The March 31, 2017 imposition of Article 50 has nervous Britons rushing to transfer their final salary pensions into overseas schemes. According to deVere Group, a large independent financial advisory organization, the percentage of inquiries about transferring pensions has risen 21% since the beginning of December. While there has been interest since the Brexit vote in June 2016, the surge to transfer pensions overseas intensified during December and promises

Following the successful conclusion in January 2017 of the bilateral agreement on insurance and reinsurance between the European Union and the U.S., industry body Insurance Europe welcomed the deal, supporting in particular the removal of the discriminatory collateral requirements that E.U. reinsurers were subject to when placing business in the U.S.. This change is expected to support bilateral trade in insurance and reinsurance. However, the National Conference of Insurance

Amsterdam, The Netherlands-based sleep expert Els van der Helm, PhD,  in November 2016 launched her new website, www.elsvanderhelm.com, that includes resources such as videos, brief articles and Els’s academic research. Prior to her own consulting firm, Els worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. There she combined her passion for leadership development and sleep management. She developed and facilitated training programs for both McKinsey consultants and clients.

The European Commission in October 2016 conducted hearings with pension funds, asset managers, insurance undertakings, individuals, consumer associations, and public authorities  to debate the need for a pan-European pension product. The panel debates allowed stakeholders to determine if EU action fostering the emergence of European personal pension products is appropriate as well as proportionate. At stake are simple, affordable, and transparent pension plans that provide better returns. More investment

General Electric (GE) in September 2016 has had its European pension fund approved by FSMA, Belgium’s financial supervisory authority and the regulatory body for pension funds. GE is encouraging its existing European-based pension plans to join the fund, which takes the legal form of an Organisme de Financement de Pensions (OFP), Belgium’s IORP-compliant vehicle for pensions provisions. At this early stage, a management committee has been appointed. An IORP

Auto manufacturer BMW in September 2016 decided to end both of its UK final salary-defined benefit (DB) pension plans. Both plans will cease future accrual as of June 2017, affecting around 5,000 members total. Citing significant pension fund shortfalls and the cost risks associated with DB plans, BMW explained that their plans are increasingly unsustainable and unaffordable for both the company and the pension plans members. Unite, the union

Tokio Marine Life Insurance Singapore (TMLS) and Henner Group in June 2016 announced that they have joined forces to launch an international medical coverage solution for globally mobile employees based in Singapore. Henner is a French firm specialized in employee benefits and one of the largest and best-known TPAs in the international private medical insurance market where it was previously known as GMC. The partnership allows TMLS and Henner

The Health Insurance Group in September 2016 introduced a global and expatriate Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that provides help and support to people working abroad who are in crisis or need. Partnering with Morneau Shepell, the leading provider of integrated health and productivity solutions in Canada, The Health Insurance Group, located in the United Kingdom, offers a comprehensive suite of international assistance programs, including worldwide EAP, to help employees

Travel insurance and assistance services are quickly gaining favor among travel professionals who work for companies that provide them. A new study, “Assessing the Prevalence and Value of Travel Insurance and Assistance Services”, published in September 2016 by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) and AIG Travel, reveals that 95 percent of travel professionals feel that providing insurance or assistance services to employees is a valuable benefit for those

HealthMine, a healthcare technology company based in Dallas, Texas, in August 2016 released the results of a study revealing that the majority (62%) believe that all health care plan participants should join a wellness program to help them lower their health care costs. 32% responded that wellness programs helped them reduce the number of sick days logged, and 33% said their wellness program helped them be more productive at

Expatriates and Emiratis in the United Arab Emirates have seen changes to their health insurance programs as of July 1, 2016. These changes will affect only those under the Abu Dhabi Basic Plan who seek treatment at a private hospital under the Thiqa plan for Emiratis, expatriates, and their families. Procedures at government hospitals are unaffected. Thiqa, the Arabic word for “trust,” is a UAE national insurance initiative delivered

Corporate pension plan buyouts reached $1.084 billion in the first quarter of 2016 according to a LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute sales survey. This is interpreted as a clear sign that companies are eager to limit the amount of risk in their pension plans. The US Group Annuity Risk Transfer Survey, released in May of this year, notes that this is the first time sales have topped $1 billion in

Forget the United States; Taiwan, Malta and Ecuador head the list of countries where expats most want to live this year, a new survey reports. More than 14,000 expats ranked their preferred countries in the InterNations Expat Insider 2016 survey, released in August. In addition to the best overall rating, Taiwan also won first place for personal finance and quality of life, and second place for its working conditions. More than

