Digital Platforms

Guardian Life Insurance is actively recruiting hundreds of business professionals looking for a new line of work.

Chartis has named Murli Buluswar its new Chief Science Officer, a newly created position responsible for establishing research and development operations that enhance the insurer’s global commercial and consumer business strategies.

Forrester's Global Tech Market Outlook for 2012 and 2013 finds the next 24 months marked by a pair of transitions: a temporary spending slowdown following a post-recession bounce; and an accelerating shift of spending from old to newer technologies.

Farmers New World Life Insurance Co., the primary life subsidiary of Farmers Group, is in production with LifeSuite Automated Underwriting solution, a product of StoneRiver Inc., an insurance technology partner with solutions across multiple business lines.

A survey at the Insurance Information Institute’s (I.I.I.) annual Property/Casualty Insurance Joint Industry Forum finds respondents somewhat sanguine about the industry’s financial prospects.

Although China's total insurance premiums in 2011 rose 10 percent to 1.43 trillion yuan ($226.64 billion) from a year earlier, many insurance companies have not kept up with "the profound changes in the external environment," according to the country’s regulatory body.

As the industry faces shrinking distribution, profitable growth is a top priority for life insurance executives in 2012. This is the essence of LOMA's annual industry forecast, which includes the results of executive interviews conducted on topics such as sales, distribution, use of technology and social media, as well as the effects of regulation during the next 12 months. LOMA is an industry group comprising life insurance professionals.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to preventing, detecting and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft through data analytics, investigations, training, legislative advocacy and public awareness, is celebrating 100 years in 2012.

Propertycasulaty insurers got some more bad news this morning, this time from Ernst & Young, which predicted their ongoing struggle to succeed against a tide of further economic ills.

Small business owners prefer to speak to financial advisors of the same sex, with men exhibiting a stronger gender bias than their female counterparts, notes study results released today by The American College, a non-profit educational institution devoted to financial services.

Control over end user devices, once a given at so many companies, is loosening. Employees insist on being able to use their Apple, Android and BlackBerry devices for work and being able to access all their apps and files however they want to. Along with smartphones, consumers are adopting tablets such as Barnes & Noble Inc.'s Nook, Apple Inc.'s iPad, and Amazon Inc.'s Kindle.

Consumers want more technology in their vehicles, both for safety and infotainment purposes, and they expect it to appear in all vehicles, not just luxury lines, according to a new study from Accenture.

Global professional services company Towers Watson has released updated versions of its RiskAgility MoSes enterprise financial modeling software and RiskAgility Economic Capital (EC) Aggregator software.

This morning, A.M. Best made a number of announcements regarding the outlooks of many segments of the insurance industry.

The top marketing executive at a sizable US retailer recently found herself perplexed by the sales reports she was getting. A major competitor was steadily gaining market share across a range of profitable segments. Despite a counterpunch that combined online promotions with merchandizing improvements, her company kept losing ground.

A new report that provides an analysis of residential building codes in the 18 hurricane-prone coastal states along the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Coast was released today by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS). The IBHS is an independent, nonprofit, scientific research and communications organization supported by the property insurance industry. Intended to increase the safety and integrity of structures, thereby reducing deaths, injuries and property damage from hurricanes and a wide range of other hazards, building codes are relied upon by property/casualty insurers as one of several pieces of data used to qualify risk.

The U.S. insurance industry saw a 3.3 percent increase over November’s jobs figures, adding 3,300 jobs in December, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Insurers are warming to the notion of standardized product approval according to a report from consulting and actuarial firm Milliman Inc.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued an interim final rule to require adoption of standards and operating rules for electronic funds transfer and remittance advice HIPAA transactions.

As the New Year unfolds the insurance industry will double down on data, according to a new report from enterprise and application architecture consultancy X by 2.

The use of telematics by personal lines insurers may have reached a tipping point, according to a new report from Celent.

In its report, “Forecast: Master Data Management, Worldwide, 2010-2015," the research and advisory firm predicts a 21 percent increase in MDM revenue from 2011. By 2015, MDM revenue is anticipated to swell another 40 percent to $3.2 billion. Regionally, the U.S. and Europe will lead the MDM market, though the fastest rate of MDM software revenue growth will be in Asia by 2013.

The always-on, always-up digital culture that has been so readily adopted by younger Americans is having an impact on direct mail, according Mintel Comperemedia, a firm that provides competitive intelligence services. The firm reports that direct mail volume to consumers from life, health and property/casualty insurers is down 11 percent in Q3 2011 compared to Q3 2010.

The next major development in IIABNY’s legal effort to overturn a New York regulation mandating producer compensation disclosure will occur Jan. 10, 2012, reports the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of New York.

While the Affordable Care Act remains a source of controversy one of its primary tenets, the creation of state-based health insurance exchanges enjoys considerable support, according to a new survey from the AARP.

A survey by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) finds health insurer Cigna’s health plans in healthy shape.

Frank Cowan Co. has selected the RC Inspection software solution from Risk Control Technologies Inc., a provider of loss-control software solutions for insurers, to streamline its loss-control operations. Frank Cowan will equip its team of risk-management inspectors with tablets complete with the RC Inspection application for loss-control management.

