The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in January 2019 published a new report revealing that public social spending in OECD countries was just above 20% of GDP on average in 2018. Public spending on areas such as pensions, healthcare, and unemployment benefits was highest in France (31.2%), Belgium (28.9%) and Denmark (28.7%) and lowest in Mexico (7.5%), Chile (10.9%) and Korea (11.1%). Pensions spending is the biggest

In mid-January 2019 the UK Parliament rejected the proposed European Union (EU)-UK agreement that provided for a more or less orderly Brexit. Two months ahead of the deadline, the British government is expected to further push for an approval of the agreement, but a disorderly separation may now be the most likely scenario. Accordingly, EU nations are getting ready to minimize expected disruptions. The European Commission, in December 2019, published

Global Benefits Vision: Now that Brexit seems to be upon us, let’s talk about how you see it impacting Lockton and the insurance world in general. Ian Cooper: It has been quite fascinating. Insurance providers, as we know, within the single market, can passport regulatory permissions and trade across Europe.

Published in December 2018, the OECD Pensions Outlook 2018 report examines how national pension systems are adapting to improve retirement outcomes. This has direct implications for the design and implementation of occupational pension plans. The report focuses on funded pensions and discusses how different pension tools can be combined to meet certain goals. It also considers how countries can improve financial, i.e. tax, incentives. This edition draws lessons from

Aon in December 2018 released a paper, The Contemporary Drivers of Mental Health, detailing factors driving poor employee mental health in the UK. Debt, separation and bullying are the personal issues of most concern to employers when it comes to employee mental health, according to a poll of employers. Of the 92 employers surveyed, 39 stated that money and debt were their biggest concerns for employee mental health, 27

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in November 2018 released the 2018 edition of Health at a Glance: Europe. This report is led by the European Commission and designed to assist member states in improving the health of their citizens and the performance of their health systems. The report cites “two overarching trends [that] warrant special mention”: [T]he steady increase in life expectancy has slowed considerably in

Accounting standard setting body IASB (International Accounting Standards Board) in November 2018 decided to defer the effective date for International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 17 – Insurance Contracts – to January 1, 2022. IFRS 17 deals with the recognition of income arising from insurance contracts and its presentation in annual accounts. At the same time, the temporary exemption to IFRS 9 that was included in IFRS 4 also was

Employer-provided health care benefits costs are expected to increase modestly around the globe in 2019, according to the 2019 Global Medical Trends Survey of medical insurers published in November 2018 by Willis Towers Watson (WTW). Insurers blame the high cost of medical technology and the overuse and overprescribing of services as major factors in escalating costs and caution that soaring pharmacy costs will become a significant factor over the

Aon has identified that many UK employees do not accurately record sickness absence. Published in November 2018, this insight was obtained by conducting group risk market reviews for employers. Group risk insurers require information on who is absent, the reason for their absence, duration, and more information such as prognosis. Aon, through its market review activity, has seen that some employers either do not record their employees’ absences or

A survey conducted by Swiss Life in Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, and the United Kingdom and published in November 2018 found that only 46% of respondents feel confident about their current financial situation. The differences in the individual countries are huge: 65% of Swiss respondents said they feel comfortable with their finances and only 27% feel financially stressed. By contrast, financial confidence in Austria (48%), Germany (44%) and the

According to figures released in October 2018 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), global foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 41% in the first half of 2018 to an estimated $470 billion from $800 billion in the same period in 2017, mainly due to large repatriations of accumulated foreign earnings from United States parent companies affiliates abroad. This comes on the heels of US tax

According to research published in October 2018 by Swiss Re Institute, the research arm of Swiss Re, the health protection gap in Asia reached US$1.8 trillion in 2017 and exhibits a growing trend. The corresponding global figure is $2.9 trillion, with the difference coming mostly from Latin America ($0.7 trillion) and Africa ($0.3 trillion). Central and Eastern Europe comes in at $143 billion. To put these figures into perspective, in

Finding out which laws and regulations apply in the U.S. and especially when crossing the U.S. border sometimes is a complex matter. Case in point: the marijuana industry is legal in certain U.S. States such as Colorado or California but is illegal as per federal law. So what happens when a marijuana industry official enters the U.S. by way of, say, San Francisco International airport? The U.S. Customs and

Researchers Jacqueline Carter and Rasmus Hougaard stopped in Brussels on 19 September 2018 to present the findings of their new book, The Mind of the Leader, Harvard Business Press. During an interesting evening, co-hosted by Generali Employee Benefits, Harvard Business Review and McKinsey GBV sat down with the authors to delve deeper into some aspects of their findings.

