Digital Platforms

Highmark announces use of Agiliance RiskVision and the Health Information Trust Alliance’s Common Security Framework.

Market share stats on top property/casualty, life/fraternal carriers’ direct written premium now online.

Lepus says 87% of firms are looking to exploit data consistency to support data hungry risk management processes.

Technology ease of use is critical to P&C agents’ success, yet there is a gap between what agents want and what carriers currently offer, notes a new report.

Craig Beattie and Karen Monks join Celent as insurance analysts.

Insurers wait as lawmakers hem and haw over where to house a consumer protection division.

The managing agency will use the DecisionMaker Rating Enterprise for rate comparison.

Sen. Bunning’s blockage also increases uncertainty around a COBRA extension.

After quakes in Haiti and Chile, institute calls for stricter building codes in the United States.

Fitch and Moody’s react to AIG’s fourth quarter results, and A.M. Best affirms Tokio Marine Pacific Insurance’s ratings.

A Lloyd's of London syndicate follows CUNA Mutual in trying to escape liability in a massive mortgage fraud case.

BEAZLEY LAUNCHES GUIDEWIRE CLAIMCENTER

GUIDEWIRE RELEASES CLAIMCENTER 6.0

ALLFINANZ OFFERS BUSINESS ANALYTICS to LIFE INSURERS

Ohio National signs contract to support two CSC software programs, and Sunshine State extends BPO agreement.

Surveyed advisers expect annuities and life insurance to help them achieve portfolio growth in 2010.

AIG intends to use cash portions of the sale to repay Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Association says proposals to allow insurers to operate across state lines would harm consumers.

While the embattled insurer is in the red for the first time in two quarters, it's a far cry from the $61.7 billion loss posted this time last year.

MetLife tops the organization's list in the overall annuity sales category.

The federal government seems keen on developing commercial space flight technologies, but how do we insure those who go where very few men have gone before?

Health insurers say legislation is misguided and does not address underlying problems.

New research finds that consumers are only doing marginally better than after the crisis, and that men and women have vastly different strategies on how to recover and plan for their future.

Legislation would create powerful new regulator.

Senate Majority Leader Reid reported to be pushing benefits extension.

A Watermark Consulting study finds definite positive impact in customer-focused business strategies.

Intended to finance health care reform, Keating says levy would instead discourage retirement saving.

Despite soft market conditions and a contracting economy, the U.S. commercial lines insurance market remains relatively stable, notes A.M. Best.

Company remains the only major insurance company in the world to offer underwriting through loss prevention engineering.

Against looming regulatory reform, PCI says time is critical to employ a more holistic look at what caused our economic failure, and what did not.

Research from One Call Medical finds medical costs, accountability and education are the biggest hurdles.

Experts say global response necessary for biggest firms.

Bill seeking to amend McCarran-Ferguson Act now focuses solely on health insurers.

One of the plan's proposals is to adopt real-time analysis of claims and payments data to identify waste, fraud and abuse in health programs.

Financial services firms have reckoned with the fact that social media is here to stay, but insurers would be wise to watch how their name is being used in social circles.

The Associated Press reported recently that the FBI is investigating a Pennsylvania school district accused of “secretly activating webcams inside students' homes.” The FBI will explore whether Lower Merion School District officials broke any federal wiretap or computer-intrusion laws by activating the webcams in laptops that the school owns and distributes to students.

Unitrin Inc. reached an agreement with Physicians Mutual to sell Reserve National Insurance Co., its health insurance subsidiary that specializes in accident and health insurance products and Medicare Supplement insurance. “We believe that Reserve National is a very good fit with Physicians Mutual,” says Don Southwell, Unitrin’s chairman, president and CEO. “While Reserve National has performed well since we purchased it in 1998, we do not have the scale in health insurance to compete effectively in the years ahead.”

Knowing that relationships with producers can make or break and insurer, Montgomery Insurance, a Liberty Mutual Agency Markets regional company, developed an online training and development resource for agency partners to grow their businesses. Agent Learning Center is designed to alleviate the time and financial constraints that agencies face in developing new producers and staff.

Daniel Riordan will assume the role of president of Zurich’s (www.zurichna.com) North America Commercial Specialties business unit, effective immediately. Riordan currently serves as head of Zurich's Surety, Credit and Political Risk group and will be in charge of both units until a replacement is named.

President Barack Obama laid out the first detailed legislative proposal for health care reforms to the United States’ $2.5 trillion medical care system this morning with an approach that largely follows the Senate’s version of legislation proposed in December.

With their successes in the United States, U.S. health insurers should review growth opportunities overseas, specifically Asia and Europe, according to analysts at Conning Research & Consulting.

After getting wind of unauthorized sale of health insurance products to approximately 2,500 Floridians, Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has ordered seven companies and some of those companies’ officers to stop selling health insurance in the state.

The Group of North American Insurance Enterprises (GNAIE) executive director Douglas Barnet took to the podium at the 12th Global Conference of Actuaries to rally for the use of earned rate for discounting life insurance contracts.

Hewlett-Packard ratcheted up the battle for a share of increasing cloud computing revenues this week by launching a new design service aimed at helping organizations accelerate the adoption of cloud-based infrastructures.

Essent Guaranty Inc. marked its arrival Thursday, announcing that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have approved it as an official mortgage insurer, making the Radnor, Pa., company one of only eight with such a designation.

Variable annuities (VA) sales experienced a rough start to 2009—a decline of 26% in the first six months of the year. But, the fourth quarter numbers—up 3% to $32.6 bllion—softened the blow. VA sales were only down 18% for the year, as quarterly VA sales slowly improve from the first quarter, according to LIMRA's U.S. Individual Annuities quarterly sales survey. VA sales totaled $127 billion.

Claims officers, more than ever, face rising loss costs, increased levels of litigation and higher rates of fraudulent claims, according to results from Towers Watson’s fourth “Property & Casualty Insurance Claim Officer Survey, The Economic Landscape and Operational Performance Metrics.”

Zurich announced the release of Zurich Pro Plus, an enhanced Errors & Omissions (E&O) coverage to address the needs of a broad range of business professionals, including consultants, and media and information technology customers.

Instead of purchasing new software, more than half of nearly 2,200 IT executives and technology decision-makers from Forrester's Business Data Services survey say they will be spending IT budgets on the operation and maintenance of existing applications in 2010. The fastest-growing small to midsized software markets will be customer relationship management or information and knowledge management, more than 20% of all small- and medium-size businesses (SMB) have concrete plans to implement these in 2010 or later.

A.M. Best http://www.ambest.com, Fitch Ratings http://reports.fitchratings.com, Moody’s Investors Service http://v3.moodys.com/Pages/default.aspx and Standard & Poor’s (S&P) http://www.standardandpoors.com/home/en/us released ratings updates. The following are some of the most recent:

Insurers seeking to improve operational efficiency using predictive analytics will have new solutions from which to choose, and professional assistance in their implementation, thanks to an enhanced partnership between Dublin-based Accenture and Cary, N.C.-based SAS, announced today.

Christopher Swift, previously vice chairman and CFO at American Life Insurance Co. (ALICO), an operating company of American International Group (AIG) with $89 billion in assets and operations in 54 countries, will join The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. as EVP and CFO. Effective March 1, Swift, a 27-year insurance industry veteran, will replace Lizabeth Zlatkus, who will assume the chief risk officer role at The Hartford.