Cigna discovered that reimbursing employees for tuition spent on higher education is a good business practice that benefits the company as well as the employee. An analysis of Cigna’s own Educational Reimbursement Program (ERP) revealed that encouraging and helping employees attain a secondary or post-secondary degree increases employee retention and career opportunities. Moreover, participants in the program are 10 percent more likely to receive a promotion, 7.5 percent more likely

Despite moving at what may seem sometimes as a glacial pace, RESAVER, the pan-European pension plan project, appears to have reached a major milestone. RESAVER, which is set up as a defined contribution (DC) scheme that will provide second-pillar pension benefits, selected its key operational components – namely its third-party service providers – in April 2016, paving the way for its launch. BlackRock has been selected as the asset

As a response to growing concerns over the high cost of cancer care, the Northeast Business Group on Health (NEBGH) Solutions Center, over the course of two 2015 workshops, mounted a study that surveyed 19 self-insured employers representing 1.2 million employees, as well as physicians, oncology experts, employer benefits professionals, executives from health plans, hospitals, consulting organizations, cancer associations, and suppliers of healthcare-related services. The purpose of the study

Yellow Fingers and Diversity – Gender Quotas and Diversity Outcomes Norman Dreger Lifecycle DC Pensions in Brazil Andrego Barbosa De Oliveira Hedge Funds in Pension Funds – the New Normal? Eric Muller-Borle Picking a Winner – Managing Expatriate Selection Risk Paul Pittman and Natalie Richter From the Lab to the Trenches – Time for a Revolution in Executive Pay? Dr. Sandy Pepper

Generali Employee Benefits (GEB) on June 2, 2016, holds from 8 to 11am a breakfast workshop for brokers and consultants in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Senior experts from GEB will illustrate how multinational pooling and reinsurance to captive programs operate and what make them successful. Participants will gain insights into the set up and implementation of international arrangements and into how to maximize benefits to clients. Topics include: Why set

Scott Sutton in April 2016 joined L.E.K. as Director of Marketing, Americas. Previously, Scott was Director of Global Marketing at AIRINC, which he joined in 1997 as a Client Service Manager. L.E.K. is a global management consulting firm that is active in strategy, mergers and acquisitions, operations, and marketing and sales consulting, spanning a broad range of industries. Headquartered in London, L.E.K. employs approximately 1000 professionals and has 20

In November 2015 Cigna released its Global Mobility Trends Survey, updating the 2013 edition. The survey, conducted between April and June 2015, included 2700 expatriate respondents on assignment in 156 countries. Key findings: Global mobility appears to be evolving into a career unto itself. Expats say they need more communication and support, but employers are viewed as moving in the opposite direction. Expats want more assistance with local culture

Health care costs will continue to rise worldwide in 2016 according to the Willis Towers Watson (WTW) 2016 Global Medical Trends Survey of 174 insurers in 55 countries, employers in 34 countries, and 30,000 employees worldwide who have employer-sponsored health benefits. As private medical insurance costs continue to rise, from 7.5% in 2014 and 8.0% in 2015 to a projected 9.1% in 2016, WTW noted that more than half

Aon Risk Solutions, in collaboration with the Risk Advisory Group, has identified 2015 as the most lethal year for terrorist violence since they started collecting empirical data in 2007. With the issuance in April 2016 of the new edition of its Terrorism and Political Violence Map, Aon particularly emphasizes the rapid evolution over the past year of terrorism and political violence present “a much broader spectrum of potential impacts”

Lockton Benefit in April 2016 appointed Dr. Ronald Leopold as leader of its national Lockton Health Risk Solutions practice. Dr. Leopold will combine his clinical knowledge with Lockton’s data intelligence platform to improve employers’ abilities to identify trends and respond to what’s driving the cost of health. He will also work closely with Lockton’s client service teams to advise employers on developing targeted health management programs to address the

The Cigna Foundation, a private foundation founded in 1962 and funded with contributions from Cigna, in April 2016 announced that it is seeking grant, sponsorship, and “thought leadership” opportunities related to workplace health in Middle East, Africa, India, China, and Europe. This Prioritizing Workplace Wellness campaign emphasizes Cigna’s commitment to health equity and improving wellness via the global workplace and builds on Cigna’s vision of the workplace as being

Selection for international assignments is not one-sided. Being able to select the right employee depends on having the right group from which to select, individuals motivated by “what’s in it for me?” If the best candidates cannot see a clear personal advantage, they are unlikely to volunteer.

Once the preserve of rich investors, endowments, and foundations, hedge funds nowadays acquire 75% of their resources from institutional investors, including 25% from pension funds. In the U.K., where defined benefits pension plans are known for their prudent if not conservative investment policies, fully half allocate at least part of their assets to hedge funds.

