Insurable Interest Canadian Insurance Blog

Heart & Stroke and Manulife have launched a Mother’s Day campaign aimed at raising funds for women’s heart disease and stroke research. The campaign encourages people to go to  www.heartandstroke.ca to make a donation and send a personalized e-card in honour of their mom. The French language website is: https://www.coeuretavc.ca/ . All donations will be matched by Manulife, up to a total amount of $250,000. Life-saving women’s research “This Mother’s Day, we’re giving people in Canada a way to honour moms and show that they love them and care about their health by contributing to a campaign to fund life-saving women’s research,” said Geoff Craig, Chief Marketing and Development Officer, Heart & Stroke, in a May 2 statement. “Heart disease and stroke are the leading cause of premature death for women in Canada, yet two-thirds of clinical research is focused on men, he added. “Heart & Stroke has committed to doubling the dollars we invest in researching women because most of what we know about how to diagnose and treat heart disease and stroke has been learned from research on men, but one size doesn’t fit all.”  Equipping women with vital information “Manulife is proud to become a Founding Partner...

The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) is marking its 125th anniversary. The association was founded on May 5, 1894 by eight executives representing Canadian-based life insurance companies. “Their association was created as a forum to share information about a young industry that had previously been dominated by much larger US and British firms. The Canadian Life Managers Association as it was then called, was the first of its kind in the insurance sector in North America,” explained the CLHIA in a May 3 announcement. Average household savings was $12 “Our country and our industry were very different in 1894; average household savings was $12 and very few employers offered health benefits or insurance of any kind,” Stephen Frank, CLHIA’s President and CEO said. “But the idea of pooling risk to plan for unexpected illness, premature death, and life beyond one’s working years makes as much sense today as it did then.” The CLHIA highlighted some of the contributions made by the organization over the past 125 years, including: persuading the federal government in 1919 to allow insurers to offer group life insurance, so businesses can provide health and life insurance as a benefit to their employees; leading health...

Saint Paul Pioneer Press (MN) A former Twin Cities man accused of faking his death in order to collect $2 million in life insurance pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Minneapolis, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Igor Vorotinov, 54, formerly of Maple Grove, was convicted of one count of mail fraud by U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz. His sentencing is set for July 29. Vorotinov took out an insurance policy with Mutual of Omaha in 2010 and named his ex-wife, Irina Vorotinov, as his primary beneficiary. An auto mechanic and dealer by trade, Vorotinov then left Minnesota for Moldova, a former Soviet republic in Eastern Europe. Seven months later, Irina Vorotinov was notified that a decomposed body of a man believed to be her ex-husband — in possession of his passport and other ID — was found near the village of Cojusna. The woman identified the body as her ex-husband, had him cremated in Moldova, took the urn back to Minnesota, interred him at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis and submitted the death certificate to the insurance company, which sent her a $2 million check in 2012. Igor Vorotinov changed his name to Nikoly Patoka and moved to Transnistria,...

New, “compelling” Tesla Private Passenger Auto insurance program “grounded in innovation” Sacramento, CA (May 1, 2019) – Tesla will launch an insurance program for its drivers via a partnership with State National Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Markel Corporation, according to a filing with the California Insurance Department’s rate regulation division. “We are creating a Tesla insurance product and we hope to launch that in about a month,” said Tesla CEO Elon Musk during his company’s earnings call on April 24. “It will be much more compelling than anything else out there.” The filing indicates State National Insurance Company (SNIC) will serve as a fronting company for the innovative program – which will see SNIC offering private insurance policies for “autos with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in the State of California” – with most of the risk being reinsured by a third-party. State National Insurance “provides the plumbing to move risk to capital … and they are quite honestly the best in the business in terms of offering that fronted model,” said Markel Co-CEO Richard Whitt, addressing a question during the insurer’s May 1st earning call.[1] The Tesla Private Passenger Auto program will be administered separately from other auto...

Empire Life posted net income of $43 million for the first quarter of 2019, up from $39 million in 2018. In a May 2 statement, the insurer said the earnings increase was primarily due to higher income from the Individual Insurance, Wealth Management and Capital and Surplus product lines, partially offset by lower income from Employee Benefits. The company reported a return on common shareholder’s equity (ROE) of 11.2% for the quarter, an increase from 10.8% for the same quarter of 2018. Empire Life’s Life Insurance Capital Adequacy Test (LICAT) Total Ratio was 150% at March 31, 2019. “All three of our product lines have performed well with net premiums higher than those in Q1 2018,” said Mark Sylvia, President and CEO of Empire Life. “First quarter return on shareholders’ equity was also higher than the same period in 2018. Our capital position, as measured by LICAT, continues to be very strong—above both supervisory and internal targets.” Source

