Digital Platforms

Fiserv Inc., a Brookfield, Wis.-based provider of software and outsourcing solutions to more than 2,000 insurance customers, has formed a strategic alliance with Lombardi Software, an Austin, Texas-based provider of the business process management (BPM) software called TeamWorks. The goal of the alliance is provide a BPM solution specifically designed for the insurance industry.

Novato, Calif.--Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. will provide identity theft restoration services nationally, offering customers access to a personal counselor who can help identify-theft victims with the legal and logistical burden of putting their lives back together.These services represent one of the first major programs by an insurer to deliver these services as part of an insurance policy. The enhancement comes at no additional cost, and with no deductible, to Fireman's Fund policyholders who have Prestige Home Premier with Added Measure coverage. This service became available effective March 30.

Don't throw away the sleeping pills just yet. If you're a senior executive or manager with financial accountability, chances are, over the past year, you've had trouble sleeping because you've been worried about complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley law--especially the part that holds you personally responsible for attesting to the adequacy of your company's internal controls over financial reporting.Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that SOX--passed in 2002--requires executive officers of public companies to annually attest to the effectiveness of internal controls over their financial reports. If you fail to establish and maintain appropriate controls, you can be fined and even sent to jail.

As independent agents identify the best ways to download files from carriers, a controversy is brewing that pits the established value-added agency download technology against emerging alternatives.Over the past couple years, many property/casualty insurers have used download technology developed jointly by Old Greenwich, Conn.-based IVANS Inc. and Applied Systems, a University Park, Ill.-based agency management system vendor.

The recent disclosure that criminals illegally obtained personal information from ChoicePoint Inc. is prompting the company to take action to improve the security of its insurance databases.Although no insurance-related information was stolen, ChoicePoint executives say, the Alpharetta, Ga.-based company intends to establish new auditing procedures and implement other measures to ensure that a similar policy breach will not occur for databases that house insurance information.

The Contracts Update section includes announcements of contracts insurance information technology companies have signed with customers in recent weeks. Contract news can be faxed to Insurance Networking News magazine at (312) 913-1366 or by electronic mail to Stephen.Dwyer thomsonmedia.com Adaptis

Maybe it's because so many companies have focused most of their attention on complying with Sarbanes-Oxley this past year, but a significant portion of health insurers and health care providers will not meet the security requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) by the April 20 deadline.Only 30% of payers and 18% of providers said they were already compliant with the HIPAA security regulations in a survey released in February by Phoenix Health Systems, a Montgomery Village, Md.-based consulting firm to hospitals.

CHICAGO--Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL) Consumer Markets Division, as part of its ongoing effort to meet the growing demands of consumer-directed health care, announced today that it is offering two new Health Savings Account (HSA) compatible health plans: the BlueEdge Individual HSA and the BlueEdge Individual HSA 5000.

WESTBORO, Mass.---Ascential Software Corporation, an enterprise data integration provider, today announced that CNP Assurances, the leading personal insurance company in France, has standardized on Ascential DataStage, a core component of Ascential Enterprise Integration Suite, to reduce infrastructure costs, optimize the company's IT system, and achieve a single view of customer portfolios in real time.

WAUSAU, Wis--Midsized companies now have better access to expanded umbrella capacity since Wausau Insurance is more than doubling its in-house individual account coverage limits up to $25 million --the amount typically sought for such programs.

ORANGE, Calif.-- CalSurance, a national insurance sales, service and support organization comprising many diverse and specialized programs, today announced that it has enhanced its specialized errors and omissions program for broker-dealers with 75 or fewer registered representatives. Recently CalSurance and Quanta Specialty Lines Insurance Company teamed up to offer this program.The program enhancement now provides each broker-dealer with its own policy limits without sharing a master policy aggregate with other broker-dealers in the program.

WAUSAU, Wis.--Wausau Signature Agency has increased its focus on employee benefits by forming a Group Benefits Division in the upper Midwest states.

CAMBRIDGE, England--Autonomy Corporation plc, a global leader in infrastructure software for the enterprise, today announced that Autonomy has been awarded a contract by Norwich Union Life, the largest provider of life, pensions and long-term financial services in the UK.

WASHINGTON, March 17--With health benefit costs still rising at double-digit rates, more employers are adopting health management and consumer-directed health care programs to help control costs. And some employers keep increases remarkably low by getting employees involved in health care decision making. These are among the major findings in the 10th annual survey of large employers conducted by Watson Wyatt and the National Business Group on Health.

SALT LAKE CITY, UT--- A single point of entry for access to insurance information, services and tools for consumers, regulators and industry will be available on March 16 through the National Portal for Insurance Regulatory Information on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' (NAIC) Web site at www.naic.org.The NAIC's Information Resources Management (H) Committee began demonstrations of the National Portal search engine at the NAIC Spring National Meeting in Salt Lake City.

