Agenda :: FORUM Sessions :: Sessions 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |

Session 1 - Benefits
Managing Catastrophic Risks in Health Benefits

Stephen Frank (Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association Inc.), Marilee Mark (Manulife Financial), François Joseph Poirier (Mercer)

The population is aging, and at the same time there has been an explosion of new expensive health products and services, particularly drug therapies.  How are plan sponsors managing the dramatically growing costs and catastrophic claims in their health plans? Even younger employees are seeing rising drug costs due to the rapidly growing use of biologics. What are the key providers to the plan sponsors, such as the insurance industry, doing to help their clients manage or mitigate these dramatic cost increase now and in the future?  Are the products being introduced by other providers, such as reinsurers becoming an essential part of the health cost management landscape?  What data is emerging from the consulting industry to shed light on what is ahead for plan sponsors?   How will plans afford stop-loss premiums moving forward if the utilization of these products is not well managed?  Our expert panel will explore these and other questions in this vitally important session for sponsors of health benefit programs.

 Stephen Frank

Stephen Frank is Vice President, Policy Development and Health for the CLHIA. 
Stephen is responsible for overseeing and advocating for the industry's extensive interests related to health and disability insurance.  Stephen is also has overall accountability for overseeing policy strategy development and analysis on industry issues as well as coordinating responses to general policy demands from government. 
Prior to joining CLHIA in March 2010, Stephen held senior roles in global transaction banking and financial strategy at the Bank of Montreal (BMO).  Prior to that, he worked as an Economist in the Financial Sector Policy branch at the Department of Finance in Ottawa.
Stephen has a Master's of Finance degree from the University of Cambridge as well as a B.A. (Honours) Economics degree from Queen's University.

 Marilee Mark

Marilee Mark is the Vice President of Marketing for Group Benefits at Manulife Financial. Marilee graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a degree in Occupational Therapy. In addition to her background in health care, she has over 20 years of experience in the Group Insurance industry including disability management, sales, benefit consulting, product development and marketing.Marilee is currently responsible for the development of marketing strategies, communication and products for employers of all sizes. She represents Manulife Financial on selected industry advisory groups including the Canadian Council on Integrated Healthcare, Benefits Canada and the annual sanofi Healthcare Survey. 


François Joseph Poirier 

François Joseph Poirier is a Partner and Market Business Leader for Central Canada in the Health & Benefits business for Mercer.  He has over twenty years of experience providing strategic benefits and retirement consulting advice to large corporate and public sector clients.  François has extensive expertise working with benchmarking studies, plan design and total rewards projects for diverse organizations, including some with global footprints.  As a group actuary, he is involved in complex group benefits-related mandates such as merger and acquisition initiatives, financial tracking, renewal analysis and negotiation, claims analysis and design of flexible benefit programs.  He is also involved with the financial accounting and valuations for post-employment and post-retirement benefit programs.  As the Executive Sponsor of Mercer’s Pharmacy Team, he leads the company’s offering on design and delivery of pharmacy benefits solutions.  In addition to his client work, François is a member of the Mercer Health & Benefits Professional Group in Canada.  François earned a Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Mathematics from Université Laval.  He is a Fellow of both the Society of Actuaries and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.  François is also an active member of the Untapped Opportunities initiative of the Society of Actuaries.  

Session 3 - Investment
Life Settlement - An Alternative Asset Class
Normand Matte, Managing Director, AEQUUM Life Settlements

The U.S. Life Settlement market has exploded from infancy to a $16 billion industry since 2001. What are the foundations for the secondary market and how does it benefit consumers and the investment community? The U.S. life settlement industry has faced many internal and external challenges, how do recent legislative and judicial developments ensure the integrity of the market? How secure are life insurance policies, where do policy holders sit in the creditor pecking order and how is this reflected in the real world? Increasing longevity, historically low interest rates and high volatility in traditional markets are challenging pension managers’ ability to meet long term liabilities. Do Life Settlements have a role in meeting these challenges? What is the risk profile and how does a meticulously planned portfolio mitigate maturity risk? Normand Matte will explore these and other questions in this vitally important session for managers of pension plans.

 Normand Matte

Normand Matte is a Principal and Managing Director of AEQUUM Life Settlements, an end to end life settlement provider and exclusive provider to the LifeCap Life Settlement Fund. Normand has 30 years of experience in senior roles in the life insurance, investment and life settlement industries including product development, marketing, consulting and compliance. Normand currently has overall accountability for operations including policy analysis, acquisition and servicing as well as compliance and regulatory issues.
Normand has an in-depth knowledge of the life insurance and life settlement industries in Canada and the U.S from both a regulatory and real world perspective having evaluated and priced well over 2 thousand individual policies and 13 tertiary portfolios totaling more than $2 billion capital insured for individual and institutional investors and special purpose investments including longevity mitigation and venture capital securitization.

Chantal Racicot est conseiller expert dans l’équipe de Conceptualisation pour le développement et la gestion des produits chez Standard Life.  Son rôle consiste à diriger l'élaboration et la mise en œuvre de solutions diverses comme les produits et services financiers, les outils de planification de la retraite et le matériel de communication.
Avant de joindre Standard Life, elle a travaillé pour un cabinet d’actuariat-conseil et une importante compagnie d’assurance en Australie. Elle possède plus de 20 années d’expérience dans les régimes de retraite collectifs à cotisations et prestations déterminées.
Mme Racicot a obtenu un baccalauréat en sciences actuarielles de l’Université Laval incluant une formation à l’université Waterloo en Ontario. Elle détient également les titres Fellow of the Society of Actuaries et Fellow de l’Institut canadien des actuaires.