative settlement on multiple class action lawsuits filed by current and former female and male members of the Canadian Armed Forces and Department of National Defence who experienced workplace sexual harassment, assault and discrimination based on gender or sexuality. The lawsuits collectively sought almost $1 billion in damages. The first one, filed by female CAF and DND members, alleged the CAF was “poisoned by a discriminatory and sexualized culture” that condoned assault, harassment and discrimination. It claimed existing policies were ineffective and the Canadian Armed Forces failed to take steps to prevent that conduct. The Federal Court of Canada will hold a hearing on Sept. 19 and 20 to determine the fairness of the settlement. Read: Women more likely than men to experience workplace harassment: Stats Can Although the government didn’t admit liability, it agreed to pay up to $155,000 for individual class members who experienced sexual misconduct connected to their military service or DND employment, up to a total of $800 million for armed forces members and $100 million for DND members. If the settlement is approved, the government will also implement changes to Veterans Affairs Canada’s policies around eligibility for disability...

Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA) Charles Thomas Blosch died last year in Virginia Beach, 94 days after falling and hitting his head. If the 75-year-old man had died four days earlier, his widow would have probably collected on a $100,000 accidental death insurance policy. But he didn’t. So she won’t. A federal judge ruled last week for the Transamerica Premier Life Insurance Company, saying Blosch’s policy was clear: The death “must occur within 90 days of the accident.” “On the basis of these undisputed facts, defendant is not required to pay,” U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith wrote. Attorneys for Transamerica and Blosch’s widow declined or did not respond to requests for comment. A veteran lawyer with 40 years experience in estate planning, however, said the court’s ruling was not surprising. John Midgett compared the lawsuit in question to a Hail Mary in football. There wasn’t much the lawyer, or the judge, could do in light of the facts of the case and the policy’s restrictive nature. “When it says 90 days, it mean 90 days. Not 91. Not 89,” said Midgett, who was not involved in the case. Kevin Martingayle, a past president of the Virginia State Bar, and Gerald Schwartz,...

The Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA) is asking for input from stakeholders on whether it should continue to directly accredit continuing education (CE) courses or delegate it outside the self-regulatory organization. In a recently released discussion paper, the MFDA says its staff may not have the time to process what could be a “significant” number of requests to accredit CE content in addition to looking after its own CE program. So it is now asking for public opinion on whether it should continue to accredit CE activity or delegate it to a third party. It is also asking for details of alternatives it should consider. Delegates would have regular reviews of its requirements Under the proposals, a delegate would make recommendations to the MFDA, but wouldn’t be able to make a final decision. The delegate would also undergo an ongoing review of its requirements, similar to those set up for third-party accreditation and member self-accreditation, says the paper. The delegate “would also be required to be an experienced accreditor with established policies and procedures, and be knowledgeable of the securities industry and regulation. To address potential conflicts of interest, the MFDA Delegate could be prohibited from being a...

Winding down for the summer and ready to accept a slowdown in life insurance sales? Think again. Michael Aziz, co-president at Canada Protection Plan, told LHP that his firm’s numbers have shown no sign of dipping despite the drowsy heat that’s hit much of the country. Instead of writing the summer off, Aziz believes this is actually the perfect time for his team to approach advisors about life insurance, and for advisors to engage with clients. He said: “Everybody seems to slow down in the summer. People are thinking holidays; they aren’t thinking about financial planning. You’ve had Christmas, February is RRSP month, so it’s a lull, which is the best time to approach clients and talk about their insurance needs. “People are more receptive in the summer time to having discussions. It doesn’t have to be sitting in the office, it can be outside, at a coffee shop, where a broker talks to a client and says, ‘hey, let’s review your needs’. Everyone has downtime and it gives the advisor more time to get together with clients.” Canada Protection Plan is best known as a leader of No Medical and Simplified life insurance, although it recently launched Express Elite...

