Activehours, a mobile app that gives people access to their pay directly from their smartphones whenever they need it, has announced a $39 million investment round led by Andreessen Horowitz, along with participation from earlier-stage investors Matrix Partners, Ribbit Capital, and March Capital Partners. Launched in 2014, Activehours has added employees from more than 25,000 companies including Starbucks, Apple, Home Depot and Target, who use the app. Activehours charges

Dr. Klaus-Peter Röhler in September 2017 was named Chairman of the Management Board (CEO) at Allianz Deutschland, replacing Dr. Manfred Knof effective 1 January, 2018. Röhler, 52, has been CEO of Allianz Italia since 2015, a post he assumed after serving as CEO of Allianz Suisse for two years. Dr. Röhler holds a PhD, a degree in Law, and a diploma in Business Administration, and is a member of

Tokio Marine HCC in October 2017 acquired the medical stop-loss operations of AIG through its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, HCC Life. The deal includes renewal rights, inforce business and employees.  The acquired operations produce gross written premium of approximately $350 million and increase Tokio Marine HCC’s medical stop-loss business to over $1.3 billion of premium, making it one of the top three largest players in the medical stop-loss industry,

B3i, a group of fifteen global insurers and reinsurers, in September 2017 launched a fully functional beta version of its integrated blockchain solution for the re/insurance industry at the 61st Monte Carlo RVS Conference. In seeking to fulfill the potential of blockchain, B3i group members have attempted to build an efficient worldwide industry platform for market participants to more easily cede, handle, and trade risks. Speaking for B3i, Paul

Canada Life Reinsurance, a provider of innovative reinsurance solutions worldwide, has entered into a long-term reinsurance agreement to cover the longevity risk on £1.7 billion in liabilities for approximately 7,500 pensioner members of the Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) UK Pension Fund. The transaction was written by the Barbados branch of Canada Life via a reinsurance agreement with captive insurance cells managed by Marsh Guernsey. Canada Life is part

Manulife Financial Corporation in September 2017 announced a number of structural and leadership changes that are meant to drive better alignment with the company’s strategic priorities, accelerate growth, optimize legacy blocks of business in North America, and leverage its talent across geographies. The company will focus on creating stronger global alignment and direct accountability for its wealth and asset management businesses by bringing them together under the umbrella of

Aon in October 2017 announced it had purchased Portus Consulting, an independent U.K.-based employee benefits firm. Portus has a leading position in the U.K. professional services market, particularly the legal sector and among SMEs with 50 to 750 employees. It will join Aon Employee Benefits, which says it has 2,500 large and SME corporate clients, covering over 1 million lives in the U.K.

PartnerRe in September 2017 announced the appointment of Jerome Matrundola to the new position of CEO, Life & Health, Asia Pacific. Matrundola will be responsible for growing and enhancing PartnerRe’s presence in the life and health reinsurance market in Asia Pacific, and will work with PartnerRe’s existing teams in Singapore and Zurich, leveraging PartnerRe’s Life and Health expertise and solutions to develop innovative, holistic reinsurance solutions specifically geared to

Chubb in September 2017 announced that the company intends to locate its European Union headquarters in France if the United Kingdom leaves the E.U. as expected in March 2019. The company wants to remain well positioned to serve clients, regardless of the ultimate terms of the U.K.’s exit from the European Union. According to Chairman and CEO Evan Greenberg, France was the logical choice as Chubb’s E.U. headquarters as

Marc Archambault in September 2017 joined PartnerRe as CEO of the Life & Health business unit with responsibility for growing PartnerRe’s business in those segments and expanding the company’s franchise in all markets. He will be based in PartnerRe’s Zurich, Switzerland, office, reporting to President & CEO Emmanuel Clarke, and replaces Marvin Pestcoe, who has been appointed Chief Risk & Actuarial Officer. Archambault has more than 25 years’ experience

Advocacy organization Cross Border Benefits Alliance-Europe (CBBA-Europe) will hold its inaugural conference on 6 December, 2017 in Brussels, Belgium. CBBA-Europe’s purpose is to promote cross-border and pan-European employee benefit plans in Europe. The two keynote speakers are former Obama Administration’s Assistant Secretary for Employee Benefits Security of the US Department of Labor, Phyllis Borzi, and Chairman of the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA), Gabriel Bernardino. Attendance is

Global insurance brokerage Hub International (HUB) in September 2017 announced that it named Marc Cohen, currently President of HUB, as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective January 1, 2018. He will also be a member of the Board of Directors. Cohen will continue to report to Martin P. Hughes, who will continue to serve as Executive Chairman. Cohen will be responsible for the financial strategy, including directing organic sales