The global wellness industry grew 12.8% in the last two years, from a $3.7 trillion market in 2015 to $4.2 trillion in 2017, according to an in-depth research report, the 2018 Global Wellness Economy Monitor, released by the nonprofit Global Wellness Institute (GWI). The report was released at the 12th annual Global Wellness Summit in Cesena, Italy, which attracted 630+ industry leaders from 50 nations. This all new data

Young people in Britain face mounting debts and unaffordable living expenses according to new research from Neyber, but employers believe employees are borrowing less this year. The September 2018 study, carried out among 10,000 UK employees, found that 70% of people under the age of 34 need to borrow regularly either to pay their monthly bills or deal with day-to-day living expenses. However, only 77% of employers, down from

New research published by MetLife UK in September 2018 shows nearly two out of three SME bosses worry their staff face a benefits protection gap in comparison with workers at larger firms. The nationwide survey of companies employing between 50 and 300 staff – equivalent to around 34,000 businesses with an annual turnover of £541 billion and employing 3.3 million people – found 63% of bosses worry about a

Global HR services firm Randstad in September 2018 released its Q2 2018 Workmonitor survey results. The survey tracks employee confidence and captures the likelihood of an employee changing jobs within the next 6 months, provides a comprehensive understanding of sentiments and trends in key job markets around the world. Published once per quarter, it also covers local and global trends in mobility, job satisfaction and motivation across 34 countries

Aon is offering 10 tips to help organizations maximize the use of occupational health (OH) programmes. Generally, employers use occupational health to be responsible and compliant, while also reducing costs. Aon’s 2018 Benefits and Trends survey released in August 2018 found that 96% of employers agree that they have a responsibility to influence employee health, although only 65% access occupational health services. The authors explain that a common theme

Gallagher has released its 2018 Human Capital Insights Report, Identify the Trends, a 40-page document that looks at the changing landscape of human capital Framework for the Future initiative, which addresses the challenges to employers in a rapidly-changing workplace. The report identifies four areas impacting the change in workplace environments: The transformation of the global business marketplace may mean a more affordable cost structure for talent management The shifting

The UK’s Home Office in August 2018 unveiled a package of briefing packs, posters and leaflets, the “EU Settlement Scheme: employer toolkit” to help staff from the EU to register for a new immigration status that will be legally required after Brexit. An estimated 3.5 million to 3.8 million EU citizens live and work in the UK. Among the employers and groups present at the launch were the British

The European Commission in August 2018 announced the names of the ten members of its recently established “High Level Group on [supplementary] pensions”. The mission of the group is “to provide policy advice to the Commission on matters related to ways of improving the provision, safety through prudential rules, inter-generational balance, adequacy and sustainability of supplementary (occupational and personal) pensions in light of the challenges in the Union and

Employers with operations in the U.S. should not underestimate current difficulties in hiring workers. Gad Levanon, chief economist for North America at The Conference Board, in August 2018 commented on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Report. “The [U.S.] labor market is tightening with the unemployment rate declining by 0.1 percentage points and the broader U-6 measure dropping by 0.3 percentage points.” The U.S. unemployment rate fell

Economic growth is picking up and unemployment has reached record lows in some OECD countries but wages continue to stagnate. Unless countries can break this cycle, public belief in the recovery will be undermined and labor market inequality will widen, according to a new report, published in July 2018 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The OECD Employment Outlook 2018 states that the employment rate for

Fueled by large life deals, the U.K. insurance sector saw more mergers and acquisitions activity in the first half of 2018 than in either the full year of 2017 and 2016, according to consultant Ernst & Young (EY). U.S. Tax Reform One of Many Drivers Telecommunications, automotive and healthcare top the list of sectors for deals with the highest value, with strong levels of UK/U.S. M&A expected to continue,

The OECD in July 2018 released its Annual Survey of Investment Regulations of Pension Funds 2018, which describes the main quantitative investment regulations that pension funds are subject to in OECD and a selection of IOPS member countries. It covers all types of pension plans, and concerns all forms of quantitative portfolio restrictions applied to pension funds at different legal levels. The 356-page survey’s findings conclude, in part, that:

Preliminary data, released in July 2018 by the OECD, shows an increase in life and/or non-life gross premiums of domestic insurance companies for 2017, with 40 out of 43 countries reporting. Gross premiums of domestic insurance companies rose in real terms in 15 countries in both the life and non-life sectors, and in 10 other countries in the life sector only, while another 15 reported rises in the non-life