Warren, NJ--The Chubb Group of Insurance Companies has redesigned its Web site, www.chubb.com, to make it easier to do business with the insurer and help increase agent productivity. The upgraded Web site features new content, easy-to-use navigation, a simplified design and direct access for agents to @chubb, a secure Internet platform. "The clean, information-focused site will enable agents and brokers, customers, investors and journalists to quickly find the information they need," said Scott Wickstrom, Chubb's e-business manager.

SEATTLE, WA-- Only Financial Group (OFG), a national Insurance Brokerage and Lead Generation company has announced the launch of OFG Agent Web Sites for its nationwide network of OFG member agents and brokerages. OFG's new Agent Web Sites provide life insurance agents and brokerages across the country with a customized Web site that boosts new business and streamlines the sales and marketing process. Agents who use an OFG Web Site can:

WESTBOROUGH, Mass.--OneShield, Inc. and NetRate Systems are collaborating to address the rating system needs of small to mid-sized insurance carriers. The companies remain separate organizations but have agreed to combine efforts to address the needs of insurance carriers who want a tools-based configurable architecture provided by OneShield along with dedicated resources having over 25 years in the rating engine business offered by NetRate.

WASHINGTON, D.C.--The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, the nation's largest agents and brokers group, is pleased with the much-improved producer compensation disclosure model approved Saturday by the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) at its spring meeting in Hilton Head, S.C. The NCOIL model is a disclosure-oriented proposal that relies on and does not conflict with the regulatory framework endorsed by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), but significantly improves on the NAIC model by focusing the scope of the new disclosure and acknowledgement provisions on those producers and transactions where there is a potential conflict of interest.

Executives from a group of life insurers March 8 announced the formation of the Affordable Life Insurance Alliance (ALIA), co-chaired by Jefferson Pilot Financial President & CEO Dennis R. Glass and John D. Johns, Protective Life Corporation Chairman, President & CEO.

CHICAGO, March 4-- Aon Corporation has reached a comprehensive agreement with five agencies in three states to settle investigations relating to contingent commissions and other business practices that may have created actual or potential conflicts of interest. Parties involved in the settlement, in which Aon admits no wrongdoing or liability, include the attorneys general of New York, Illinois and Connecticut as well as the insurance departments of New York and Illinois. The settlement involves no fines or penalties.

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee has selected and begun to implement applications from Webify Solutions' Healthcare On Demand solution. The product consists of a suite of service-oriented business applications that will enable BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee to rapidly expand the breadth and depth of information exchange and process automation with its health care provider community by implementing a direct connect strategy, the company says.

Farmers Mutual Protective Association of Texas (RVOS) has selected Duck Creek Technologies' Example Platform for the development of a Web-based quoting and submission system. Future plans include utilizing the Example Platform for the implementation of a complete policy administration system.

Ever since the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 removed barriers between insurance companies, banks and securities firms, insurers have been pushing states for regulatory reform. If insurers are to remain competitive, they argue, insurance companies must get products to market faster. But they are stymied by redundant and cumbersome filing, licensing and reporting requirements across the 50 states. What's needed? Uniform laws and streamlined filing and approvals, according to industry sources."The NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) needs to focus on the bread-and-butter issues of regulatory reform," says Lenore Marema, vice president of industry and regulatory affairs for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), Des Plaines, Ill. Chief among those issues is speed to market.

Three years ago, The Baltimore Life Insurance Co. implemented an automated sales and underwriting system in conjunction with striking a marketing deal with a large membership organization. The Owings Mills, Md.-based carrier believed the affinity deal could drive unprecedented new premium growth for its death benefit products through a concerted campaign of television ads and mailers."It was a significant opportunity," says Garry Voith, Baltimore Life's assistant vice president and director of distribution technology and marketing.

When Citicorp and Travelers Group merged in October 1998, banking and insurance experts universally hailed the deal as the beginning of a new era in financial services in the United States: the one-stop financial superstore.Indeed, given the emergence of technologies that enable companies to slice and dice customer data to pinpoint cross-sell and up-sell opportunities, the Citicorp/Travelers combo was viewed at the time as a powerhouse that would set the stage for similar deals.

Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. has been no stranger to technology outsourcing initiatives over the past three years. But the term "outsourcing" might be an inaccurate depiction of what the carrier's senior IT team regards to be its mandate. Instead, Fireman's Chief Technology Officer Diane Comer views these agreements as "strategic partnerships."In January, the Novato, Calif.-based carrier announced two major initiatives involving technology firms that provide Fireman's Fund with a comfortable degree of internal decision-making latitude. Under a seven-year, $157-million contract with IBM Global Services, Fireman's Fund plans to implement IBM's on-demand computing technology. One of the key distinctions of IBM's on-demand computing is that it enables clients such as Fireman's to pay for only the computing power it uses within a shared-services arrangement. Fireman's Fund projects savings of about $10 million a year in IT-related costs from this advantage.

Although the specter of organized crime rings receives the brunt of the publicity, the proliferation of "garden variety" insurance fraud continues to badger insurance companies.In their efforts to implement best-practices claims management, fraud and buildup (the inflation of an otherwise legitimate claim) added between $4.3 billion and $5.8 billion to auto injury settlements in 2002, representing between 11% and 15% of all dollars paid for private passenger auto injury insurance claims that year.

The Contracts Update section includes announcements of contracts insurance information technology companies have signed with customers in recent weeks. Contract news can be faxed to Insurance Networking News magazine at (312) 913-1366 or by electronic mail to Stephen.Dwyer thomsonmedia.com AcroSoft Corp.

Consumers of auto and homeowners insurance are vulnerable to the same potential conflicts of interest as commercial insurance buyers, according to a report recently released by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), Washington, D.C.Using data from Best's Aggregates and Averages, 2004 Edition, total commissions paid to agents and brokers in 2003 for home and auto insurance ranged from zero to 30% of premium, the CFA reports. Overall, commission income was made up of roughly 90% regular commissions and 10% contingency commissions-the kind criticized by N.Y. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Credit-scoring significantly improves insurance pricing accuracy when combined with other rating variables in predicting risk. That's the conclusion of a study commissioned by the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI).In December, the department released its preliminary findings, which showed poor credit scores were associated with more claims activity, and blacks and Hispanics on average have lower credit scores than whites (see Feb. issue, page 8.)

It's no surprise that the workers' compensation market has been challenged by a host of issues that have driven costs skyward for carriers and agents. According to the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers (CIAB), Washington, D.C., commercial property/casualty insurance premiums continued to decline significantly during third quarter 2004.

SIMSBURY, Conn.--Looking to meet a growing financial need, The Hartford Financial Services Group is introducing a new last survivor universal life insurance policy to help affluent couples transfer their wealth to children and other loved ones. Hartford Advanced Last Survivor UL is a flexible premium universal life policy that is issued by Hartford Life Insurance Co. and Hartford Life and Annuity Insurance Co., subsidiaries of The Hartford. Last survivor policies insure two people, typically couples, and pay a death benefit upon the second death. Hartford Advanced Last Survivor UL provides affordable, permanent life insurance protection with an available secondary guarantee for the death benefit. The death benefit guarantee for Hartford Advanced Last Survivor UL is based on the claims-paying abilities of Hartford Life and Hartford Life and Annuity.

New York--Tower Group, Inc. today announced the appointment of Joseph P. Beitz to a newly created position as Managing Vice President, Program Underwriting, reporting to Michael H. Lee, Tower Group, Inc's President & Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Beitz's primary responsibilities will be the production and management of new program opportunities for the company, which will be underwritten by its own insurance company and through other insurance companies for which its managing general agency produces premiums.

TAMPA, Fla.-- SCI, a national leading Professional Employer Organization (PEO), announced today that it has renewed its agreement with top-rated insurance carrier Zurich, North America to provide workers' compensation coverage for its client company employees effective March 1, 2005, through February 28, 2006. "Our renewal with Zurich, once again, reflects the continued strength of SCI as a leading provider of PEO outsourcing services in the marketplace," said J.C. Dominguez, president, SCI. "We continue to improve our performance and refine our processes to exceed customer expectations. Working with the best companies in the market will allow us to extend the best products and services to our clients; Zurich is just one example of that."

PEARL RIVER, NY--ACORD and XBRL examine the need for data standards and their own roles in the overall communications flow in their newly released white paper, "XML Standards and the Insurance Value Chain." The document focuses on the flow of data within the insurance value chain and the importance of data standards to transport the information along the path for financial reporting and regulatory compliance.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.--In response to a rapidly growing voluntary benefits market, UnumProvident has announced enhancements to its critical illness and individual short term disability insurance products. The specified critical illness insurance now includes the option of base or enhanced coverage. Base coverage features a benefit payout for heart attack, stroke, permanent paralysis, kidney failure, organ transplant or coronary artery bypass surgery. Enhanced coverage includes all conditions listed under the base plan, plus an additional benefit if diagnosed with cancer. Enhancements also include increased benefit amounts for covered children, and, for eligible employee groups, the first $10,000 in coverage is guaranteed-issue (some restrictions apply).

