Immigration experts Fragomen will host an online event about the Russia-Ukraine Crisis, Resources and Crisis Management Pointers for Employers. The webinar is intended to provide further insight into the immigration ramifications of the situation: Updates regarding the evolving crisis in Ukraine as related to immigration How [Fragomen] can help employers and employees navigate the current challenges Reducing vulnerabilities by assessing immigration risks and mitigating their impact through planning and

Global broker and consulting firm Aon in January 2022 appointed Sven Roelandt as Global Leader Captive EB Services. He now heads Aon’s new global team supporting captives for employee benefits (E.B.) risks. Sven previously was Aon’s global expert for EB financing strategies and carrier relations and continues to be based in Antwerp, Belgium. He came to Aon from Further Financial Services in Madrid, Spain, where he served as Director

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in February 2022 published its December 2021 inflation statistics, showing the highest rate since July 1991, more than 30 years ago. In fact, inflation in the OECD area rose to 6.6% in the 12 months to December 2021, compared with 5.9% in November, and just 1.2% in December 2020. This increase was driven in part by a surge in annual inflation

  Worldwide Broker Network (WBN) in February 2022 announced the appointment of Enrique Acevedo, CEO of Colombian insurance broker Correcol to its Board of Directors. Enrique Acevedo has over 25 years of intermediary experience as head of the Correcol insurance brokerage. For the last 16 years, Correcol has been the largest independent broker in the Colombian insurance market, employing over 250 staff within its headquarters in Bogota, and regional

Global broker Gallagher and employee benefits management software provider Cobee in February 2022 announced a new partnership agreement. Founded in 2019, Cobee operates in Spain for companies such as Ogilvy, Group M, Booking, Avis, TripAdvisor or Glovo. In January 2021, it expanded its services to Portugal. Under the agreement, Cobee will offer bespoke brokerage and administration solutions in Iberia to Gallagher’s Multinational Benefits & HR Consulting (MBHRC) practice clients,

Global employee benefits network IGP in February 2022 announced the launch of a Center of Expertise (CoE) for Reinsurance to Captive and Global Underwriting Programs. The new CoE represents a departure from IGP’s long-standing focus on pooling. Alongside the more traditional multinational pooling programs, IGP has expanded its offer to Global Underwriting and Reinsurance to Captive programs and now introduces a re-designed operational workflow that facilitates their implementation either

WTW France in January 2022 announced the appointment of Mélanie Birgé as Head of Health & Benefits for France. A member of the executive committee, she is responsible for defining the commercial strategy and managing the business line dedicated to social protection and employee benefits for all WTW clients in France. Mélanie succeeds Liliane Spiridon who leaves WTW for Aon France. Mélanie Birgé began her career in Burkina Faso as

Zurich Insurance in January 2022 announced the sale of an Italian life and pension portfolio to Portuguese carrier GamaLife – Companhia de Seguros de Vida. The stated purpose is to reduce Zurich’s solvency requirements and free up capital. The amount of the transaction has not been disclosed, but the press release states that the Solvency Capital Requirement under Swiss solvency rules will “decrease by approximately $1.2 billion.” and that

Global actuarial and consulting firm Milliman in January 2022 announced the appointment of Dermot Corry as its new chief executive officer, effective 1 January 2022. Corry, who is the first professional from outside the United States to be elected Milliman’s CEO, succeeds Stephen White, who is retiring. Corry currently is a Principal of Milliman’s Dublin, Ireland office and has served as the firm’s global life and financial services practice

A member of the “YES” project, German insurance carrier SOKA-Bau on 18 January 2022 organizes an online workshop about the “Challenges of Posting in the Construction Industry”. SOKA-Bau is the umbrella brand of two paritarian institutions serving the construction industry: the Vacation and Wage Compensation Fund of the Construction Industry (Urlaubs- und Lohnausgleichskasse der Bauwirtschaft, ULAK) and the Supplementary Pension Fund of the Construction Industry (Zusatzversorgungskasse des Baugewerbes, ZVK).

The Worldwide Broker Network (WBN) in December 2021 announced the appointment of Alan Fergusson as Global Employee Benefits Practice Leader, reporting to CEO Olga Collins. Fergusson has over 20 years of experience in the employee benefits sector. Prior to this appointment, Alan has been a consultant for WBN and has been associated with the network since 2012 evolving the E.B. strategy and participating on the Board of Directors from

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in January 2022 published its November 2021 inflation figures, showing the highest rate in 25 years. In fact, inflation in the OECD area surged to 5.8% in the 12 months to November 2021, compared with 5.2% in October, and just 1.2% in November 2020, reaching the highest rate since May 1996. The rise was particularly marked in the United States, where

Willis Towers Watson in January 2022 announced it had changed its brand name to WTW. In France, WTW will drop the well-known Gras Savoye brand name in favor of WTW. Willis had acquired Gras-Savoye in 2015. Furthermore, WTW’s ticker symbol on the NASDAQ stock market will change to “WTW” instead of “WLTW”. These changes occur in the wake of WTW’s failed acquisition by Aon “as [the company now moves]

