Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Toronto, ON (July 4, 2019) – Navacord, one of Canada’s largest commercial brokers, has joined global broking business Brokerslink as its latest affiliate in the North American region. Navacord trades under fifteen different broker partner brands across the country as it continues to execute its growth plans in Canada. The organization has a unique ownership model allowing the entrepreneurial spirit of its partners to thrive whilst maintaining their own independence and identities, this is closely aligned with Brokerslink’s philosophy of providing its independent broker partners and affiliates with the support of a large multinational organisation. “Navacord has built an excellent reputation for delivering in-depth expertise and a forward-thinking approach to risk transfer for their clients,” said Brokerslink chairman José Manuel Fonseca. “These capabilities, together with the scale and scope of these services across Canada are important to our global partners and affiliates. I’m delighted to welcome them to Brokerslink.” “Navacord has doubled in size over a four-year period and our desire is to more than double again by 2022,” said Shawn DeSantis, President and CEO of Navacord. “We knew that becoming Brokerslink’s only Canadian Affiliate would allow us to serve the needs of our clients even better and help us...

Navacord, a Canadian commercial broker, has joined Brokerslink as its latest affiliate in the North American region. Brokerslink is a global broking network with independent partners and affiliates in more than 113 countries. Brokerslink says Navacord’s ownership model which allows “the entrepreneurial spirit of its partners to thrive whilst maintaining their own independence and identities” is closely aligned with its own philosophy. “Navacord has built an excellent reputation for delivering in-depth expertise and a forward-thinking approach to risk transfer for their clients,” said José Manuel Fonseca, Chairman of Brokerslink. “These capabilities, together with the scale and scope of these services across Canada are important to our global partners and affiliates. I’m delighted to welcome them to Brokerslink.” Shawn DeSantis, President and CEO of Navacord, says that his company has doubled in size over a four-year period and aims to more than double again by 2022. “We knew that becoming Brokerslink’s only Canadian Affiliate would allow us to serve the needs of our clients even better and help us to achieve our goals.” Read the original article at insurance-journal.ca

Ever since I started working in the technology insurance industry,  I occasionally look back on the technologies and the people who are the providers. In the beginning, there were different tools and computing devices, which held back standards. However, previous results were brought together, removing problems and allowing better linkages. Now, we find the industry looking at InsurTech, which will be an order of magnitude larger to implement. Some folks are concerned. However, others are able to use previous successes to leverage new and ongoing work. All in a Day’s Work … In the mid-to-late 1970s, alongside a full-time job, I was working on a Masters of Public Administration (MPA). The fall of Saigon occurred while I was in Detroit working for the Red Cross. I was seconded immediately.  The work was to welcome and support refugees from Vietnam on Guam, and to start moving families to new homes in the US, Canada, and elsewhere. What surprised me was the use of technology. In Guam, we were using 80-column punch cards (1975) which allowed us to keep past, present, and future data on refugees, both individuals and families.  Some stopped on Guam for a few hours, others had to stay...

Three in four employers say “breakthrough” in leadership development is needed to address challenges: Willis Towers Watson Arlington, VA (July 18, 2019) – With the surge in workplace automation showing no signs of abating, relatively few North American employers have developed a formal digital transformation strategy, according to a new survey by Willis Towers Watson, a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company. Additionally, a majority of employers say they need a “breakthrough in leadership development” to address the challenges arising from workplace automation and the increased use of contingent workers that has accelerated in its wake. The Pathways to Digital Enablement Survey found the proportion of work completed by using automation among North American companies doubled over the last three years, from 6% to 12%, and is expected to nearly double to 23% in the next three years. Additionally, nearly all respondents (95%) expect to be using workplace automation, including artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, in three years. “Workplace automation has been growing in leaps and bounds, and all signs point toward continued expansion,” said Tracey Malcolm, global leader, Future of Work, Willis Towers Watson. “With such widespread change, companies must address how they’ll get work done. Those companies...

Plano, TX (July 22, 2019) – NTT DATA Services, a recognized leader in global technology services, today announced it has become a Google Cloud Premier Partner, the highest status a Google Cloud partner can achieve. This milestone is a result of a multi-year collaboration and joint cloud investments between the two companies, as well as NTT DATA demonstrating a high level of competency with Google Cloud products. As a Premier Partner, NTT DATA will continue its work with Google Cloud on a joint go-to-market strategy to provide consulting, implementation and managed services to clients seeking digital transformation. The Google Cloud program will enhance NTT DATA’s established cloud transformation offerings by adding more Google Cloud resources in analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud migration, IoT, security and productivity, while also fostering new partnerships through the Google Cloud partner directory. “Being named a Google Cloud Premier Partner highlights our commitment to innovative, strategic relationships that allow us to deliver cloud insights and solutions that drive meaningful outcomes for our clients. Google Cloud’s ecosystem of partners will be strengthened by our vertical industry expertise and technical knowledge, as well as our cloud intellectual property, accelerators and tools,” said Eric Clark, Chief Digital Officer,...