Arrowhead General Insurance Agency Inc. announced that Chuck Brady has joined the company as president of the professional liability division, located in Torrance, Calif.

Over the next 18 months, employees will be spending more time online--not surfing the Web or checking e-mail but rather logging onto their company Web site and signing up for employee benefits with a click of the mouse. According to MetLife's recently released 2004 Employee Benefits Trend Study, employee self-service on the Internet is an important benefits strategy, particularly among large employers. As a result, companies expect a huge surge in e-benefits use over the next two years.

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla.--As some insurance carriers tinker with proprietary policy download solutions in their electronic interfaces with independent agents and brokers, agents are seeing increased workflow time as well as other unanticipated issues, according to the Applied Systems Client Network (ASCnet), the user group of Applied Systems agency management technology. "Agents are paying the price for unconventional download," said ASCnet President Robby Dunn. "For years, IVANS, trade associations, carriers, agents and their vendors have worked side-by-side to integrate common, multi-company communication components, develop file retrieval and update processes, and establish clear agency support services. We all saw the advantage of an industry solution. Competing on technology in this space did not make economic or business sense then, and it still doesn't."

Newark, Calif.--Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a provider of products and services for the management of catastrophe risk, today announced that it will fund technology improvements for the Florida Coastal Monitoring Program that will support its collection of real-time wind speed data during major hurricanes. The Florida Coastal Monitoring Program (FCMP) is a joint venture to develop full-scale experimental methods to quantify near-surface hurricane wind behavior and resulting loads on residential structures. The program's aim is to provide data necessary to identify methods to cost-effectively reduce hurricane wind damage to residential structures.

Charles "Chuck" McCaig, CIO, Chubb, has been designated the new chair of ACORD's Board of Directors. Barbara Koster, CIO, Prudential Financial has been selected as the chair-elect. The announcements were made recently by ACORD's President and CEO Gregory A. Maciag.

SIMSBURY, Conn.-- The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., one of the leading sellers of group life and disability insurance in America, has acquired 100,000 group life and accident policies from the Union Labor Life Insurance Co., a subsidiary of ULLICO Inc. The $29 million purchase is a strategic acquisition by The Hartford's group life and accident insurance businesses, according to Richard Mucci, executive vice president of The Hartford's Group Benefits Division. The Hartford sells group life and accident policies through Hartford Life Insurance Co. and Hartford Life and Accident Insurance Co.

ATLANTA, GA--The year 2005 should be challenging, with additional complications from regulatory and legislative issues, say members of the LOMA Board of Directors. LOMA's Resource magazine surveyed members of LOMA's board for their views on what the industry can expect in 2005.

Conshohocken, PA--RippleTech, a provider of security, compliance and systems management solutions, announced today the launch of the LogCaster for Sarbanes-Oxley solution.

ISO, a provider of anti-fraud and personal injury claims solutions, has identified ten key factors that can help insurers reduce the rising costs of handling personal injury claims.

NEEDHAM, MA--New challenges in the US insurance industry are creating one of its most difficult operating environments in recent memory. In the context of such divergent issues as terrorist threats, state and federal regulatory activity, competition from other financial services players and tight global economic conditions, TowerGroup forecasts a cautious approach to technology spending by US insurers in 2005.

WAUSAU, Wis.-- Financial executives for mid-sized companies expect greater productivity savings by reducing workers compensation claim costs than by reducing claim costs for other lines, according to a new survey commissioned by Wausau Insurance.

Uniondale, NY--OnlineBenefits Inc., provider of Internet-based HR solutions, has officially unveiled AgencyWare, the first integrated sales, service and commission tracking software product specifically designed for group benefits brokers.

Over the years, a number of oxymora have established their place among the most popular in the American lexicon-among them "airline food," "jumbo shrimp" and "working vacation."These terms are all regarded seemingly as incongruous or contradictory. So is "business intelligence"--at least in the manner that it relates to the insurance industry.

The Texas Department of Insurance is the latest organization to enter the controversial arena of scrutinizing the use of credit scores by insurance companies. Many insurers use the scores to assess risk when underwriting auto and homeowners policies.In December, the department released its preliminary findings to the 79th Texas Legislature. And, because this study is the first of its kind to use actual policyholder data-as well as to undergo academic peer review-industry sources expect it may help to settle a contentious public policy debate.

Independent insurance agents have built their reputations serving customers, but now they're being asked to not only serve customers, but to protect their personal information.As individuals become increasingly vigilant about the privacy and security of their health and personal information, the onus has fallen on independent agents and brokers to safeguard this information, according to a new report by Agents Council for Technology (ACT).