Allianz Global Benefits (AGB) and Sanitas, a healthcare specialist in Spain, in December 2021 announced a partnership agreement to globally provide group healthcare insurance programs to multinationals. According to Dirk Hellmuth, CEO of Allianz Global Benefits, Sanitas healthcare plans can be included in global employee benefits programs, such as Multinational Pooling, Captive Reinsurance and Global Underwriting. Javier Ibáñez, Managing Director of Sanitas Seguros, states: “We are very proud of

Coming shortly after the announcement of their merger, the new Diot-Siaci group, which is now the leading broker on the French market, in November 2022 finalized the make-up of its future executive committee. This new management body will include eleven members, coming from both Diot and Siaci. At the top of the group, Pierre Donnersberg, Chairman of Diot-Siaci, and Christian Burrus, Vice-Chairman and General Manager. Changes affecting international benefits,

The French government had promised to review the tax framework for captives to encourage their creation in France. However, in November 2021, it appeared that the measure would not be part of the 2022 Finance Bill. The creation of a specific mechanism allowing captives to smooth their reserves over time, i.e. equalization reserves, is understood to be considered by the European Union as a “state aid mechanism”, and therefore

The European Association of Paritarian Institutions (AEIP) in November 2021 announced its upcoming webinar, to be held on December 2, 2021, on “The added value of the Paritarian model – Celebrating 25 Years of AEIP in Brussels”. The full title of the event is ‘The future of social protection – the role of supplementary social protection institutions: The added-value of the paritarian model to deliver solutions in a changing

Willis Towers Watson (WTW) in November 2021 announced the appointment of Johan Lindvall as chief executive officer of WTW Sweden, and as the firm’s head of Sweden and Finland. Lindvall joined WTW in 2013, developing and managing its Affinity insurance-tech operation, for which he remains responsible. Before working for WTW, Lindvall worked as commercial director at Norwegian carrier Protector Forsikring, and previously at Aon. Johan attended the Aon Catalyst

Big-Four firm Ernst & Young in November 2021 released the 2021 edition of its Worldwide Corporate Tax Guide. The 2012-page document summarizes corporate tax systems in more than 160 jurisdictions and is current as of January 1, 2021. It can be downloaded here as a PDF (free of charge, personal details required).

Recently formed French mutual insurance carrier Aéma in October 2021 announced it has completed the acquisition of Aviva’s French operations. As a result, the company now ranks #5 among French insurance carriers. British seller Aviva plc received EUR 3.2 billion in cash for the sale of Aviva France, including its life, non-life, and asset management businesses. Aéma Groupe was launched in January 2021 by mutuals Macif and Aésio Mutuelle,

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in October 2021 published its latest data about inflation. According to the OECD, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) continued upward, reaching 4.3% in August 2021 driven by energy and food prices. The new data point compares with 4.2% in July, continuing the upward trend beginning in December 2020. In the euro area, annual inflation picked up strongly to 3.0% in August

Ranked by 2020 employee benefits revenue, the Top Ten E.B. brokers are:   Rank Company EB Revenues 2020 Growth 2020/2019 EB as % of Total Revenues 1 Marsh & McLennan $4.9bn -1.9% 28.6% 2 Willis Towers Watson $4.8bn 5.6% 51.5% 3 Aon $3.4bn -2.2% 30.8% 4 Arthur J. Gallagher $1.2bn 4.1% 17.8% 5 NFP $0.8bn 5.5% 49.0% 6 Hub International $0.8bn 17.6% 28.8% 7 USI $0.7bn 7.5% 36.3% 8

Ranked by 2020 brokerage revenue, the Top Ten insurance brokers are: The average growth in 2020 was close to 5%. The 2020 rankings differ from the 2019 league table only by #9 and #10, Acrisure and USI, which have swapped their places.  

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)’s Composite Leading Indicators (CLI) in September 2021 indicated that growth remains at above-trend levels but is moderating in the OECD area. Among the major OECD economies, the signs of a moderating growth at above-trend levels already were flagged in last month’s assessment. They now have been confirmed in Canada, the euro area as a whole, including Germany and Italy, and in

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in September 2021 published its July 2021 unemployment data. The OECD area unemployment rate fell to 6.2% in July 2021 (41.1 million workers) from 6.4% in June (minus 1.6 million), and still 0.9 percentage point above the rate observed in February 2020. The latest rate largely reflects the return of temporary laid-off workers in the United States and Canada, where they

According to SwissRe Institute’s sigma study published in September 2021, global premiums in P/C insurance are expected to grow by an average 5 to 6% per year over the 2020 to 2040 period, reaching USD 4.3 trillion by 2040, up from 450 billion in 2020. The expected growth is driven by effects of economic development and climate change, and includes a shift from lower-risk, high-volume motor insurance to catastrophe-exposed property

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in August 2021 announced that the Gross domestic product (GDP) of the OECD area remains below pre-pandemic levels, despite increasing growth in the second quarter of 2021, by 1.6% from 0.6% in the previous quarter, according to provisional estimates. The United Kingdom recorded the strongest growth (4.8% from minus 1.6% in the previous quarter), followed by Italy (2.7% from 0.2% in the previous quarter).