May 17, 2012: {Based on Press Release} Assuris announced today that The Union Life Mutual Assurance Company (UL Mutual) has agreed to assume responsibility for all the policies of Union of Canada Life Insurance, which was ordered into liquidation February 2, 2012. “On transfer of the policies, 99 per cent of the policyholders will...
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New York Department of Financial Services Reaches Agreement with Hartford Life to pay $24,000,000 to 300,000 of Its Insureds Covered By Accidental Death And Dismemberment (AD&D) Insurance Policies…
{From press release} Company Failed to Comply with 60% Minimum Loss Ratio Required in New York; Agrees to Implement Corrective Action Plan, Superintendent Lawsky Says Benjamin M. Lawsky, Superintendent of Financial Services, today announced that approximately 300,000 people who bought mass marketed accidental death...
Standard Life temporarily suspends new sales of GLWB product
{From press release} “The Standard Life Assurance Company of Canada today announced it is temporarily suspending new sales of Ideal Income Series, its Guaranteed Lifetime Withdrawal Benefit product or GLWB, effective April 16, 2012. Standard Life believes that its decision is a responsible one...
UNION OF CANADA LIFE seeks COURT PROTECTION under the WINDING-UP AND RESTRUCTURING ACT (WURA). Please make sure to take note of this.
{based on press release]: February 02, 2012: Today, Union of Canada Life sought court protection under the Winding-up and Restructuring Act (WURA). All policyholders of Union of Canada Life are protected by Assuris, the not for profit organization that protects Canadian policyholders in the...
Great West Lifeco, acquisitions, court ruling…
Based on Press release: "The Court of Appeal for Ontario has released a decision in regard to the involvement of the participating accounts of Great-West Lifeco subsidiaries London Life Insurance Company and The Great-West Life Assurance Company in the financing of the acquisition of...
WEBMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT: A webminar for consumer-interest focused life insurance advisors in Canada is scheduled for WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 26 AT 11:00 A.M (Toronto time)
The webminar will cover aspects that are often overlooked, and/or were previously difficult or quite time consuming to perform. The focus is on considerations, ways and means to provide the life insurance buyer with potentially substantial added value for the insurance premium that is...
A review webminar on enhancements to the MRI (Maximize Return on Investment)functions in LifeGuide will held on Tuesday, October 18, 2011 at 11:00 a.m. (Toronto Time)…
LifeGuide Ver 2011.10, released at the beginning of this month, includes the release of further enhancements to LifeGuide, and in particular to the MRI (Maximum Return on Investment) functions of LifeGuide. The enhancements include the inclusion of upgrades to the OptiSearch functions, as well...
Intact Flips AXA Life Insurance To SSQ Financial Group for $300 million…
We all likely remember realestate flip deals… Welcome to life insurance company flips… Intact Financial said today that it reached an agreement to sell AXA Life Insurance to SSQ Financial Group for $300 million. Intact Financial, the largest provider of property and casualty insurance...
Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. ("Industrial Alliance") announces the merger of its subsidiary, Industrial Alliance Pacific Insurance and Financial Services Inc. ("Industrial Alliance Pacific"), with its own operations…
Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Industrial Alliance Pacific offers services in individual insurance, wealth management, creditor insurance and special market risks. After the combination, these operations will continue under the Industrial Alliance banner and will remain based in Vancouver. The merger, which will be...
The September 2011 automated update of LifeGuide now available with further significant software enhancements, along with insurance product revisions…
As LifeGuide automatically updates with the current (2011.09) release, it automatically also updates to include several notable and valuable software enhancements. The enhancements involve added functions and functionality, revision of the user interface to integrate the added functions, as well as internal enhancements in...
LIMRA: Sales Potential for Underinsured Life Insurance Market Doubles in Six Years…
{From press release} A new LIMRA study has quantified the sales potential in the life insurance market of underinsured households in the U.S. "The underinsured life insurance market offers financial professionals tremendous opportunity, with 35 million underinsured middle market households in total – half...
