Successful Captive Programs: The Insurer’s Evolving Role Jayesh Patel As Republicans Dismantle Obamacare, Insurers Likely to Bolt J.B. Silvers Fixes, Not Repeals, More Typical for Major Legislation Like Obamacare John McDonough Tom Price, Short on Specifics In Trumpcare Hearing Miranda Yaver Get Ready for The Coming Economic Recession Jay Zagorsky Leveraging Big Data and Software for Competitive Advantage Greg Campbell Sara Hallberg

Worldwide Broker Network (WBN) in January 2017 announced that three current members of its Board of Directors have been reelected to three-year terms.  The reelected directors include Juan Carlos Arias of Panama; Pavanjit Singh Dhingra of India; and Steve Hylant of the U.S. The 16-member WBN Board of Directors now is comprised of: Daniel de Swaan, WBN board chairman and Director at Meijers Assurantien in the Netherlands Juan Carlos

Interest in using captive programs as risk-management tools has been slowly growing within the Employee Benefits (EB) community for some time. But recently it has been gaining momentum, as multinational corporations have begun to realize the potential the concept holds.

U.S. health insurance providers Aetna and Humana in December 2016 announced they had come to an agreement to extend the deadline for their proposed merger from December 31, 2016 to February 15, 2017, as U.S. federal courts are poised to decide whether to allow the merger to proceed. The decision is expected by mid-January. The deal was first announced in August 2015.

One of the major events of 2016 was Generali Employee Benefits’s 50th anniversary celebration with the GEB Forum held in Brussels, Belgium on November 21, 22 and 23, 2016. The three-day conference gathered approximately 300 delegates from over 60 countries including 52% from outside the E.U. . Business leaders and experts discussed and shared insights on the future of the employee benefits industry. The agenda included inspirational keynote speakers,

Click here if your browser will not go into full-screen mode This content requires a subscription or a purchase. Please login below or subscribe here.

The “Global Employee Benefits Watch” Report Analyzed Chris Bruce Death in Service Pensions Paul Avis Starting an Employee Benefits Captive Marc Reinhardt Sven Roelandt R&D: What is the Difference between a Migrant and an Expat? Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels IGP Sao Paulo Conference Report

Nepalis, Indians, Americans, Syrians and Pakistanis all have something in common: they were the top five migrant groups who received family-related visas to the UK in the year to March 2016. But while US citizens coming to join a family member who is already in Britain are often called “expatriates” or “expats”, the others are often portrayed as “migrants” – mainly because of the country of their birth.

Chris Bruce, Managing Director of Thomsons Online Benefits, discusses the Global Employee Benefits Watch 2016/17 report, shining a light on the relationship among benefits strategy and technology, employee engagement, and business success.

The management of employee benefit plans through captives continues to gain traction with multinational corporations in all sectors of industry. Captives are rarely the beginning but generally the end point of a risk management journey. Every journey has a starting point, of course. This year’s European Captive Forum (ECF) in Luxembourg included several employee benefit related breakout sessions. One was called “Getting Started – What Do You Need to Consider and What Is the Role of HR?”

Having a dependant’s income continue when an employee dies is, to my mind, a massively valuable benefit. But is the product and market understood by both purchasers and employees?

The 2016 IGP Regional Americas Seminar, held on September 15, 2016 at the Renaissance Hotel in São Paulo, Brazil, attracted over 100 registrants and offered a choice of 12 country-specific presentations focused on the Americas region that explained both the basics and the latest developments on social security, plan design, funding requirements, trends and legislative updates in those areas.

According to a December 2016 Reuters report, Aon is in the process of selling its employee benefits TPA business unit for $5 billion. Aon had in 2010 acquired most of this unit as Hewitt Associates for $4.9 billion. The negotiations with potential buyers, who are understood to include several private-equity firms, are expected to take more time. The unit’s EBITDA is estimated at close to $500 million, implying a

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.

Lockton Global Benefits is hosting its annual Global Benefits Forum in three locations in 2017: Washington, D.C., London and Manila. The theme of each Forum is “Employee Benefits in a Globally Connected World.” The American edition of the Forum is held over two days on April 10 and 11, 2017 in Washington, D.C.; additional workshops for employers are offered on April 12. The registration fee is USD 650 with

Lockton Global Benefits is hosting its annual Global Benefits Forum in three locations in 2017: Washington, D.C., London and Manila. The theme of each Forum is “Employee Benefits in a Globally Connected World.” The European edition of the Forum is held over two days on June 7 and 8, 2017 in London, UK. The registration fee is GBP 350 with an early-bird discount available until January 20, 2017. Additional

Lockton Global Benefits is hosting its annual Global Benefits Forum in three locations in 2017: Washington, D.C., London and Manila. The theme of each Forum is “Employee Benefits in a Globally Connected World.” The Asian edition of the Forum is held over two days on May 15 and 16, 2017 in Manila, The Philippines. The registration fee is PHP 12,500 with an early-bird discount available until January 20, 2017.

Generali Group’s new management under Group CEO Philippe Donnet and Frédéric de Courtois, CEO of Global Business Lines and International, in November 2016 confirmed their commitment to the business units in charge of global mobility and global employee benefits, and in particular to Generali’s network, GEB. De Courtois at the GEB Forum 2016 announced increased investments in GEB. The areas targeted for growth in the years ahead include:

Click here if your browser will not go into full-screen mode This content requires a subscription or a purchase. Please login below or subscribe here.

In his first all-Conservative budget, the U.K.’s Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that from April 6, 2017, applicants for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) who are assessed as unfit for work but capable of work-related activity will receive a lower level of State Benefit, equivalent to Job Seekers Allowance. This means that the annualized value of benefits will fall from £5,312 to £3,801.

G.I.P. and U.K. State Protection  Paul Avis Being W.O.R.L.D Wise: Decision-making (5) Natalie Richter Sleep Deprivation Costs the Economy Dear and Reduces Longevity David Spencer A Health System Revolution to Cope with Ageing Patients Onil Bhattacharyya Bill Gates on HIV/AIDS in Africa and the Role of Philanthropy Unwinding Obamacare Miranda Yaver

The British economy loses £40 billion a year due to sleep deprivation, per a new study¹ . Beyond the loss of economic output, sleep-deprived Britons are shortening their lives. The study shows that people who sleep less than six hours a night have a 13% higher mortality rate than those sleeping at least seven hours.

All over the world, people are living longer. A large part of this is due to improved treatment for illness; we can see this in the reduction in death rates from cardiovascular disease and the 32% reduction in mortality from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease worldwide in the past 20 years.

Mike Tyler has in November 2016 been appointed Head of Lockton International Benefits and will also become Chair of the Global Benefits Leadership Group, which oversees the expansion of benefits capabilities around the globe. Tyler’s appointment does not change Lockton’s corporate structures, and senior reporting lines also remain unchanged. The new role will facilitate global co-ordination of initiatives and oversee new investments. Lockton’s benefits practice represents 30% of its

As we mentioned in the last article, innovation is the key to success in this fast-moving global market, and companies need to create cultures that allow people to bring their best brains to the table. Whether it is coming up with new ideas or dealing with day-to-day problems in new ways, interpersonal interactions play a very important role in creating innovative and successful global company cultures.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to “repeal and replace Obamacare.” A logical question is: With what? The announcement of member of the U.S. House of Representatives Tom Price (Republican-Georgia) as Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services provides some answers.

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates is the founder and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It has committed more than US$3 billion in HIV grants to organizations around the world and more than US$1.6 billion to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Gates answers questions from several African academics about HIV/AIDS on the continent.