Empire Life Insight for May 20, 2022

INSURANCE NEWS

Planned giving using life insurance

Leaving a legacy to benefit a favourite cause continues to be a topic of interest to aging individuals. A number of charities and charitable foundations view endowments as an important aspect of fundraising and long term planning.

For many years, life insurance has been used as a cost effective way to leave a legacy for the benefit of a charity. This isn’t a strategy just for the rich. A donor of modest means can leave a significant final bequest for comparatively little. Read more in this article.

Easily make beneficiary changes online through My Advisor Dashboard

Whether it's an insurance or Investment policy, you can easily make beneficiary changes online at anytime to avoid call wait times and manual signatures.

Simply login to My Advisor Dashboard, click on forms & applications in the top navigation and then e-signature forms and select the D-0017 Beneficiary designation form. Follow the steps and submit. Simple, fast and easy.

Now available on demand:
Business Owners and Estate Planning - Is there a role for insurance-based solutions?

Protecting the business as the most important family asset is certainly top of mind. Sustainability is an opportunity to build a business that will stand the test of time.

This fast paced, thought-provoking session will explore various scenarios and test whether life insurance-based solutions can play a role in addressing issues and providing alternatives for advisors and their business clients. Attendees will walk away with hands-on questions to ask to get the conversation going with business owners and their families.

CE credit offer available until July 26, 2022.
A quiz will appear after the webinar has been viewed

INVESTMENTS NEWS

Look to our shining stars

Deliver stellar results to your clients with our disciplined, long term investment management approach that focuses on quality and downside protection.

Now available!
Multi-Strategy investor Q1 Commentary

Financial Markets at-a-glance infographic now available for Q1

Looking for a high-level, visual way to explain the past quarter's market changes to your investors? The Financial Markets at a Glance infographic is the answer. It presents a brief overview of world events and their impact on global markets. Easily digestible bits of information are broken down by Canadian, US, global equities and fixed income using colourful graphics and symbols. Give your investors an at-a-glance view of what shaped markets here and abroad in the first quarter of 2022.

Fixed income update: Navigating a sea of volatility in fixed income

2022 was a challenging start for most markets, but especially so for the fixed income market, which had its worst start in over 40 years. Albert Ngo, Senior Portfolio Manager and Ian Fung, Portfolio Manager, discuss inflation as the main driver of fixed income market volatility, its impact, the outlook for fixed income, and how they’ve been implementing various strategies in the fixed income portfolios.

Read Albert and Ian’s commentary to see how they are positioning Empire Life fixed income portfolios and believe that current headwinds may become tailwinds for fixed income.

Empire Life Preferred Pricing Management Fee Credit correction

Please note that a Management Fee Credit (MFC) calculation error occurred on GIF contracts that are householded as part of the GIF preferred Pricing program. This issue impacted the March 31, 2022 MFC calculations and impacted approximately 1000 contracts. The MFCs for
these contracts were either not processed or were processed for an incorrect amount. The error was corrected and the balance owing was applied to the contracts on April 27^th,
retroactively effective to March 31^st, 2022. The April 29^th MFC calculation process was validated, and all contracts received the correct amounts. If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact Customer Service at 1-800-561-1268. 

CORPORATE NEWS

Empire Life Annual Report

Our 2021 Annual Report is now available online. 

Professional Titles

In Ontario, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) recently announced that its proposed Financial Professionals Rule was approved by the Ontario Minister of Finance. Quebec has regulated professional titles since 1998 and Saskatchewan and New Brunswick are in the process of introducing similar frameworks. The reference document below provides a high-level summary of each regulator that has introduced or is in the process of introducing title protection rules.

Best Practices

Distribution Practices is pleased to announce they have updated their Best Practices Handbook. The handbook is a compilation of rules, procedures and guidelines relating to distribution compliance and market conduct.

At Empire Life, we want to make sure that our distributors have the tools and knowledge to meet their requirements and conduct themselves appropriately.

The Best Practices Handbook can be found on the website under compliance.