Digital Platforms

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.

Toronto-based Manulife Financial Corp. announced that it has decided to establish separate audit and risk committees that will be populated by board members.

The Risk and Insurance Management Society Inc. (RIMS) says pay-disclosure rules created by the New York Insurance Department are insufficient to protect consumers and urged the department to reopen a period of public comment on the proposal.

Much has changed in the use of standards and technology during the past four years, and the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development, (ACORD), Pearl River, N.Y., intends to confirm how those changes are affecting efficiencies in the insurance industry.

Customer satisfaction with the goods and services that Americans buy remained strong in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), produced by ACSI LLC. The same doesn’t hold true for the property/casualty insurance industry. While the full index, which measures buyer satisfaction of 200 companies in 44 industries and government agencies, is largely unchanged (dipping 0.1%), the P&C industry declined 1.2% to an ACSI score of 80 (on a 100-point scale).

At a time when drivers and their habits—especially in regard to cell phone usage—are under a microscope, The Allstate Foundation released information regarding the behavior and attitude of teenage drivers.

Vendor recognized for document management expertise.

As deadline nears, NFIP extension is dropped from jobs bill.

The mortgage insurance unit of Old Republic International Corp. is asking a court to back its refusal to pay claims on soured mortgages originated by Countrywide Financial Corp.

Google Buzz users went nuts when their contacts were assembled without their consent, but other social media users are only too happy to air every piece of dirty laundry in their baskets to anyone who will listen.

Forrester report finds insurance providers among top industries in ranking of customer service interactions.

Insurers look to new crop of quality mortgages to offset losses on loans made during the bubble years, but dealing with tougher underwriting standards.

America's Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association lead the collaboration.

Celent recognizes carrier’s use of analytics technology to identify cases of fraud that may be abnormal, or too hard to spot with the human eye.

The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York says it will not “sit back idly and let the department impose an unnecessary rule that will only serve to add another time-consuming and costly requirement for our members.”

The reported -4% composite property/casualty rate decrease points to a prolonged soft market, MarketScout says.

A recent report points to insurers’ need to address policy admin issues in order to reduce costs and remain competitive. But are vendors up to the task?

The new ranking system measures employees’ performance relative to their peers.

Insurer to offer free identity theft consultation and restoration services after hard drives containing protected health information on at least 521,761 members were stolen.

Sen. Bob Corker, like Sen. Shelby, opposes letting consumer protections trump safety and soundness, and objects to creating a separate protection agency.

Insurers with large books of defined contribution business are well positioned to benefit from news that the Obama administration is promoting the use of fixed annuities, Aite Group says.

The terms of the deal have not been finalized, and the payout mix could change, sources close to the matter say.

With Toyota owners being assured yesterday by PCI that their claims will be covered, auto insurers deliberate taking action against the vehicle manufacturer to recoup costs.

State Department of Insurance says the regulation is designed to provide transparency by requiring agents and brokers to describe to clients their role in a business transaction and how they are compensated.

Continuation of subsidy is reported to be included in jobs bills under consideration in Senate.

Life settlements industry says their practices not synonymous with STOLI.