Digital Platforms

CNA Financial Corp. has named Cheryl Paton as the assistant VP for umbrella teams, and Andy Cohen as the VP of field operations.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. will use Guidewire PolicyCenter as its underwriting and policy administration system and Guidewire BillingCenter for its P&C insurance lines. Nationwide Mutual already is in the process of deploying Guidewire ClaimCenter for claims handling for all P&C lines of business.

SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc., a software and services provider, has launched CAMRA I-Risk for insurance companies to address emerging solvency standards by combining CAMRA’s financial reporting capabilities with a position-based stochastic simulation model.

WellPoint Inc., the second-biggest U.S. health insurer, is planning a four-part debt offering to help fund its $4.9 billion acquisition of Amerigroup Corp. The operator of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance plans may sell three-, five-, 10- and 30- year notes as soon as today, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

Long-term care insurance decisions are not being made only by the elderly, according to a new report. A study conducted by the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance notes that the youngest claimant was 24 years old when he began receiving benefit payments from his long-term care insurance policy. Now in his seventh year of receiving payments, the coverage was purchased when the claimant was 21 years old.

Results of a Towers Watson survey of risk calibrations being used for specific market and non-market risks, revealed that the largest challenges still include interest rates, credit spreads and mortality and lapse assumptions, with up to two-thirds of firms still looking to make considerable progress in these areas.

Munich Re, Swiss Re and Allianz among A.M. Best’s review and ranking of the top 50 reinsurers based on gross premiums written.

Mobile usage-based solutions offer choices designed to provide customer-centric data, feedback.

As businesses in the Gulf Coast are finding out again, having a disaster recovery plan is critical to a business’ survival. According to the “Gulf Coast Back to Business Act (2007),” 43 percent of businesses that close after a natural disaster never reopen, and an additional 29 percent permanently close within two years. However, in the wake of the ongoing financial crisis, many disaster recovery plans are now out of date, says Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates.

IT contractor hiring is on the rise; researchers say forecasting the hiring of experts is a “net positive."

Poll results reveal that majority of Americans connect life insurance to feelings of security, yet don’t fully understand how such a vehicle can help meet long-term financial goals.

Bidders including Manulife Financial Corp. have expressed willingness to buy the Japanese operations as part of a deal for ING units in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the process is private.

Zurich Insurance Group AG, the biggest Swiss insurer, is seeking more licenses to expand in Chinese cities as part of a strategy to grow in emerging markets, chief executive officer Martin Senn said.

A group of Russian insurers have signed an agreement to implement ACORD standards. This will be the first documented ACORD implementation in Eastern Europe.

BMS Group, an independent specialist broker, has chosen Eclipse Broking software from Sequel Business Solutions Ltd., to replace its insurance and reinsurance broking systems in London, the United States and Bermuda. The implementation will go live this year.

EQECAT's early estimates surrounding Isaac draw comparisons to Hurricanes Gustav and Florence.

According to a new report from Gartner, cloud and consumerization present a unique challenge for all businesses moving forward.

The U.S. Census Bureau released 2010 health insurance data; Texas retains the highest rate of uninsureds for the fifth year in a row.

Insurer turns to Clearwater Analytics for scalable solution that can provide improved investment accounting and reporting, analytics.

Latest Allstate report ranks the nation’s largest 200 cities based on the frequency of auto collision claims.

Latest Allstate report ranks the nation’s largest 200 cities based on the frequency of auto collision claims.

As Hurricane Isaac strikes, A.M. Best provides the top ten P&C insurers by market share in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.

LIMRA announces sales survey results for the first half of 2012.

Women's portion of total number of claims continues to climb as well.

Agency management solution designed to extract data from PDF forms and connect agents to carriers.

AIR Worldwide, a catastrophe modeling firm, estimates that losses resulting from farmer claims for the crop insurance industry may exceed $13 billion with the potential to reach as high as $20 billion.

Awareness of the dangers of distracted driving appears to be increasing, but teens are not adjusting their behavior behind the wheel.

Sterne Agee slightly upgrades EPS estimates for life insurers, anticipates higher reserve requirements for universal life.

Survey finds generational differences in communications preferences, urges multi-channel delivery.

Insurers wait for the inevitable landfall of what could become a Category 2 hurricane. According to CoreLogic, this leaves insurers with $36 billion in potential exposure to residential property damage to brace for. This high estimate is largely the result of remaining uncertainties. While estimates have the storm moving onto land within the next 48 hours, where it will strike is still unknown.

Combined ratios are down more than 10 percent compared to 2011 figures, Fitch finds.

Insurers looks to iPipeline’s Content Partner and iGO eApp for improved distribution of life and annuity products.

While not yet a hurricane and still days away from landfall, Tropical Storm Isaac now poses a threat to the Republican National Convention, scheduled to begin on Tuesday in Tampa.

Insurer turns to software firm for improved investment accounting, reporting and analytics solution.

The federal bank is selling off the last $3.4 billion of its Maiden Lane III LLC portfolio, ending its four-year bailout of the insurer.

Rating agency predicts positive rest of the year despite the slight deterioration of interest coverage and leverage ratios during the first-half of 2012.

Platform designed to enable insurers to control appetites by state, line of insurance and SIC in real time.

Risk Analyzer Homeowners product enhanced with by-peril rating rules, which have been approved in 13 states.

Magazine rates companies’ growth since 2008 and ranks them accordingly.

With the business intelligence product, the broker expects to be able to drill down into its data while analyzing the business from many different perspectives.

Deal furthers global relationship between the two companies.

How a start-up telematics insurer is allowing U.K. insurers to look at young drivers completely differently.

Hartford CEO Liam McGee continues divesting units in the wake of billionaire investor John Paulson pressuring him to narrow the company's focus.

Aetna joins competitors WellPoint Inc. and Cigna Corp. in making acquisitions as the U.S. government expands medical coverage.

The 1994 Honda Accord was the most-stolen vehicle; key code thefts a growing concern, according to NICB.

Allianz, Aviva, AXA Equitable, Great American and Jackson National are a few of the carriers named as top-selling indexed annuity and/or life insurance carriers for the second quarter.

Latest report from Gartner serves as a call-to-arms and guide for insurers putting off analytics, business intelligence and big data investments.

In a Forrester survey of 90 enterprise customer analytics practitioners, including insurers, social analytics is the most popular analytics program companies are looking to pilot in the next couple years.

Suite of coverage enhancements to be offered through network security and privacy product.

Of the 14 life insurance firms monitored by Corporate Insight, Liberty Mutual and USAA were cited as having the strongest social media performances and were awarded top grades.

Overall, deal volume in software and Web-based offerings were both down for the second quarter of 2012.

Free informative app, called WreckCheck, designed to help consumers protect property, identities with accident reports.