American International Group (AIG) in September 2017 announced changes to its organizational structure. AIG will no longer have Commercial and Consumer segments, and will transition to: General Insurance, led by Peter Zaffino, currently Group COO, as CEO; Life & Retirement, led by Kevin Hogan, currently CEO of Global Consumer Insurance, as CEO; and a stand-alone, technology-enabled platform, led by Seraina Macia as its CEO. The platform “aims to transform

Global broker Arthur J. Gallagher in September 2017 announced the acquisition of property and casualty insurance broker Nordic Försäkring & Riskhantering  in Gothenburg, Sweden, for an undisclosed amount. Sweden is considered to be a core strategic development area for Gallagher, following the 2013 purchase of international marine and energy broker Bergvall Marine, based in Norway, and Brim, who are Stockholm trade credit, political risk and consulting specialists. The deal

Local tax authorities throughout China are stepping up efforts to collect individual income tax (IIT), with more frequent and extensive investigations of both individuals and companies, according to a September 2017 report from management consultancy Deloitte. This includes particular focus on three areas: claims relating to non-taxable benefits in kind (BIKs), potential permanent establishment (PE) exposure where a non-resident company sends business travelers to China, and the taxation of

UnitedHealth in August 2017 acquired Advisory Board’s health-care analytics, research and consulting operations for about $1.3 billion including debt. The merger is part of a two-way deal that will also see private equity firm Vista Equity Partners purchase Advisory Board’s education arm for $1.55 billion. Advisory Board will become a part of UnitedHealth’s Optum pharmacy-benefit and health-care services unit. That business has been a major source of revenue growth

New research in the UK from MetLife Employee Benefits shows the number of British workers who value their employee benefits has surged to 55% in the past two years, but employers need to work harder to increase trust among their employees. MetLife’s research shows that rising uncertainty in the job market and the wider economy is increasing employees’ interest in benefits: 55% of employees now say they value their

HR software provider for mid-sized companies Namely has released the results of its open enrollment survey, which identifies what is most important to U.S. employees when it comes to benefits. Findings indicate that 36% of employees rate their HR departments with a “C” or lower when it comes to open enrollment. While 57% of respondents say that their employer has prepared them “pretty well,” only 27% give them an

Nicola Fordham in September 2017 was appointed as Director of Underwriting of the MAXIS Global Benefits Network (MAXIS GBN), the international employee benefits joint venture between MetLife and AXA. She joins from MetLife UK, where she was Chief Pricing Underwriter. In this role, she was in charge of technical relationship between MetLife UK and MAXIS GBN, and led a 25‑strong team of underwriters and built and delivered trainings for

Interview – LeAnne Stefl, Worldwide Broker Network Benefits & Perks for the New Millennium Eric Muller-Borle Is Freelancing the Future of Employment? Anthony Hussenot Is Hiring an Experiential Learning Process? Ming Leung Interview – Frank Schmid, American International Group

Tine Thorsen in September 2017 joined Chubb as Director of Marketing and Communications for Europe, Eurasia and Africa, based in London. Previously, Tine had been the global head of market development for the corporate customer segment at Zurich Insurance in Zürich, Switzerland; head of marketing for global corporates in Europe at Zurich Financial Services in London; and several other leadership position in marketing at Zurich. In addition to her

Global Benefits Vision: Could you share with us the highlights of your career, with emphasis on global employee benefits or on related fields? Frank Schmid: I entered the insurance industry in 2004 from the Federal Reserve, serving as a Senior Economist at the National Council on Compensation Insurance in Boca Raton, FL.

Today, freelancers represent 35% of the United States workforce. In the European Union, the rate is 16.1%. Both figures demonstrate the same global trend: from creative entrepreneurs to those paid by the task, freelancing is on the rise worldwide.

How do employers react to past hiring experiences when it comes to members of specific social categories? In Learning to hire? Hiring as a dynamic experiential learning process in an online market for contract labor, we investigate why job applicants run the risk of not being hired when they reveal their social category – in this case, their country of origin.

Global Benefits Vision: LeAnne, can you share some of your career highlights with us, focusing on global employee benefits and global mobility? LeAnne Stefl: I’ve been in the industry close to 30 years. I started my career on the private client services side, with Barney and Barney (now part of MMA) in San Diego, California, in the mid-1980s. In 1999, I joined Marsh San Diego as a benefit analyst, focused on U.S. clients.

When it comes to research and data on consumer behaviors and attitudes, one of the first names that come to mind in the United States is the Gallup organization. Their most recent report, State of the American Workplace, takes a comprehensive snapshot of the modern American workforce, and was created to help business leaders optimize their attraction, retention, engagement, and performance strategies in a time of unparalleled advancement and social change

Increased leisure time and reduced labor supply of young men may be partly due to the improved quality of video games, according to a working paper published in September 2017 by the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). The objective of the paper is to distinguish the increase in leisure due to improved leisure technology from increases in leisure due to other forces such as declining labor market