As he eased into his new position of President of Lockton Benefits, Bob Reiff answered the questions of Global Benefits Vision and reflected upon the challenges ahead.

As the largest UK market place, Group Life is the best place to start our review. Every year the two most important surveys for U.K. Group Risk Insurers come out in April and June. Swiss Re’s ‘Group Watch’ shows how the Group Risk market is doing, and ORC International’s syndicated Group Risk adviser research shows how the industry is performing across the whole customer journey and anticipated future trends.

Captive solutions were created in the late 19th century to provide more flexible solutions in the insurance market. Since then they have evolved to become a practical form of risk management, offering multinationals two financial advantages: lower costs and more control over how they are insured.

In the 20th-century, companies were predominantly capital intensive and competed on cost efficiency. The 21st-century company is different: competitive success depends on a company’s intangible assets, such as human capital and the capacity for research and development, requiring significant and sustained investment.

Does it still make sense for a multinational company’s employee benefits plan to deal with 28 different social and tax legislations in the EU? Does it make sense for a multinational company to set up as many employee benefits plans as the number of the EU countries in which it operates?