By Corey Forrieter, Lead Software Developer, Apollo Insurance It might sound like an understatement to say that insurance has been around for a long time, but compare it with how long digital technology has been around and it would look like a peanut next to an elephant. As with any institution that has withstood the test of time, insurance has developed a defined process for accomplishing certain tasks, and there are very specific ways that things are done. There are certain processes in place that, for good or bad, have to be accounted for. As Apollo’s lead software developer, it’s my job to transfer those analog processes — many of them firmly ingrained — to a digital interface. Our platform is able to quote, bind, and issue policy documents on behalf of the broker, completely digitally and in real-time. That is a complex process, and when problems come up, my team has to be able to respond quickly. Of course, that’s common in any industry. What’s important for my team is that when that work is done and that problem is solved, that it is solved forever. Every process we have has to be scalable and repeatable. The principle is...

Institutions include the University of Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, the University of Waterloo, among others Yorktown Heights, NY (Apr. 25, 2019) – IBM  has announced the expansion of the IBM Q Network to include a number of global universities with the intent to partner with IBM to accelerate joint research in quantum computing, and develop curricula to help prepare students for careers that will be influenced by this next era of computing, across science and business. The IBM Q Network™ is the world’s first community of Fortune 500 companies, startups, academic institutions and research labs working to advance quantum computing and explore practical applications. Today, IBM is announcing Florida State University, the University of Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Stony Brook University, and the University of Tokyo will have direct access to IBM Q™’s most-advanced commercially available quantum computing systems for teaching, and faculty and student research projects that advance quantum information science and explore early applications, as academic partners. Examples of future quantum computing application research and exploration include: The University of Notre Dame: As part of the IBM Q Network, the university will grow an interdisciplinary quantum-programming community, and prepare a workforce at...

San Diego, CA (May 1, 2019) – While marketers today are faced with ever-growing challenges when it comes to uncovering and targeting key audiences, Gartner, Inc. has identified three strategies for marketers to better identify and engage their target audiences. Experts at Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo today discussed these growing challenges. They also shared how marketers can overcome them, and better segment and reach their target audiences. “Marketers today are faced with the tough task of overcoming media fragmentation and changing consumer behaviors. At the same time, they are trying to work around the fact that consumers are more often buying out of ads, by subscribing to services such as Amazon Prime Video and Netflix,” said Eric Schmitt, senior director at Gartner. “Then layer in more competition for attention, higher media prices and often more clutter. Marketers are playing ‘hide-and-seek’ with their target audiences, and they are often coming up short.” Marketers must remember that the “where,” “when” and “how” are often just as important as the “who” when it comes to reaching target audiences. To that end, the three strategies for marketers to better identify and engage their target audience include: Define your audience with care “In the era of...

London, UK (May 1, 2019) – Lloyd’s has unveiled a bold new strategy with a number of transformational initiatives that could shape the future of the world’s (re)insurance market The proposals are focused on delivering higher quality risk protection for the market’s customers. They also offer ways to simplify access to the global insurance market, together with lowering costs of doing business at Lloyd’s. The publication of this strategy marks the next phase of wide-ranging consultation and blueprint development involving Lloyd’s unique ecosystem of market participants, customers and other stakeholders. Work will begin on building and delivering prototypes from October 2019, with some operational in early 2020. The six new ideas outlined in The Future at Lloyd’s illustrate how the market can respond to challenges and seize opportunities to transform the way it delivers value to its customers. They are: A platform for complex risk that makes doing business easier and enables efficient digital placement of the most difficult-to-cover risks. Lloyd’s Risk Exchange through which less complex risks can be placed in minutes at a fraction of today’s costs. Flexible capital that can simply and effectively access a diverse set of insurance risks on the Lloyd’s platform. A Syndicate-in-a-Box, which...

Swyfft has selected CoreLogic Symbility to enhance the company’s data-driven claim cycles for homeowners, adjusters and insurers With CoreLogic, Swyfft: Can tap into a wider range of precise property- and claims-related data from CoreLogic Improves accuracy and consistency of data, allowing Swyfft to make better business decisions Gains access to LINK by Symbility, a consumer-facing product that ensures policyholders are up-to-date with the status of their claim Irvine, CA (May 2, 2019) – CoreLogic®, a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, today announced that Swyfft has selected CoreLogic’s Symbility® platform to aide their team through their data driven claims process. Swyfft provides fast and friendly homeowners insurance, through their patented analytical methods and unique data sources. From lightning-fast quotes to hassle-free claims servicing, Swyfft is committed to providing the very best customer service experience in the industry. With the adoption of the Symbility platform as their digital hub to help manage claim cycles, Swyfft will be able to tap into a wider range of precise property and claims-related data, provided through CoreLogic, to further enhance their data-driven approach to processing claims and unique customer experience. CoreLogic’s breadth of exclusive and unmatched property data flows freely through all...