Insurance, Investments and Group Benefits

In a recent advisor webinar with guest speakers Stephen Frank, CLHIA President and CEO, and senior members of the Empire Life claims investigative team, Richelle Feddema and Raman Sharma, our hosts Marc-André Blondeau, regional vice-president of group distribution in Quebec and Eastern Canada, and Michelle Wegner, director of sales enablement at Empire Life, discussed industry efforts to tackle group benefits fraud. In this post, we share some of Marc-André and Michelle's post-webinar conversation with Stephen. Next week, we'll share their conversation with Richelle and Raman. 

In this Off the Cuff video, fixed income senior portfolio manager Albert Ngo discusses inflation, economic growth and possible outcomes for the market.

How pharmacogenomics can prevent drug spend waste

More and more Canadians are taking prescription drugs as chronic disease and mental health problems become more widespread. But prescribing can be a challenge because each person’s unique metabolic profile—informed by their unique genetics—determines which drugs will work and which will not. Empire Life has been working with Pillcheck for three years to help plan members find the right pharmaceutical treatments sooner rather than later, so they can enjoy their lives and return to work without needless delay. For employers, the savings can add up: depending on the diagnosis, drug therapy guided by Pillcheck can save between $350 and $5000 per patient. 

In a recent video, Paul Holba, CIO, reviews the key market events of 2022 and outlook for 2023. He also shares how the team’s investment strategies reflect our cautious view of the environment, but with some positive outlooks and opportunities.

In my last article, I wrote about the benefits of a buy and hold strategy where an investor stayed in the market through the ups and downs of a particular investment. 

A common piece of advice for investors is that long term success doesn’t hinge on timing the market. It’s time in the market that may make the bigger difference.

Key takeaways:  

• Tactically moving to a more defensive positioning
• Increased bonds, decreased equities (all portfolios except Emblem Aggressive Growth, which has no bond component)
• Emblem Aggressive Growth – increased US equities, decreased international equities
  
  

Tactical update - December 20, 2022

We are choosing to adopt a more cautious posture and see increasingly attractive relative value in fixed income. As such, we have reduced our equity targets in the various Emblem funds and increased our fixed income targets.

From the desk of CIO Paul Holba: In this latest update from the Empire Life Investments team, Paul Holba discusses how 2022 continues to be a challenging year—but it’s not all bad news.

Market recap

2022 continues to be a challenging year for investors. As mentioned in my July update, the first half of the year produced some of the worst year-to-date returns in decades for many markets. At the end of the third quarter, market returns continued to incrementally trend in the wrong direction (albeit at a slower clip). However, many markets experienced a strong October rally, trimming the year’s losses to varying degrees. Supported by its resource sector orientation, Canadian equities held their value better over other markets, while the growth-oriented Nasdaq Composite continued to lag materially.

The actions of central banks around the world are having a positive effect on inflation, and we are starting to see signs of it slowing, particularly as we look at the year-over-year and month-over-month numbers in Canada and the U.S. However, with widespread inflation and the near-term upward trajectory of interest rates, we could soon see an economic slowdown.

Ian Fung, Portfolio Manager, Fixed income, discusses these and other factors affecting fixed-income markets and the global economy.