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  1. Equitable Life Group Benefits Bulletin – November 2020

    In this issue:

    *Indicates content that will be shared with your clients

    Telemedicine now included in Travel Assist*

    Medical emergencies can be particularly stressful while travelling. Making your way to a medical facility can be a struggle. And once you get there, you could face long wait times, language barriers or even the risk of COVID-19 infection.

    That’s why Allianz Global Assistance®, our Travel Assist provider, is adding two new virtual care options to provide plan members with timely and appropriate medical support.

    As always, when a travel medical emergency strikes, plan members call Allianz for assistance. During the intake process plan members will be guided through a series of questions to triage their unique medical situation. Options for care now include two different virtual care services:

    • TeleConsultation – Video and chat consultation with a locally licensed physician. This physician can diagnose simple medical conditions and provide a prescription. Available across Canada and in some high travel states in the United States.
    • TeleAdvice – Video and chat consultation for situations which are not likely to require a prescription. The physician can diagnose simple medical conditions and provide medical guidance.

    Plan members who use virtual care may benefit from:

    • Reduced wait times;
    • Care from the comfort of their current location;
    • Reduced language barriers;
    • No need to arrange transportation to a medical facility;
    • Reduced impact on travel itinerary; and
    • Reduced risk of exposure.

    Both TeleConsultation and TeleAdvice will be available for all Equitable Life plan members beginning January 1st, 2021. There is no additional cost, no changes required to your client’s plans, and no change to the way plan members contact Allianz in the event of a travel medical emergency.

    This PDF plan member update will also be included in the eNews to plan administrators.

    If you have any questions about these new features, please contact your Equitable Life Group Account Executive or myFlex Sales Manager.

    Allianz Global Assistance is a registered business name of AZGA Service Canada Inc. and AZGA Insurance Agency Canada Ltd.

    Help your clients take advantage of our convenient digital options*

    During this time of physical distancing, people are looking for ways to interact with their providers virtually. We recently enhanced our Online Plan Member Enrolment tool, allowing all groups to add new plan members without the need for paper forms.

    Did you know, we have several other digital options available to make it easier for your clients to do business with us and for their plan members to access and use their benefits plan? Over 71% of plan administrators are managing their plan online and 78% of plan members are already using our digital tools.

    For plan administrators:

    • Plan Administrator Portal (EquitableHealth.ca) – plan administrators can easily manage their plan anytime and anywhere
    • Digital Welcome Kits – personalized welcome kits are delivered to plan members via email
    • Easy automated payments – plan administrators can avoid missed payments by setting up pre-authorized debit or electronic funds transfer 

    For plan members:

    • Plan Member Portal (EquitableHealth.ca) – plan members get secure, 24/7 access to their claims history, coverage details and health and wellness resources
    • Electronic Claim Payments and Notifications – plan members can get claim updates sooner in their email inbox and payments right into their bank account
    • EZClaim Mobile App – submitting claims from a mobile device is fast, easy and secure
    • Digital Benefits Cards – plan members no longer have to dig through their wallet – they can download their benefits card on their mobile device

    Learn more about how we’re making it easier for your clients to do business with us

    2021 changes to Maximum Insurable Earnings, Maximum Weekly Insurable Earnings and Short Term Disability Benefit*

    The Canada Employment Insurance Commission and Canada Revenue Agency have announced the 2021 changes to Maximum Insurable Earnings, and premiums for employment insurance. These changes take effect January 1st, 2021.

    Maximum Insurable Earnings (MIE)

    The MIE will increase from $54,200 to $56,300.

    Maximum Weekly Insurable Earnings (MWIE)

    The MWIE will increase from $1,042 to $1,083.

    EI Benefit (55% of the MWIE, rounded to the nearest dollar)

    EI benefit will increase from $573 to $595

    Information for Plan sponsors

    If your client’s Group Policy with Equitable Life includes a Short Term Disability (STD) benefit which is tied to the EI MWIE, and at least one classification of employees has less than a $595 maximum:

    • To comply with the provisions of their policy, their STD benefit will be revised with the maximums updated based on the percentage of EI MEIW shown in their policy.
    • The additional premium for any increase from their previous STD amounts and new STD amounts will be show on their January 2021 Group Insurance Billing (as applicable).