Another enhancement to LifeGuide to be released shortly…
A further and quite interesting enhancement to LifeGuide is currently in its testing phase and is expected to be released nicely ahead of schedule. It will be announced here, at http://www.planner.ca upon release. There will be a scheduled mid-month automated update to LifeGuide at...
The July update and enhancement of LifeGuide includes introduction of the EquiRate(tm) option…
The EquiRate(tm) option is a user-selectable option for LifeGuide surveys. The purpose of this option is to rank all offerings that are identical in premium with the same rank. Therefore, if the premium cost for several product offerings is identical, under EquiRank they are...
UPDATE – Federal Budget
The March 22, 2011 federal budget did not pass before parliament was dissolved. All of the income tax changes (including implementation dates) introduced in that budget have been carried forward, unchanged, to this Budget. Furthermore, this Budget did not introduce any new income tax...
US: Interesting sign of trend change or new twist? Lifeleaks
In a fresh leak by one of its MGAs in the US, it is learned that Effective May 2nd, Prudential will be "lowering the rates on their PruLife SUL Protector on full-pay lifetime premiums by an average of 12%!!" This is interesting in the...
LifeGuide tip… Date Awareness…
The following is a brief summary of an interesting case. A call was received from an insurance agent, who was not a LifeGuide subscriber, and who was wondering why he lost a case to a competitor who is a LifeGuide subscriber. Following is a...
IMPORTANT REMINDER: 60,000 Holocaust Victims’ Assets Yet Unclaimed…
60,000 Holocaust Victims’ Assets in Israel have yet to be claimed. If your or your client’s family member perished in the Holocaust, you or your client may be a beneficiary to an asset in Israel. The State of Israel is urgently searching for heirs...
ONTARIO: Ontario Brokers Association Announces Results of Recent Brokers Choice Survey on Insurance Companies…
{Based on Press Release} the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO) released the results of the 2010 Brokers Choice survey. Brokers Choice provides IBAO broker members with an opportunity to rate the performance of the insurance companies they work with. Every two years, IBAO...
Great-West Life offers enhanced interactive online resource to help plan members achieve retirement savings goals and increase financial literacy…
{Based on Press Release} In its ongoing commitment to provide group retirement and savings plan members with innovative services and tools, Great-West Life has introduced a dynamic and customizable new member home page for GRS Access, the company’s secure, transactional website. This latest enhancement...
Ontario – New Life Insurance Replacement Declaration replaces old disclosure form as of April 1st
{Text as announced by FSCO} Ontario’s new Life Insurance Replacement Declaration (LIRD) will replace the old obsolete Life Insurance Disclosure Form as of April 1, 2011 with mplementation of amendments to Regulation 674. The new LIRD addresses the problems agents experienced with the old...
CLHIA lobbies for "Voluntary Retirement Savings Plans" (VRSVs)…
In its press release, dated today, the CLHIA continued with its lobby for VRSPs. Following is an excerpt from CLIHIA’s most recent press release on the subject: "The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) congratulates the Quebec government for showing leadership in improving...
Sun Life Financial deploys rapid response fund for disaster relief in Japan…
Sun Life Financial Inc. announced today it has deployed the Sun Life Financial International Response Fund to support rapid humanitarian aid in Japan. An initial contribution from the Response Fund has been made to the Canadian Red Cross, which will contribute to the emergency...
Flash product revisions introduced by RBC Insurance – Please note…
Term 10 and Term 20: Effective immediately, all quotes over $10MM for both Term 10 and Term 20 will now be considered a special quote. If you have clients wishing to purchase more than $10MM of term coverage, we ask that you follow the...
Version 2011.03 of LifeGuide available for automated update by LifeGuide subscribers…
The following product revisions, along with internal enhancements, are reflected in the current 2011.03 automated update release of LifeGuide. This summary also includes product revisions that were reflected in the automated update releases of LifeGuide during the past month: -Version 2011.03: RBC: The minimum...
Rapid stream of product revisions anticipated for February and March 2011…
IMPORTANT: The wave of product rate revisions involving "permanent" (incl. WL, UL and T100) life insurance products is rapidly picking up steam as insurers revise rates (generally increasing rates) to make "permanent" products more profitable. Therefore, it is anticipated that there will be more...