Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

The Mutual Fund Dealers Association of Canada (MFDA) announced June 6 that Christopher Martin Alfred Lee has been sanctioned with a permanent ban and fined $1,463,400 plus costs of $13,100 for misconduct. A Hearing Panel of the MFDA’s Central Regional Council found that “commencing on at least July 28, 2012, the respondent misappropriated or failed to account for, approximately $1,363,400 solicited or received from at least twelve clients and seven individuals…” During the time the misconduct occurred, Lee conducted business in the Nepean, Ontario area. Read the original article at insurance-journal.ca

New Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) will help reduce regulatory burden Toronto, ON (June 7, 2019) – The Government of Ontario has launched a new provincial regulator of financial services and pensions. The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) combines and replaces the Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) and the Deposit Insurance Corporation of Ontario (DICO) as an integrated, independent and self-funded regulatory body for financial services and pensions. The FSRA is empowered, responsive and open to change to help achieve better outcomes for industry and the public. It officially took over the regulation of financial services and pensions in Ontario effective June 8, 2019. “The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario is a modern and innovative regulator with rule-making authority that promotes strong financial services and pensions sectors while protecting the public interest,” said Finance Minister Vic Fedeli. “Its mandate is to be open — open to new ideas, open to business, and open to consumer needs. FSRA has the flexibility to cut red tape, bring products to market quicker and be more responsive to the needs of businesses.” The new regulator will oversee pronvincial financial services providers, excluding securities which are regulated by the...

  Live webinar, June 20 at 2pm, with Nancy Costa, The Hull Group and Goose Digital Toronto, ON (June 10, 2019) – Driving qualified leads, optimizing sales enablement and improving customer service are top priorities for Insurers. Marketing Automation plays a critical role in supporting each of these priorities. At Goose Digital, our best practices for insurers is framed by 3 key components: Strategy, Digital Marketing and Marketing Automation. Strategy is always the starting point, and the thread that is continuous throughout a marketing plan. Beginning with a clear strategy helps insurers outline their goals and identify measurable objectives including audiences, products and services. Digital Marketing includes the lead generation and acquisition programs that brings the strategy to market across all channels. Marketing Automation is the platform that enables insurers to execute personalized and relevant communications that are essential for engaging today’s customer. Over the last several weeks, Goose Digital has published a six-part blog series, entitled Breaking Down Marketing Automation for Brokers. The goal of the series has been to demystify these platforms and focus on the key benefits they can deliver. The series has looked at how a strategy led and marketing automation powered approach impacts awareness through...

GlobeNewswire Clients looking for secure lifetime protection and excellent value for death benefit protection have two new options with Ohio National’s enhanced lifetime pay whole life products. “Prestige Value IV and Prestige 100 II provide an excellent foundation of long-term protection,” said Christopher Calabro, CLU, ChFC, Ohio National senior vice president career agency distribution and marketing. “Clients can choose between one of the lowest priced participating whole life policies in the industry, which offers strong guaranteed1 cash value growth supported by mid- and long-term dividends, or one that provides richer long-term cash value and dividend potential. These products are strong on their own, but can have flexibility added through an array of riders.” Both products can accept premium payments to, and endow at, age 100. The earlier endowment age helps contribute to both products’ improved long-term cash and death benefit values, based on current assumptions, that peak around a client’s life expectancy. Financial professionals have the flexibility to customize a policy to meet their client’s needs with a suite of three paid-up-additions (PUA) riders, which features an enhanced Flexible PUA Rider (FPUAR). These riders allow clients to pay an additional premium into their policy above the base, up to approved...

The changing face of demographics, the growth of ETFs and fund wraps, falling MERs and changing advisor practices are at the root of challenges facing the mutual fund industry, according to a report by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC). The report, entitled Canadian Investment Funds Industry: Recent Developments and Outlook, examines the current state of the investment funds industry in Canada, including trends that impact investors. The report examines, at a high level, the role of investment funds in the day-to-day savings and investing activities of Canadians; the products that have been and continue to be used by savers and investors; how these products are accessed by Canadians of various levels of wealth and investment knowledge; and the changes to the investing environment that have occurred over the past decade. Beyond the overarching demographic trends, fund product and distribution has also been influenced by: the changing nature of competition and emergence of non-traditional competitors; regulatory changes focused on investor protection; changing attitudes of investors toward risk and value as they look to preserve capital; and the ongoing impact of new technologies on all stakeholders. Investment fund industry retooling to meet rapidly changing competition “The Canadian investment fund industry...