Insurer trend factors for drug, health, and dental costs remain relatively stable in 2019, continuing a consistent trend for the past several years. But insurers are still projecting steeper costs ahead. In its 2019 Canadian Healthcare Trend Survey, Buck — an integrated HR and benefits consulting, administration, and technology services firm — predicted that, based on actual 2018 claim trends, most plan sponsors could expect to see a 3% to 5% increase in drug claims. But because insurance providers are also accounting for a “market inflation” factor, they are seeing a projected increase of almost 11%. “Insurance providers factor projected market inflation into the rate setting calculation, and this has the potential to drive plan costs both higher and faster than the actual trend in healthcare spending,” said Lizann Reitmeier, Health Practice Leader in Canada, Buck. The survey fond that insurers’ inflation factors for prescription drugs represent the majority of private payer health spend and have the greatest influence on employer benefit cost trends. The inflation factor for prescription drugs used by insurers decreased from 12.45% in 2018 to 10.99% for 2019. A consistent trend of reductions in hospital inflation factors from 2015 until 2018 was also snapped, with the...

Following three consecutive years of growth, total new premium for individual life combination products declined by 2% to US$4.3 billion in 2018, according to the 2018 Individual Life Combination Products Annual Review conducted by LIMRA. As reported by InsuranceNewsNet, the decrease in premiums came even though 404,000 policies were sold last year, representing a 2% increase over 2017. Combination products represented 27% of the overall US individual life insurance market last year. “The decline in total premium is a result of more companies shifting to introduce recurring premium options,” said Daniel McAllen, associate analyst with LIMRA Insurance Research. “To put this into perspective, 61% of policies were sold on a recurring premium basis in 2011. By 2018, 93 percent of policies sold were recurring premium.” According to McAllen, the shift indicates a growing movement to attract mass-affluent buyers, who may be unable to invest a large lump sum but still want the dual protection offered by combination products. Drilling down to the product level, the largest premium growth was observed among whole life (WL) combination products, advancing by 34% over 2017. WL held 27% of the combination market, up seven percentage points compared to 2017. There was also a 5%...

An insurer in the US has argued that “sex” rather than “gender” should be specified as part of the information about the insured that should be included in a life insurance policy overview. “‘Gender’ is a fluid concept while ‘Sex’ refers to genetic sex at birth,” Pacific Life Insurance company said in a comment letter sent to an arm of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), reported ThinkAdvisor. The comment letter was sent in response to a public consultation opened by the NAIC’s Life Insurance Illustration Issues Working Group. In particular, the group is reviewing the regulations surrounding “models,” which define what state insurance laws or regulations should look like in the US. A group of state insurance watchdogs, the NAIC develops such models to help states share legal and policymaking expertise, as well as help make their insurance rules more uniform. “The Life Insurance Illustration Issues Working Group is exploring the idea of improving the narrative policy summary required by a section of the NAIC’s existing Life Insurance Illustrations Model Regulation,” ThinkAdvisor said. The group is also reportedly reviewing the policy overview required in the NAIC’s Life Insurance Disclosure Model Regulation. Commenting on the regulation for disclosure models,...

Study of digital, data, and core capabilities leverages data from more than 60 insurers: 4th Annual Novarica New Normal 100 Benchmark Boston, MA (July 23, 2019) – Insurers have broadened and matured their technology capabilities, including analytics and mobile, in the last year. While larger insurers retain a significant advantage, smaller insurers report high levels of planned pilot activities aimed at closing the gap, according to the 4th annual Novarica New Normal 100, published today by research and advisory firm Novarica. “Insurers across the board are deploying more technology-enabled capabilities than last year,” said Matthew Josefowicz, President/CEO of Novarica and author of the report. “But maturity levels still vary widely between insurers. While smaller insurers are starting to close some gaps, larger insurers are much more active in piloting advanced analytics and AI.” These findings are based on analysis of data collected from more than 60 insurer CIO members of the Novarica Research Council using the Novarica New Normal 100 Framework, which describes 100 digital, data, and core technology capabilities that represent the “new normal” for insurers. Novarica New Normal 100 (3N100) Benchmark 2019 Key points and findings for property/casualty insurers include: Insurers have broadened and matured their capabilities in...