Manulife profits dip as investments weigh
Investments in the oil and gas sectors, along with lower yields from other assets have hit profits at Canada’s largest insurance company. Manulife’s third quarter net income was down to $622 million from $1.1 billion a year earlier. That included a $285 million charge from an annual actuarial review. Core earnings fell just short of expectations at 45 per cent. Manulife’s Asian business interests grew by 30 per cent. Assets under management and administration increased 19 per cent to $888 billion.
US health care costs increase by lowest for 20 years
The cost of health care for mid-size and large companies in the US has increased 3.2 per cent in the last year, the slowest pace of increase since at least 1996. That was when
Aon began tracking the data. Its report forecasts that premiums will rise 4.1 per cent on average in 2016. Despite the lower cost of health care the report says that employees are paying more and the increased cost to individuals has been 134 per cent over the past decade.
According to Aon's analysis, employees contributed $2,490 toward the premium and another $2,208 in out-of-pocket costs, such as copayments, coinsurance and deductibles in 2015. In contrast, the amount of employees' premium and out-of-pocket costs combined in 2005 was just $2,001.
HDHPs are the second most popular plan choice offered by companies, surpassing HMOs. 16 per cent of companies offer a HDHP as the only health plan option today, and another 41 per cent are considering doing so in the next three-to-five years.
Online insurer forecasts “exponential growth”
Online insurance firm Surex Direct says that it has proven that its business model works and is now aiming for a bigger slice of the market. The Alberta-based firm launched in 2012 and has just announced that it has created a new version of its online platform that better serves customer needs. “We pride ourselves on being able to provide the best insurance rates, while ensuring the customer service and advice side of the business remains in the broker channel,” Matthew Alston, COO & co-founder of Surex Direct, said, “We haven’t begun to scratch the potential of Surex Direct. We have simply proven our model. With this new platform, we have been able to improve our broker management system and are primed for exponential growth in the next few years.”