    If their STD maximum is currently higher than $595 or based on a flat amount (not based on a percentage or regular earnings):

    • No change will be made to their plan unless otherwise directed.

    If your clients wish to provide direction regarding revising their STD maximum, or have questions about the process, they can email Kari Gough, Manager, Group Quotes and Issue.

     

    *Indicates content that will be shared with your clients

  2. Equitable Life added the Mackenzie Global Strategic Income Fund to Pivotal Select
    On June 7, 2021, Equitable Life® launched five additional funds to the Pivotal Select™ segregated funds lineup. Included in the launch is the Mackenzie Global Strategic Income Fund. Designed to deliver growth and income to investors, the underlying fund objective seeks income with the potential for long-term capital growth by investing primarily in fixed-income and/or income-oriented equity securities of issuers anywhere in the world.
     
    At Equitable Life, we pride ourselves on offering quality products. This means always reviewing our investment fund lineup. This fund, along with the other new funds are available on all Pivotal Select load types and guarantee classes, providing you and your clients with even more choice and flexibility.
     
    To learn more about Mackenzie Global Strategic Income Fund, join us on Tuesday, June 22 at 2:00 p.m. ET/11:00 a.m. PT to hear Eric Glover, AVP Investment Director and Hadiza Djataou, VP Investment Director, from Mackenzie Investments, highlight the balanced solution that this fund can bring to your client’s investment portfolio.
     

    Click here to register!

     
    Want to learn more about our new funds? Contact your Regional Investment Sales Manager today.
     
    ® and ™ denotes a registered trademark of The Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada.
  3. Deposits to the Fidelity Special Situations mutual fund are being limited but the segregated fund is
    Fidelity Investments® recently said they would no longer accept deposits from new investors into the Fidelity® Special Situations Fund. This notice however does not affect Equitable Life® clients.

    The Special Situations Fund will continue to be open to new and existing Equitable Life clients. This includes clients with Pivotal Select™, Pivotal Solutions* or Personal Investment Portfolio segregated funds contracts.

    Why is Fidelity limiting access to the mutual fund?
    This award-winning mutual fund has grown significantly and now has $3.6 billion of managed assets. To preserve the integrity of the fund’s investment strategy, Fidelity® decided to limit inflows to the fund. Limiting the amount of managed assets held within the fund allows the fund’s portfolio manager to focus on what he does best - finding special situation investment opportunities and capitalizing on positive change within companies and industries across Canada and around the world.

    If you like the Special Situations mutual fund, you will value the Equitable Life Fidelity® Special Situations segregated fund. Segregated funds are similar to mutual funds but offer different features and guarantees. To learn about these features, check out the Investment Advantage. To learn more about the Special Situations segregated fund, click here.


    For more information about Equitable Life’s segregated funds, speak to your Regional Investment Sales Manager or visit our segregated funds page on EquiNet®.
     
    References:
    Fidelity’s press release announcing the limited fund closure
    Fidelity® Special Situations portfolio management strategy, webinar featuring Mark Schmehl, Portfolio Manager.


    *No Load, Deferred Sales Charge, Pivotal Solutions II
    ® or ™ denotes a trademark of The Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada, except as noted below.
    Fidelity and Fidelity Investments are registered trademarks of 483A Bay Street Holdings LP. Used with permission.
  4. Welcome EZtransact from Equitable Life
    On July 28, 2021, Savings & Retirement is launching online transactions for segregated funds. A new way to make managing your client’s policies quick and convenient. With a growing need for digital solutions, Equitable Life’s new EZtransact eliminates the hassle of filling out forms, facilitating signatures yourself, submitting copies to your MGA and being tied down to business hours for submitting transactions.