Canadians are ill-prepared financially to support aging parents and could use the help of a financial advisor to sort things out, according to a survey commission by FP Canada and Chartwell Retirement Residences. As Canadians age, many adult children believe that providing financial support to an aging parent will hurt them financially. Yet at the same time, fewer than one-in-three Canadians say they’re familiar with the tax credits, grants and other financial tools available to help alleviate the financial impact of this support. Of more than 1,500 Canadians surveyed, 14 per cent said they expect that supporting their parents financially will cause them to postpone their own retirement. Another 12 per cent said they expect it will prevent them from paying off debt. Canadians between the ages of 18-34 are particularly worried, with one-in-five (18 per cent) expecting to postpone their retirement as a result of financially supporting their parents. Parents and adult children don’t talk about money One of the biggest problems is that elderly parents and their adult children don’t talk about finances, said Sharon Henderson, vice president of Marketing and Communications with Chartwell Retirement Residences. This can create uncertainty and prevent planning for financial support. Henderson suggests...

Alberta-based property and casualty company Western Financial Group has bought a third brokerage, increasing its expansion into Ontario. Western Financial Group recently purchased the EGM Insurance Group which is based in the Ottawa Valley. After serving clients since 1942, EGM and its subsidiaries, MC Carroll Insurance Brokers and Johnston & Mackie Ltd., will join Western’s network — one of the largest in the country. With this announcement, EGM Insurance Group will bring its four branches and knowledge of the Ontario market to Western, the company announced. “We’re thrilled to welcome EGM CEO Lisa Edmonds and her team,” Kenny Nicholls, Western’s CEO and president, said. “Our two companies are aligned in that we put our customers and people first. This acquisition offers us further abilities to grow our customer broker model in Ontario,” he said. Edmonds said joining Western is a great opportunity for the EGM Insurance Group and its customers. “I am excited to know the strength of Western’s people — their experience, resources and stability — will take us to the next level while allowing us to serve our customers in our local community,” she said.  Read the original article at insurance-journal.ca

Vancouver, BC (June 6, 2019) – Justin Hamade has joined Apollo Insurance Solutions Ltd. as Chief Technology Officer, effective June 4, 2019. Hamade brings over 20 years of experience in technology to the leadership role. Most recently, he was Director of Engineering at Rival Technologies Inc. where he oversaw the development of their market research platform. Hamade has extensive experience in technology architecture, integrations, DevOps, chatbots, IoT, and backend and frontend infrastructure. He has used technology to streamline a range of business operations. “Justin has been an instrumental advisor to Apollo since our inception, and his leadership and guidance now that he is on the team will ensure Apollo’s success as we continue to tackle larger and more complex technology objectives,” says Apollo CEO Jeff McCann. “He has led large scale development teams from product inception to execution, and his experience will launch Apollo into orbit.” Hamade will join Apollo’s Vancouver office, where the development team is based. “The potential for technology to address many of the friction points in the insurance industry is nearly untapped,” said Hamade. “I am excited to take Apollo to bold new frontiers.” Apollo Insurance is Canada’s largest online insurance marketplace. Apollo empowers the broker...

Toronto, ON (June 6, 2019) – SNAP Premium Finance have recently partnered with Power Broker, one of the largest Broker Management Systems (BMS) in Canada, to provide a seamless solution for brokers to offer payment plans and complete policy proposals within the realms of one environment. Fully integrated environment “We’re pleased to work with innovative companies like Zycomp Systems Limited to help optimize the quoting experience for all our broker partners,” said Kumar Bhaskar, Senior Vice President, SNAP Premium Finance. “Leveraging our existing technology alongside a system the industry is familiar with helps brokers offer payment plans without ever having to navigate away from one platform.” In a recent study conducted by SNAP, 75% of business owners said they would take up an offer to finance their insurance premium if offered it by their broker. “In today’s world, we know brokers seek convenience and clients want alternative ways to pay,” added Kumar. “By simplifying the steps required to present a payment plan to clients, brokers can improve operational efficiencies and offer a superior experience to all.” Increased workflow efficiencies “Syncing our system with SNAP helps facilitate greater productivity for all our broker partners and eliminate workflow fragmentation,” said Steve Zylak,...

Transformational Technologies for Insurance — New SMA Blog by Mark Breading, Partner, Strategy Meets Action — At SMA, we have been tracking what we and others have called emerging technologies for the better part of the last decade. However, the question arises, “when is an emerging technology no longer emerging?” Technologies such as drones or mobile payments are often classified as emerging tech, but these technologies are, in fact, relatively mature. And their adoption is becoming widespread. Artificial intelligence is also touted by many as an emerging technology, which is quite odd given that the term AI was coined in 1956. But maybe classifying technologies as “emerging” misses the main point anyway, which is how technology transforms industries and life as we know it. Thus, rather than approach the topic from a pure technology perspective, we believe it is more important to take an insurance business perspective. This is why we at SMA now discuss a category we call transformational technologies. From this point of view, when the technology was first created or how far along it is in the development cycle becomes irrelevant, although those are still interesting facts. Instead, the transformational-technologies-focus places emphasis on which technologies are now...