Digital Platforms

Ward Group, provider of benchmarking and best practices services to the insurance industry, has announced the 2013 Ward’s 50 top performing property/casualty insurers.

Aetna, Empire BlueCross BlueShield and 15 other insurers set to participate in New York’s Health Benefits Exchange.

Insurer looks for improved time-to-market capabilities with new policy rating platform.

The largest open long-term care insurance claim made by a female policyholder has reached $1.8 million in paid benefits; the largest claim made by a male policyholder now exceeds $1.3 million in paid benefits, according to a new report from the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance.

Zurich’s special investigations unit in North America has adopted the latest version of ISO’s ClaimDirector fraud analytics service to better detect and prevent fraud.

Product changes currently require multiple systems, which drags on time-to-market metrics. That’s why many are eyeing core-product configuration solutions, according to new SMA research.

New capabilities designed to enable an improved view of risk, regulatory requirements, and assist companies in investment decision-making.

Sixty-eight percent of financial services firms say that their industry is now riskier or just as risky as it was in 2007, according to the “2013 Makovsky Wall Street Reputation Study,” which was conducted by Echo Research.

Despite recent crash of Asiana B777 aircraft, rating levels continue to decline and premium levels are down 5 percent on the year.

As the industry entered hurricane season last month, its reserves ready for paying out claims topped $600 billion.

Gartner analysts review mobile operating systems and the basic elements of mobile device management.

Clients and brokers are being provided with access to ACE's platform for electronic delivery of policies.

Erie Family Life Insurance set out to streamline the life insurance sales process and make it more intuitive to the independent agents who are used to selling the parent company’s personal lines P&C products.

Bill passes after Congress strips out food stamp program, a move the Obama administration said would warrant a veto.

Rising interest rates a net positive for P&C industry, according to a new report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.

Continued pressure on underwriting results and a low interest rate environment motivated underwriting management to seek these higher rates, according to the “2013 RIMS Benchmark Survey.”

Second-quarter net income for the fourth-largest U.S. auto insurer spiked to over $320 million.

Personal lines insurer looks to Insurer Policy and Insurer Analytics to provide a new foundation for customer service.

Two years ago, a group of Farmers women set out to establish the insurer’s Women’s Leadership Network, which focuses on creating a culture that attracts, develops and retains talented women who contribute to the achievement of its business goals.

Cost cutting no longer top concern; IT infrastructure and analytics lead investment areas, while interest in M&A declined, according to new KPMG survey.

In finalizing the designations, the council expanded upon the reasons why these two companies were selected.

In the first half of this year, 460 loss-relevant natural hazards occurred, exceeding the 10-year average of 390.

While the overall number of big data initiatives is still relatively small, the majority are centered on modeling, according to a new Novarica report.

Despite catastrophe losses of $20 billion in the first half of this year, reinsurance market rates on line (ROLs) continue to be driven by an influx of capital from third-party investors at the July 1 renewals, according to a report from Guy Carpenter & Co. LLC, a global risk and reinsurance specialist.

Wynsure system also designed to deliver self-service functions for producers, employers, employees and employee benefits administrators.

Main goal of consultative service will be to create personalized plans for improving financial and operational efficiency, as well as a strategic road map.

Sector adds 9,900 jobs, the most since January; Janco survey finds healthcare IT sector continues to be a bright spot.

By reducing client onboarding time by half, this specialty insurer enabled itself to bid more competitively for new business and free up IT capacity.

On the whole, both commercial and personal lines saw rate growth accelerate last month.

While AIG is embracing its designation, Prudential is committed to convincing the FSOC that if it were to fail, the economic ramifications would not be great.

The council now has 30 days to schedule a hearing, according to the insurer.

Several industry analysts provide advice for establishing effective data practices in a new white paper from Xuber.

Delaying the health insurance employer mandate mostly affects employers, experts say; health insurers continue to focus on exchanges.

The White House on the evening of July 2, in a blog posting from Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to the President, announced it will suspend for one year reporting requirements in 2014 for larger employers to demonstrate compliance with a mandate to offer employees health insurance coverage, and not enforce financial penalties for larger employers that fail to comply until 2015, one year later than authorized in the Affordable Care Act.

The largest U.S. life insurer is proposing an alternative to the Fed that it feels is more appropriate for insurers deemed systemically important financial institutions.

Insurance QuickPass designed to digitize insurance policies in an app for drivers.

Allstate, Lincoln National and 14 others receive updates.

Business management and accounting solution designed to manage RSA’s Group Reinsurance portfolio.

Increasingly sophisticated user expectations drive tech market, Celent says, as insurers look for ways to differentiate commoditized products.

Declining U.S. property rates and reinsurers' desire to maintain their market positions is spilling over into other classes, according to a report from Willis Re.

Financial service firms plan to increase IT operational budgets by a modest 2.1 percent this year, while about 45 percent are increasing headcount, according to a Computer Economics IT study.

Progressive has been licensing UBI intellectual property since December 2012.

Maximizing IT’s value requires realistic expectations and transparency, as well as planning and decision making that are aligned with business goals, according to PwC.

The specialty insurer can now use location parameters, policy type, limits and other attributes to deliver rich, contact-sensitive information to underwriters.

Talon designed to help the reinsurer target and price new markets.

Agent and consumer portals, business intelligence and core systems revamps are top priorities, as personal lines insurers concentrate on growth, expense reduction and improving underwriting results, Novarica says.

Berkshire to pay $285 million for variable annuities business, as The Hartford continues to divest in an attempt to focus on property/casualty operations.

Since the option to buy commercial insurance materialized online, the segment has become more open to the new channel as it prioritizes price and convenience, according to Novarica research.

Aite Group research recommends smaller insurers leverage new technologies to eliminate disadvantages of scale; describes opportunities to cut losses and 10 startups offering applications to address those opportunities.

New data from the National Insurance Crime Bureau ranks the 15 places in the United States with the most vehicle thefts.

P&C impairments see significant drop from the 34 reported for 2011; however, auto writers and risk retention groups continued to struggle, according to recent A.M. Best report.

State Farm, AAA and Allstate also included in the top 100 of Temkin's 2013 Trust Ratings.