    Available on EquiNet's secure website, EZtransact’s first service will allow advisors to setup a one-time or recurring deposit or edit an existing pre-authorized debit already in place. In just five simple steps, EZtransact:
    1. Collects the deposit details,
    2. Pre-populates pre-existing relevant details,
    3. Alerts you to any missing information,
    4. Facilitates the signing process and
    5. Sends a copy of the transaction to your MGA, eliminating any need for duplicate copies, or additional steps.

    “We are excited to be able to launch a new digital solution for our advisors”, said Vice-President, Savings and Retirement, Judy Williams. “We feel this new application complements our existing highly rated EZcomplete® online application process. With both solutions available to advisors, we are making it even easier to do business with Equitable Life”.

    If you are already registered with EquiNet, go online today, and give EZtransact a try. If you are not registered, contact your local Regional Investment Sales Manager or, call our Advisor Services Team to have a Regional Investment Sales Manager in your area contact you.
     

    To learn more, click here. 


    ® and TM denote trademarks of The Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada
  5. Ways to reduce net income after age 71 with Equitable Life
    Your client is contacting you to ask how to reduce net income after age 71. While each client’s situation is unique, here are a few options to consider.
     
    1. Clients with a spouse under the age of 71 can contribute to a spousal Retirement Savings Plan (RSP) up until December 31st of the year the spouse turns 71; provided contribution room is available. This option can also work for those clients over the age of 71 with employment income. This can be useful for small business owners who are still making money over the age of 71 and forced to convert their RSP to a Retirement Income Fund (RIF) or Life Income Fund (LIF).
     
    1. For clients with a RIF or LIF, they can strategically elect to use their spouses’ age to calculate the minimum RIF income payment (minimum and maximum for LIF). The idea being that if there is an age gap between spouses:
    • Your client makes a RIF/LIF minimum payment lower by using the age of the younger spouse. This is beneficial to clients who do not need a lot of income from their RIF/LIF.
    • Your client makes a LIF maximum payment higher by using the age of the older spouse. This is beneficial to clients who want to withdraw as much as possible from their LIFs each year.
     
    To learn more, contact your Regional Investment Sales Manager.
     
     
     
    ® and TM denote trademarks of The Equitable Life Insurance Company of Canada
     
  6. Excelerator Deposit Option – maximum payment limit changes

    The Excelerator Deposit Option (EDO) gives your client the option to make additional payments, subject to specified limits and our current administrative rules and guidelines, above the required guaranteed policy premium. EDO payments can help grow the long-term values in your client’s policy.  This change is regarding the maximum EDO payment limit that applies to the policy.
     
    For Equimax policies with an Owner Signature Date of June 26, 2021 or after where a term rider has increased the maximum EDO payment limit on the policy

    ● NEW! If a request is received to terminate, convert, or reduce the term rider and the term rider has been in effect for 10 years or longer, the EDO maximum for the policy will not be reduced.
    ● If a request is received to terminate, convert, or reduce the term rider and the term rider has been in effect for less than 10 years (it has not reached the 10th policy anniversary), the EDO maximum for the policy will be reduced accordingly.

    Current rules as to when underwriting is required for EDO payments continue to apply, as do current rules surrounding acceptance of EDO payments and maintaining the tax-exempt status of the policy and can be found in the Equimax Product Admin Guide.

    Want more information?  Contact your Regional Sales Manager for more information on these changes
     
  7. Increased auto approval means more time to focus on your complex cases

    As the year draws to a close, we are pleased to reflect back on our many enhancements geared toward improving our auto-approval rates and the notable impact they have made on our service standards.

    Throughout 2021, we have invested significantly in our services and technology, including data & analytics to ensure that more of our new business applications are approved automatically without any intervention, leaving our teams available to engage in settling your complex cases. As a result of these enhancements, over the past 3 months we have improved from 8% of our new business flowing straight through to approval, to an impressive 25% of cases requiring no underwriting*. 

