Wednesday, December 22, 2010

BMO Life: A.M. Best Credit Ratings

Lately, there has been more good news for an insurance company among the many grim economic articles as A.M. Best Co. did not change the financial strength evaluation of BMO Life Assurance Company (BMO Life), reinforcing the rating at an “A”, which stands for “Excellent”. Similarly, BMO Life’s issuer credit rating also remained at an “a”. Even better, the projections for BMO Life were assessed as stable, with regards to all the Company's reports and other information available on Bank of Montreal and BMO Life.

BMO Life is a subsidiary of Bank of Montreal (BMO). BMO Life is not the only insurer owned by BMO, but is a major one for that matter, serving specific subsets of the insurance market. Hence, analysts rely on BMO to support BMO Life in case of any contingent financial issues. During the recent financial crisis, BMO Life was significantly harmed in the instabilities within the highly competitive insurance marketplace and needs to recover from all the monetary and brand-esteem losses.

BMO offers a selection of insurance products, ranging from universal life through individual life insurance , term life, whole life, critical illness, guaranteed issue life insurance to structured settlements and annuities. Its policy assortment is quite specific and thus preferred by certain subsets of the clientele, which may be considered its individual advantage. BMO Life offers its plans mainly using an agent network originally established by AIG Life.

In 2009, Bank of Montreal (BMO) decided to take over AIG Life Insurance Company of Canada. The company was transformed into a new brand of BMO Life Assurance Company, but its business model remained chiefly intact. Financial analysts seem to have welcomed this acquisition well, since AIG Life/BMO Life from now on can count on a stable and large parent supporting it.

The BMO group has another life insurer: BMO Life Insurance. This entity is unconnected to BMO Life Assurance Company, has its own network of agents and history, but exists within the same family. Find more information on BMO Life Assurance Company on our website.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Insurance and the Climate

“Since when do insurance companies worry about climate research?” you might ask. If so, you should ask RSA Insurance Group, a global insurer headquartered in the UK. RSA in Canada operates mainly in marine insurance, but the message their behaviour is demonstrating is will have significant effects across the whole insurance field, even for non-medical life insurance.

RSA recently announced an official alliance with the World Wildlife Fund world-wide. The mutual synergy upon which this relationship is based qualifies as both “the right thing” as well as a business interest. It is simply a win-win situation.

If anyone can actually express a climate change in probability figures, then it must be insurance analysts. However, insurers cannot always work out what lies ahead specifically enough. Following the floods and droughts around the world, insurance companies bumped into considerable claims and thus had to pay unexpected compensations on those of their insurance products that are linked with the state of temperature, weather, and climate. This signalled to them that they were unable to assess their products’ riskiness accurately. And risk being the elementary notion underlying the entire insurance business, something had to be changed.

Thus, this experience and the general involvement of RSA with marine insurance were what prompted RSA to look for information, opinions and support at WWF. They are interested in the developments of the global environment - those that WWF examines so intently. WWF performs numerous analyses in order to understand animals whose life is largely influenced by the smallest changes in the climate. Through helping WWF to do what they are best at, the RSA group will benefit from more trustworthy forecasts. Thus, the insurer will be able to ascertain its risk better, charge for its products more adequately and steer clear of disproportionate outlays.

Because the enhanced estimates should be publicly available, i.e., to every other insurer, the effect on competition between companies is going to be minimal. At most, more perfect competition will press down policy prices for insurees. On the other hand, wild species will welcome the partnership between RSA and WWF anyhow.

Lots of businesses are learning that an eco-conscious business model may not only save them substantial amounts of money, but also please their customers along with the public in one fell swoop. The spirit of this mind-set shift can be sensed around global enterprises such as Sony Corporation, which only uses recycled paper for all administrative work, PricewaterhouseCoopers, also contemplating a global change towards more sustainable offices, and Adobe winning awards for very small-footprint office buildings using modern technologies numerous times.

Monday, December 13, 2010

LSM Articles Selection

LSM Insurance produces tonnes of great articles and we don't want them to be lost in the deep valleys of Web. Therefore, we prepared this list of the best insurance, financial and other articles from October and November.

Insurance Dividends
Can insurance bring any dividends? Few tips for investors.

One of the popular life insurance policies on Canadian market. Is it worth the money?

Closely followed case of Transamerica's ratings.

One of the biggest trials related to insurance in Canada reached its end.

European financial system is undergoing major change.

We survived the crisis almost untouched. But what comes next?

What is it? How does it work? Let's learn something about long term care disability insurance policies