Distribution

Combined Agents of America, LLC (CAA) today announced Safeco has signed a master contract with all 28 CAA member agencies. According to the contract, all CAA members gain access to this major company market while also profiting from combined premium benefits. CAA is a managing general agency (MGA) committed to strengthening the independent insurance agency system through profitable growth, quality and service for its member agencies.

Fallon Community Health Plan (FCHP) will join Insurix's www.BenefitCentral.com on-line quoting and E-Marketplace web site. This will enhance FCHP's quoting and proposal generation capabilities allowing Brokers 24X7 access to FCHP's information. The web site will allow Employee Benefits and Health Insurance Brokers to quickly and easily review FCHP's product options, obtain quotes for Massachusetts' employers with 10 - 50 eligible employees, and review FCHP's provider network.

HARTFORD, Conn.--Travelers Life & Annuity today announced the availability of its Annuity Funded Life and Muni Max products on pTeraDac Corporation's WebStory, a customized Web-based presentation system that links directly from Travelers WinFlex and Travelers Life Illustration Systems. WebStory Advanced Marketing Presentation System provides text, schematics and graphics to help the producer develop and present sales strategies in a format that facilitates the client's ease of understanding.

Last October, when Allstate Insurance Co. developed a plan to best assess damage and settle claims in the wake of the Southern California wildfires, the Northbrook, Ill.-based company reasoned it would be counterproductive to set up operations in brick-and-mortar offices located in the vicinity of the fire's epicenter.With the fire spreading and local residents scurrying to find shelter, Allstate established a unique operational presence to conduct business amid the blazing inferno, dispatching some of its local claims adjusters and a 270-person national catastrophe team to operate out of six mobile response units (MRU) scattered around the area.

Alexandria, Va.-based Agents Council for Technology (ACT) is trying to sell independent agents on a new concept: using technology to enhance the sales and marketing aspects of their businesses.In phase one of a multi-part report designed to help agents and brokers build a disciplined, sales-driven agency culture, ACT, an affiliation of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA), revealed in November that "as the independent agency system inevitably becomes more efficient, greater efficiency should improve productivity by enhancing the manufacturing and sales processes.

There's no question that independent agents are highly valuable participants in the insurance marketplace. But carriers that depend on independent agents are continually trying to determine what's important to them when they choose carriers.Two recent studies conducted by Celent Communications Inc. provide some insight.

Back in early 2002, the office environment at World Insurance Co. resembled a noisy beehive with workers faxing, printing, copying, retrieving documents from warehouse storage and chatting while carrying out those tasks.

Small to mid-sized businesses are often stretched to the limit in managing their human resource responsibilities-with one of the efforts being the administration of group 401(k) retirement and investment programs.

Zix Corporation, a global provider of protection, management, and delivery solutions for electronic communications, announces that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma, the oldest and largest private health insurer in the state serving almost 770,000 Oklahomans, has signed a three-year contract for ZixCorp secure e-messaging services to help meet the privacy and security guidelines of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

MILWAUKEE--Fortis Health signed its first individual medical Health Savings Account (HSA) policy, believed to be the first HSA policy in the country. The policy, which was opened by an individual residing in Aurora, Ill., is the first of the estimated over 40 million HSA accounts that will be established in the next 10 years, according to congressional analysts. Beginning January 1, 2004, Fortis Health will offer comprehensive HSA products for individuals and small groups through Fortis Insurance Company and John Alden Life Insurance Company.