Digital Platforms

CIO survey reveals the IT skills in highest demand such as database management.

Fitch finds the market’s capital position and surpluses remains strong, projects return to underwriting profitability in 2013.

Panel agrees that actuaries must advocate for the tools by presenting potential return-on-investment and other benefits.

Implementation of the web-based platform from ISCS is already under way, according to the mutual insurer.

The insurer has also been raising prices for some retirement products, and benefits from hedges against low interest rates. Kandarian is seeking to exit banking to limit oversight from the Federal Reserve, which rejected his plan to repurchase shares. A deal to sell deposits to General Electric Co. won approval yesterday from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

RiskIntegrity Solvency II Solution designed to help with calculating, consolidating and reporting on insurance portfolios.

With more incentive and interactive employer education, millennial workers indicate in new survey that they prioritize retirement savings.

Eight predictions surrounding the future of analytics within the enterprise from Tom Davenport, the International Institute for Analytics' director of research.

Strong balance sheet fundamentals and improved liquidity profile contribute to Fitch Ratings’ stable outlook for the sector.

Insurers are caught in a bind when it comes to business growth and preventing insurance fraud, according to a new report from Forrester, titled “Prevent Insurance Crime With The Four Cornerstones Of Better Fraud Management”; growth nowadays—which means emerging technologies such as mobile and social—inherently presents challenges and open doors to fraud risk.

Stagnant fixed income markets make rebuilding balance sheets challenging for life insurers since the credit crisis, Conning finds.

Accenture's life insurance software platform will be employed to help manage 100,000 life insurance policies.

Aite Group asks P&C claims executives for their perceptions of 14 different software and service categories, including claims management system vendors and claims analytics providers.

Gartner cautions that social, mobile, cloud and information are driving new and different business scenarios that insurers ignore at their own peril.

Upon the closing of the most recent transaction of approximately 234.2 million shares, the U.S. Department of the Treasury will have sold the last of its remaining shares and taken a $22.7 billion profit.

New York Life leads life insurers in customer satisfaction; State Farm and Progressive share the top spot among P&C insurers.

While universal life and whole life product lines surge, interest rates and capital requirements hold down lifetime guarantee universal life premiums.

Estimates from the National Insurance Crime Bureau are holding as the firm identifies and removes thousands of damaged vehicles.

In aggregate, commercial insurance prices increased 6 percent during Q3 2012 compared with the same period last year, according to “Commercial Lines Insurance Pricing Survey (CLIPS),” a survey conducted by Towers Watson. This was the seventh consecutive quarter that aggregate prices for all commercial lines rose.

Despite declines from four of the industry’s top life insurance writers, overall life premiums stay relatively flat in the third quarter.

The IT job market grew by 8,700 jobs in November, and has grown by 59,400 jobs over the last 12 months, according to BLS data.

Fitch Ratings expects that revenue and earnings growth for U.S. insurance brokers—specifically Aon, Marsh & McLennan Companies and Willis Group—in 2013 will remain relatively stable.

Insurer anticipates using OnBase throughout the enterprise to connect information in policy management, billing and claims systems.

In November 2012, the overall composite rate for insuring commercial accounts in the United States was up 5 percent as compared to November 2011, according to MarketScout’s Commercial and Personal Lines Market Barometers.

Attorneys General around the country receive notices from the insurer this morning about social security numbers, driver’s license numbers and other personal information of its customers being compromised.

UBI and insurance telematics are touted for their ability to save premium dollars, but wider adoption could also save lives and slow global climate change.

Detica NetReveal’s analytics solution brought in to protect insurer from skyrocketing questionable claims in the P&C sector.

Ward Group recommends statistical evaluation of distributors, as well as increasing collaboration and communication regarding goals and risk appetite.

Consumer demands take center stage as Intact Financial purchases UXP software with the hopes of becoming more agile.

Another report confirms strong quarter for indexed and income annuities.

Cash deal worth $175 million to help MphasiS make gains in U.S. mortgage market.

However, uncertainty surrounds ultimate size and shape of the market, as well as its effect on traditional auto insurance, according to SMA study.

Solution designed to ease insurers’ transition to the approaching compliance mandates.

Celent report profiles 13 vendors and offers insights in terms of data sources, service and delivery options.

Industry wide, however, annuity sales dropped slightly in the third quarter.

The top areas for technology investments among workers’ compensation carriers are claims system replacements and predictive analytics, according to Novarica’s new “Business and Technology Trends: Workers’ Compensation” research report.

These can help commercial lines carriers experience expense reduction, growth strategies and improving underwriting results.

Insurers will pay a fee of 3.5 percent of their premiums to sell plans in a federally run health exchange, the government said today in a regulatory filing. The exchanges are new marketplaces somewhat like online travel services where uninsured people will buy policies.

The New York Insurance Association says New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s mandate to speed the payment of the more than 330,000 claims filed by New Yorkers related to Superstorm Sandy are unnecessary.

The NAIC president comments as House Financial Services subcommittees explore the impact of new standards on the insurance industry.

Aetna, among other insurers, plans to spend millions of dollars to support a group fighting to get coverage for the uninsured.

After a decade of falling rates and large profit margins, a new report from Conning urges insurers to review strategies in light of a changing market environment.

Zurich Insurance re-enters the force-placed market for the first time since 2008.

MetLife Inc. has added the Multi-Index Targeted Risk Portfolio to the MetLife Protected Growth Strategies lineup, available through its variable annuities with the GMIB Max and EDB Max optional benefit riders.

Insurers increasingly concerned about the expanding scope of regulation, escalating compliance costs and risks from privacy violations and breaches of network security.

Insurers will need to look to technology to focus on products and features, while overcoming a complex set of processes at the back end.

Company reports that about $340 million in payments have been made as of November 26.

GEICO has announced iPad application updates designed to make it easier for customers to conduct business and learn about their policies.

American pre-retirees are not taking retirement planning seriously, according to a LIMRA study. Twenty-five percent of the 33 million U.S. pre-retirees, surveyed, said they felt “very prepared” for retirement, down from 30 percent of those surveyed in 2010.

Industry continues to benefit as home inventories and distressed sales decline and prices stabilize.

A recent study from Travelers downplays the risk of digital platforms and transactions.

Predictions from Gartner outline a sprawling enterprise technology infrastructure that includes more SaaS, BYOD and outsourcing.