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Global Benefits

There are excellent opportunities to improve the financing of insurable Employee Benefits (EB) globally and tangible initiatives to support local subsidiaries and their employees with the execution of a global EB strategy. In this article you will find an updated comparative analysis of the most common global EB solutions (traditional EB Pooling, alternative risk financing with EB Captive solutions and the innovative concept of Global Underwriting (GUW) for EB insurance), a more detailed view on GUW and EB Captive as well as two case studies to show how global EB solutions can support the execution of global EB strategies in practice. This article assumes some familiarity with financing EB globally and therefore does not focus on traditional EB Pooling but is concentrating on the more advanced solutions EB Captive and GUW instead.

Taking a holistic view in managing their global employee benefit programs is the chosen way forward for an increasing number of multinationals that want a better overview and cost control of these programs. Many companies find that outsourcing the day-to-day handling and reporting of the insured benefits to local experts coordinated by a central team with one of the global consulting / brokerage firms is the preferred approach.

Allianz Global Benefits is the global employee benefits network of the Allianz Group specialized in implementing local employee benefits pro-ducts, insurance solutions and services into global programs. The headquarters of the network is based in Germany and operates a strong global network of more than 110 Allianz subsidiaries and selected external insurance partners in over 90 countries. Leveraging on the geographical scale, the expertise and the customer centricity of its network partners, AGB addresses the needs of multinational companies of managing employee benefits globally. AGB is a one-stop solution provider, this means that our clients can expect the full range of corporate life, accident, disability, health, pension and asset management solutions tailored to their needs. The high quality of local employee benefits plans provided by our local insurers is the backbone of our global solutions that include Multinational Pooling, Global Underwriting, Captive Reinsurance and Global Pension. Our aim is to provide multinational companies a truly flexible and holistic set of solutions for their global employee benefits programs delivered by the world’s most trusted financial service provider.

With multinational businesses looking to take advantage of opportunities in new and developing markets, how is their business expansion affecting international workforces and the benefit packages they receive? Multinationals, especially those headquartered in Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America, are continuing to expand as they seek to achieve competitive advantage, diversify and gain access to new talent. As a result, many multinational companies operate in more than 100 countries and often generate over 80% of their revenues from non-domestic markets.

Global Benefits Vision: Hello Wendy – please tell us about your background and your career to date. Wendy Liu: I am an actuary by background, and I started my career in consulting before joining Zurich. The majority of my career has been related to global employee benefits. I began on the U.S. domestic side, expanded to international benefits and now am based in Europe covering global benefits.

IBIS Academy organizer Gallagher in March 2018 published updates to the conference agenda, particularly significant to the IBIS Mobility track running 7-9 May 2018. Three sessions are of particular interest to global mobility managers. Important Updates in the World of Mobility Tax Managing Risk, Managing Compliance Roundtable “I don’t know – Send it to HR:” Employment Essentials for the Global Mobility Professional

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.

Chris Mayo – Head of Global Services & Solutions, Non-North America,Willis Towers Watson Global Benefits Vision: Tell us about your career in Global Employee Benefits. Christopher Mayo: I have been involved with international employee benefits since 1990, when I was one of four people who set up the international practice at R. Watson & Sons. In 1995 I had the opportunity to work in Milan.

Administering global healthcare benefits has become a daunting task for multinational employers. Local compliance and medical cost containments have become our biggest challenges, and insurance carriers, third party administrators, consultants, and brokers are busier than ever looking for relevant information that will make the difference in their value propositions. One of the major elements of the cost containment equation, however, continues to be overlooked.

Chris Bruce, managing director of Thomsons Online Benefits, discusses its latest Global Employee Benefits Watch, revealing the industry’s challenges and why technology is central to global benefits success.

Two critical issues faced by most multinational employers are (1) containing escalating healthcarecosts globally, and (2) building a healthy, committed, and engaged workforce. To help address these issues more effectively, multinational employers should place a higher emphasis on structured analytics when designing and implementing their health and wellness strategy, or prioritizing wellness programs.

Everyone claims to be a solution provider. But even those who manage to provide solutions rather than pure products face a crucial question: Is business designed around solutions still in touch with the modern client?