MAXIS Global Benefits Network in August 2016 launched the MAXIS Global Risk Solution, a global program management solution offering centralized multinational companies with large global footprints a single-employer, non-profit-sharing arrangement. Key advantages include better terms and conditions; economies of scale; greater predictability of premiums; a global financial view; and a single point of contact for underwriting. Eligible coverages include group death; survivor income; group disability benefits; as well as

The emergence of new, more expensive, cancer drug therapies that help the immune system attack tumors is expected to increase cancer drug spending to over $150 billion by 2020 according to a global oncology report released by IMS Health Holdings. This represents an annual global growth rate for oncology drug spending of 7.5% to 10.5% through 2020, up from last year’s IMS forecast of 6% to 8% growth. The

PPG Industries, the Pittsburgh-based coatings, specialty materials, and glass products manufacturer, in April 2016 announced that they will begin buying group annuity contracts in order to provide pension benefits to 13,000+ retirees and survivors in the U.S.A. PPG joins such large corporations as Kimberly-Clark Corp., Verizon, and General Motors, who have adopted this de-risking process in order to reduce premium payments to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp (PBGC). PBGC

UK employers tend to fall short when it comes to having a defined health strategy plan for their employees, especially when the numbers are measured against mainland Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Aon’s EMEA Health Survey Report, published in early 2016, revealed that only 30 percent of UK employers have a defined health strategy compared with 40 percent of EMEA employers, and that only 37% of UK employers

MetLife in August 2016 published its first global whitepaper, Employee Benefits Generating Business Impact, identifying key benefits trends and solutions from around the world. Based on data from 12 markets, the research found that total rewards packages are key to employee engagement, productivity and retention. In fact, nearly 100% of employers in Mexico, Brazil, Australia and the US said that benefits are important for attracting and retaining talent. Key

Generali Global Assistance in July 2016 announced the launch in the United States of their comprehensive identity protection platform called Iris OnWatch. With identity theft on the rise, the need for 24/7 prevention, monitoring, alerting, and resolution — the so-called “four pillars of identity protection” — is an important component of cyber security. Iris OnWatch provides an integrated protection system with access to identity theft prevention, monitoring, alerts, and

The average cost of care for a typical American family of four covered by an average employer-sponsored PPO has more than tripled from an average of $8,414 for a family of four in 2001, to the current average of $25,826 according to a report by the Milliman Medical Index. While the percentage increase of 4.7% is the smallest yearly increase yet, it is still well above the increase in

The workplace has been slow to change, considering that the world outside it has changed considerably since the cultural revolution of the 1960s. The number of millennial cohorts in the workplace (those born between 1980 and 2000 and commonly known as Gen Y) recently surpassed the number of Baby Boomers, effectively ushering out decades of dated workplace practices that no longer fit the new culture. A new Gallup study

The objective of Track and Trace Your Pension in Europe (TTYPE) is to allow E.U. citizens to find all relevant information about their pensions regardless of when and where they worked and accumulated pension rights. TTYPE’s European Tracking Service (ETS) extends and builds on existing National Tracking Services (NTS) that store the pension records of an employee along his/her changes in employers in one same country. After a planning

When the Lumina Foundation studied the Cigna Corporation’s Employee Reimbursement Program, they discovered that reimbursing employees for tuition spent on higher education is a valuable business investment that “translates into quantifiable cost avoidance for Cigna.” The Lumina Foundation, a national foundation focused on increasing post-secondary attainment, partnered with Cigna to design the study, which was conducted by Accenture. Lumina’s analysis of Cigna’s Educational Reimbursement Program (ERP) revealed that encouraging

New regulations dealing with the protection of personal data for the citizens of the European Union went into effect on 25 May, 2016. E.U. General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) will fully replace Directive 95/35/EC in 2018, after a two-year transitional period. The new regulations, drawn up in 2012 for the purpose of ensuring a consistent and high level of protection of an individual’s personal data and rights, have

The National Center for Health Statistics (NHCS) in May 2016 reported that the percentage of Americans without health insurance has dropped below 10%, mostly due to provisions in the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) that give federal premium subsidies to low-income individuals to help them underwrite the cost of health insurance. In many cases, the insured pay little or no money to be included under health plans available in

The women’s market for insurance worldwide is growing rapidly, and is projected to attract $1.45 to $1.7 trillion through 2030, well up from the $800 million the insurance industry realized in 2013. Most significantly, over half of those trillions will come from emerging economies in Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Thailand, and Turkey. Recognizing the potential of these untapped markets, AXA, IFC, and Accenture collaborated to

Just when U.S. employers were getting the hang of program rules under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and HIPAA, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in May 2016 has added new regulations on to workplace wellness programs. These regulations, issued under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), are additional to the requirements already necessary for compliance with ACA/HIPAA wellness programs. These rules