Winter 2021

O'Neill Review | Winter 2021

Dear Friends,

The end of a year and the start of another always seems to inspire us to naturally reflect on the past and our hopes for the future. As we have edged our way into 2021 with reservations but also hope, I wanted to reach out to you all to you to ensure you’re keeping well and staying healthy.

Normally around this time, we’re getting ready to head to Toronto for the Prospectors and Developers Association Conference (PDAC), which is being held virtually this year. We’re sad not to be able to see all the familiar faces at PDAC but are hopeful for next year.

While we continue to work on staying healthy, growing our business, and finding ways to stay connected to family, friends and clients, I want to wish you all the best of health while we head into warmer days ahead.

Cheers,

IN THIS ISSUE -

Covid & Mental Health Impacts

Introducing RBC's Family Compassionate Care Rider

Make No Mistake, the Stock Market isn't the Economy

Why Facts Don't Change Our Minds

Are your business travellers covered?

In spite of travel advisories, it is very apparent that we live in a global world and that essential business travel is still necessary for ongoing operations. We continue to get calls regarding business travel coverage, and can assure you that for any member covered under a group health plan, the group travel coverage does not have an exclusion for COVID. However, what if your company has travellers that are not enrolled in your group plan, like contractors or directors?

MetLife’s International Business Travel Medial (IBTM) policy is a great solution (click here for more info).

Covid and Mental Health Impacts

2020 proved to be an extremely emotionally taxing year. Companies were challenged with how to keep their doors open, while still maintaining safe practices and adhering to the ever-changing rules. Employees worried about losing their jobs. Families struggled to juggle homeschooling children while still managing to make enough income to pay all their bills. And 2021 has started off with only more change and uncertainty. While COVID has affected millions of people physically, it’s impact on mental health has been even more rampant.

During this time, supporting mental health and wellness has become even more crucial. While many employee benefits programs incorporate various support services such as an Employee & Family Assistance Program and Virtual Health Care, there are also many free services available that can be very impactful.

Click here to read more about what services are available

Navigating Covid-19 and how RBC Individual Disability coverage is there to help.

Click here to read more.

Introducing RBC’s Family Compassionate Care Rider

RBC is a leading provider of Disability Insurance coverage in Canada. One of the reasons they are a preferred disability insurance provider is the quality of their claims experience and the return-to-work support systems they have in place. RBC also offers excellent additional riders that enhance the quality of their coverage. The newest addition to their line up of optional riders is the Family Compassionate Care Rider.

The Family Compassionate Care Rider provides a monthly benefit that is designed to help relieve financial stress if a disability policyholder’s spouse or child is diagnosed with a terminal illness or injury.  

Click here to learn more.

Spring is around the corner!

 

5 Ways to Get Ready For Spring - At Home, in the Garden & for Relaxation.

Click here to read more.

Make No Mistake, the Stock Market isn't the Economy

The two financial terms we hear about the most shouldn’t be confused.

In the world of financial news, headlines can be confusing. Just when one proclaims that stock markets are hitting record highs, another may just as easily say the economy is in deep trouble. But how can this be? How can stock market numbers look so rosy next to a gloomy outlook for the economy?

The simple explanation is that the two are very different. Yet they each affect one another to such a significant degree that the relationship between them remains critical to our financial system – even when they move in different directions.

Click here to read more.

Why Facts Don't Change Our Minds

The economist J.K. Galbraith once wrote, “Faced with a choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy with the proof.” Leo Tolstoy was even bolder: “The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.”

What's going on here? Why don't facts change our minds? And why would someone continue to believe a false or inaccurate idea anyway? How do such behaviors serve us?

Click here to read more.

Thomas O'Neill & Associates Inc. | www.oneill-inc.com
Toll Free: 800.757.2799