Chicago, IL (July 22, 2019) – Aon plc, the leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions, has expanded its strategic alliance with CLARA analytics (“CLARA”), the leading provider of artificial intelligence technology in the commercial insurance industry, to help prevent litigation from entering the Workers’ compensation claims process and help U.S. companies reduce costly fees. According to data from Aon’s Casualty Laser Diagnostic tool, attorney involvement on a workers’ compensation claim increases total claim costs, often greater than 400 percent; claims take 195 percent longer to resolve, and injured employees miss an average of 284 percent more days of work. “Litigation is the most significant cost driver in the casualty claims area and we are thrilled to collaborate with CLARA to solve this major cost burden,” said Kevin Combes, director, Aon Global Risk Consulting. “The upgraded solution will significantly reduce workers’ compensation claim costs, increase efficiency and deliver innovative solutions that help reduce U.S. companies’ total cost of risk.” To dramatically reduce this cost, this technology uses AI insights to help detect claims that are at risk of becoming litigated before issues arise, identify an attorney, if needed, and resolve claims efficiently...

Third Party Intelligence Monitors and Identifies Threats to Third Party Networks in Real Time Toronto, ON (June 12, 2019) – KPMG LLP (KPMG) has been granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for performing signals processing, dynamic analysis, and forecasting of risk. KPMG’s new patent – U.S. Patent No. 10,339,484 – is a core component of KPMG’s Third Party Intelligence service, which was launched in 2016. Third Party Intelligence empowers businesses to take pre-emptive action against third party disruption, such as disruption within a supply chain. The technology monitors and reports third party vulnerability as well as projects its impact well into the future, allowing clients to act ahead of time. Conventional methods for forecasting have shortcomings due to information analysis techniques and technologies. Many organizations monitor events, such as news stories, without any additional context or analysis. KPMG’s Third Party Intelligence service provides dynamic filtering of signals using sophisticated algorithms designed to pinpoint and project vulnerability trends in individual third parties and the countries in which they operate. This makes Third Party Intelligence’s insight actionable – a key differentiator from risk data providers who leave this analysis to the client. The solution draws on data...

iA Financial Group announced on July 19 the appointment of Alain Bergeron to the position of Executive Vice-President and Chief Investment Officer (CIO), effective Sept. 3. In this position, Bergeron succeeds Michel Tremblay who retired at the end of May. As CIO, Bergeron also becomes a member of the company’s Planning Committee, chaired by Denis Ricard, the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer.  Prior to this appointment, Bergeron was senior vice-president at Mackenzie Investments. He is a graduate of HEC Montreal with a Master of Sciences (M.Sc.) in financial engineering.  He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Market Technician (CMT). Read the original article at insurance-journal.ca

LIMRA studied the percentage of annuity premium that is used for generating retirement income. After three consecutive years of growth, total new premium for individual life combination products dropped 2% to $4.3 billion in 2018, according to LIMRA’s 2018 Individual Life Combination Products Annual Review. There were 404,000 policies sold in 2018, a 2% increase compared to 2017. Life combination products provide life insurance coverage with long-term care or chronic illness coverage, an attractive value proposition to consumers, according to LIMRA consumer research. In 2018, combination products represented 27 percent of the overall U.S. individual life insurance market. “The decline in total premium is a result of more companies shifting to introduce recurring premium options. 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,” said Daniel McAllen, associate analyst, LIMRA Insurance Research. “This shift suggests a growing movement to attract mass-affluent buyers who may not have the financial wherewithal to invest a large lump sum all at once but still want the dual protection these products offer.” On a product level, whole life (WL) combination premium experienced the largest growth in 2018,...

Martha Porado | July 22, 2019 Institutional portfolios have been tilted towards growth assets as they’ve reached for higher returns during the bull market of the last decade. But as the business cycle continues to stretch, it’s a prudent time to consider downside protection measures. Wylie Tolette, executive vice-president and head of client investment solutions for Franklin Templeton Investments Canada’s multi-asset solutions business, recalls how surprised investors were after the 2008 financial crisis to discover some of the vulnerabilities in their portfolios. Many institutional portfolios weren’t prepared to handle major extremes to the downside, he says. Read: How is fixed income faring amid renewed market volatility? “Despite how much work we did before the financial crisis to make sure people really thought about their tolerance and capacity to take on investment risk, my observation was that people thought, in general, they had more tolerance for investment risk than they actually did. And many of the institutional governance structures that oversee portfolios were basically set up to absorb volatility and risk when it was in the normal boundaries of what we typically observe. But they weren’t always set up properly to function correctly and make the best decisions when markets really move to the extreme end...