The largest insurance company in the Czech Republic, Ceska pojistovna, is using IBM technology to help prevent IT issues and support core business functions, such as claims processing and customer management.

Two groups focused on reigning in costs have established a primary care physician practice in North Carolina. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) and UNC Health Care announced Carolina Advanced Health to eligible BCBSNC customers last month.

A day after the Insurance Information Institute released figures declaring 2011 the costliest year for P&C insurers covering U.S. cat losses, Munich Re and I.I.I. announced global cat figures.

On Thursday, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. filed a lawsuit against J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and four other financial firms claiming that $200 million in residential mortgage-backed securities it purchased through the firms were now "junk."

Looking to round out its core system offerings, Cover-All Technologies Inc. has acquired BlueWave Technology for an undisclosed amount of cash.

Spurred by its $16.2 billion acquisition of American Life Insurance Co., MetLife Inc. moved into the top five while American International Group Inc. (AIG) slid from third to fifth in A.M. Best’s rankings of the top 25 global insurers based on nonbanking assets. UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint Inc., at third and eighth, respectively, were the only U.S.-based insurers to rank in the top ten based on net premiums written.

Online Insurance Marketplace, an online community for educated consumers to shop and access quotes for insurance plans from various companies, has taken its social media efforts to a new level, promoting life insurance on its Facebook page by offering a simple poll question.

The United States set a record in 2011 in its declarations of federal disasters, and insurers are still playing catch-up with claims payouts. In fact, when all is said and done, insurers will have paid more than $32 billion in claims to help people rebuild homes and businesses damaged or destroyed by natural disasters in 2011, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.).

A Swampscott, Mass., man was convicted in a Salem Superior Court this week of bilking insurers out of $30K for claims fraud. Owner of two auto repair shops, Robert Giller, 53, plead guilty to 40 counts of fraud, which included 20 counts of filing false insurance claims, 18 counts of felony larceny and two counts of attempted larceny.

The top technologies in use today by P&C insurers today are portal technology, business process management and fraud scoring, according to a new report from Celent. The new study outlines all technologies being used by insurers and lays out their adoption rates.

One week after new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that the number of children with insurance increased by 1.2 million since President Obama signed the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization Act in 2009, more than $296 million was awarded to states for ensuring more children have health coverage.

For Tony Kerrison, the day has long passed when it made sense to question whether cloud computing had a place in financial services companies' IT plans. Kerrison has been one of the industry's cloud computing pioneers: In 2008 he helped create an internal cloud for data center servers at Merrill Lynch (back then it was referred to as "stateless infrastructure"). This year he took the helm of the Enterprise Cloud Leadership Council, a group of corporate technology buyers developing cloud standards for vendors.

Fidelity National Financial Inc. (FNF) agreed to sell an 85 percent interest in its personal lines business to WT Holdings Inc. for approximately $119 million. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, WT Holdings will acquire Fidelity National Insurance Company, Fidelity National Property and Casualty Insurance Company and FNIS Insurance Services. FNF will retain a 15 percent minority ownership position in the personal lines business.

The top business need driving 2012 P&C insurance technology initiatives is growth, according to a survey released today by technology solution provider StoneRiver Inc. The survey queried IT leaders at U.S. P&C insurance carriers, funds and administrators about priorities, IT direction, and status of services and architecture.

New data from Liberty Mutual and Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) reveals that teens believe New Year's Eve is the most dangerous time of year to drive, yet it also is the holiday or event when teens most frequently drive under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.

Encinitas, Calif.-based Work Loss Data Institute (WLDI) released its 2012 State Report Cards for Workers’ Comp this week. The report, which is used to track trends and give states a grade and tier ranking based on their performance, now includes data from a 10-year period. Forty-three states are covered, plus Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.

MetLife Inc. took a step closer to exiting the banking business Tuesday by announcing that it is selling the bulk of its deposits to GE Capital Finance Inc.

American International Group Inc. CEO Robert Benmosche reportedly told the company’s directors that he would like to hold on to his position longer than he previously planned, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website.

With another stroke of the pen, President Obama signed a continuing resolution that keeps the troubled National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) alive until May 31, 2012. The program had been scheduled to expire at midnight on December 23.

Recent calculations from ISO and PCI indicate insurers faced extreme headwinds in their core business—underwriting.

With a net income decrease of over $20 billion and an increase in statutory combined ratio of over 8 percentage points based on year-to-year comparisons of the first nine months of 2010 and 2011, the P&C sector continues to weather a tumultuous storm. High natural catastrophe-related losses have devastated insurers bottom lines and decimated underwriting performance as a whole.

In the face of the NTSB's recommended ban, auto manufacturers are gung-ho about adding more connectivity in the car.

Allstate Insurance Co. is seeking to recover $6.3 million against 83 New York-area defendants in its seventh insurance fraud lawsuit of 2011. The complaint, filed under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and principles of common law, alleges that the defendants engaged in separate, but parallel, schemes in which fraudulent and misleading bills were submitted to Allstate for durable medical equipment, medical supplies and orthotic devices.

A call for the revision of a federal law, which allows risk retention groups (RRG) to operate nationally when licensed in a single state, has been lodged by National Risk Retention Association General Counsel Robert Myers, Jr.

Aon Corporation has agreed to pay the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) approximately $16.3 million as part of a settlement related to charges of foreign bribery.