Many multinational companies struggle with a lack of gender diversity at the management level, and in particular with the lack of visible female representation in key positions. Many consider that the most logical approach to solving this problem is to preferentially hire and promote women into such roles.

The beginning of 2016 brought with it further controversy about executive pay. A hard-hitting report from the High Pay Centre claimed that, by the end of the first Tuesday of the New Year —dubbed by them “Fat Cat Tuesday”— the U.K.’s top executives will have earned more than the average worker would make in an entire year.

Over the past few decades there has been a significant shift from the traditional defined-benefit (DB) plan toward defined-contribution (DC) plans. In defined benefit (DB) pension plans sponsored by employers, employees must rely on the employer’s investment decisions to guarantee their retirement benefit in the future.

Lockton Benefit Group in April 2016 announced a material investment in its InfoLock data intelligence platform, used to advise employers on developing comprehensive health management programs to address the continuum of health risks across their working population.  InfoLock will now include predictive analytics solution SCIO Health Analytics, enabling client service teams to gain timely insights into trends and make evidence-based recommendations that have a high probability of improving employee behavior

The 2016 edition of the European Captive Forum will be held in Luxembourg on 8 and 9  November 2016. The 2016 agenda is not yet available, but it is worth noting that six sessions of the 2014 edition out of 37 were devoted to employee benefits or life insurance, as opposed to the ever-dominant theme, non-life coverages. That proportion is significantly higher than the prevalence of employee benefits among

Allianz in November 2015 established a new dedicated unit focusing on Employee Benefits and on Group Life, Health & Pension solutions in Asia. This has a strong impact on Allianz Global Benefits‘ footprint in Asia. Tony Hore, Regional Di­rector Asia Pacific, will continue to be the main interface into Asia for the Allianz Global Benefits (AGB) business in the large corporate segment. In addition to his AGB responsibilities, Tony

IBNR means “Incurred But Nor Reported” and refers to claims that have occurred but where the paperwork has not been yet performed and the insurer is still unaware of them. As these claims still have to be paid out to victims or beneficiaries, insurers need to set aside money (“reserves”) to cover their soon-to-be-discovered costs, hence IBNR Reserves or simply IBNRs. Since the insurer knows neither how many of

Global employee benefits industry expert Margrit Schmid from Zurich, Switzerland and formerly CEO of the Swiss Life network, has made a momentous and pioneering change in her career path by joining Swiss micro-insurance group, ParaLife in May 2016. In 2016 Margrit Schmid is to familiarize herself with key micro-insurance markets and to contribute to corporate development projects in preparation of her assuming a senior Group Executive position in 2017.

Margrit Schmid, former head of the Swiss Life Network, in May 2016 takes up a new professional challenge in micro-insurance at ParaLife.

How to maintain leadership in a challenging environment: lessons learned from GEB Even the insurance sector, once widely associated with stability, is seeing the impact of disruptive forces and shifting landscapes, from technology to demographic trends and of course economic volatility. The new strategic plan announced by Generali Employee Benefits is all the more interesting as it sees a company that is an integral part of the history of

How to maintain leadership in a challenging environment: lessons learned from GEB Even the insurance sector, once widely associated with stability, is seeing the impact of disruptive forces and shifting landscapes, from technology to demographic trends and of course economic volatility. The new strategic plan announced by Generali Employee Benefits is all the more interesting as it sees a company that is an integral part of the history of

Michael Hansen in March 2016 took up the position of CEO of the Swiss Life pooling network. He succeeds Theo Iaponas, head of corporate clients, who held the interim after Margrit Schmid’s departure in May 2015. Michael is based in Luxembourg, where Swiss Life relocated its Zurich, Switzerland-based global employee benefits operations in 2015 and early 2016. A graduate from the Danish Insurance Academy, Michael began his career with

Medha Rishi in March 2016 was appointed Head of Global Benefits and Global Mobility at San Francisco, California-based payment solutions provider Square. Mehda previously was Vice President and Global Benefits/HR Practice Leader at insurance broker Woodruff-Sawyer, global consultant at Aon Hewitt, senior analyst at Mercer and began her career in the sales and marketing department of pharmaceutical devices manufacturer Cardinal Health. During her tenure at Woodruff-Sawyer, Medha was also

Marking GEB’s 50th anniversary, the 2016 edition of the GEB Forum will be held in Brussels, Belgium, from November 21 to 23, 2016. The preliminary agenda includes several presentations and round tables on the future challenges of the Employee Benefits industry. The event website is here. For more information on attending, contact the GEB event team at gebforum@geb.com .