    There are a number of factors that contribute to this straight through approval success in processing applications, such as simpler cases, applicants with no medical history or medical issues, younger applicants and applications for lower face amounts. These factors, alongside our ongoing efforts to fortify our processes, has resulted in positive feedback from the field.

    Advisors have mentioned you’ve felt the impact on our speed and service, and we will continue forward into 2022 with this positive momentum, with further enhancements to help make it easier for you to do business with Equitable Life.
     
    *As of December 2021

  8. Manage more details within Contract Delivery for New Business applications We are excited to announce further enhancements to our eDelivery process to empower you, the advisor, the ability to manage client details more easily within Contract Delivery.

    Effective January 15, 2022, advisors will need to create a Password within Contract Delivery when choosing “eDelivery” as the contract delivery method and provide the password to the client to use as their password:
    SetPassword_EN.png
    The Password must be between 4 and 100 alpha/numeric characters, and cannot be the Policy number. For multiple signers the password (and email address) must be unique per each signer.

    Advisors can now edit and/or update an email address within Contract Delivery, in the event of a bounce back or email change, to keep the eDelivery process moving and avoid delays in processing time. If a lock out occurs, advisors can trigger a resend of the signing email once they add a new valid email address in Contract Delivery. Simply click the pencil icon beside the Email field to enter the valid email address:
    eDeliveryJan15News2.png

    Another new feature- in the event a client has declined, the advisor will get an email from Equitable Life®. Click through to EquiNet® within the email to view the message within Contract Delivery that the client provided as the reason for decline under a new “Declined Details” section. This enables you to connect with the client to proceed with the sale by discussing the reasons for decline with them directly.

    Also new for clients with this enhancement, policy owners of a policy created after January 15 will be able to see a PDF copy of their policy within client access. Note: this PDF copy is as the policy was originally issued.
    ClientAccessEN.jpg
    Resources: 

  9. Product Enhancements - Critical Illness Equitable Life has exciting product enhancements that will help you offer more options to clients. 

    Access our Virtual Product Launch NOW. Grab a coffee and get ready for this exciting news! Hear from our leaders and learn about our exciting product enhancements.

    NEW! EquiLiving plans and riders enhanced with:
    • 20 pay options with coverage to age 75 or coverage for life
    • Support from Cloud DX to help monitor a client’s well-being from treatment to recovery.
    • Added Acquired Brain Injury as a covered critical condition 
    • 30-day survival period removed for all non-cardiovascular covered conditions
    • No age restriction to claim for Loss of Independent Existence (LOIE)
    • EquiLiving Benefit now pays the higher of the EquiLiving Benefit or the Return of Premium Rider Benefit (not including Return of Premium on Death)
    • And so much more …
    New Illustration software available on February 11, 2022 
    The updated illustration software will be available for download after 9 a.m. ET on Friday, February 11, 2022, and will include all the Equimax and EquiLiving enhancements.

    See the Equitable Sales Illustrations Update for information on how to download the software or check for updates. 

    Please review updates to the commission schedule A for these new enhancements.

    Learn more Get ready to make 2022 your best year yet for your sales! 

    Please contact your Regional Sales Manager for more information. 
  10. Product Enhancements - 10 Pay Equitable Life has exciting product enhancements that will help you offer more options to clients. 

    Access our Virtual Product Launch NOW. Grab a coffee and get ready for this exciting news! Hear from our leaders and learn about our exciting product enhancements.

    NEW! 10 pay premium option with Equimax Estate Builder®
    • The new EquiLiving® 20 pay rider options will be available on Equimax® plans
    New Illustration software available on February 11, 2022 
    The updated illustration software will be available for download after 9 a.m. ET on Friday, February 11, 2022, and will include all the Equimax and EquiLiving enhancements.

    See the Equitable Sales Illustrations Update for information on how to download the software or check for updates. 

    Please review updates to the commission schedule A for these new enhancements.

    Learn more Get ready to make 2022 your best year yet for your sales! 

    Please contact your Regional Sales Manager for more information.