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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.

New York Life Insurance Co., a mutual life insurer, named Rodger K. Johnson as “council president,” a title given annually to the New York Life agent with the company’s highest sales and service achievements. As council president, Johnson is the top agent in the company’s national field force, which is comprised of 12,250 licensed New York Life agents.

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.

Oracle released the latest version of Oracle Insurance Revenue Management and Billing 2.2.4, a rules-based system that enables insurers to manage billing, payments and collections using a single solution. This updated version enables insurers to automate group and list bill reconciliation to help cut processing costs, improve productivity, and reduce revenue leakage with improved reconciliation accuracy.

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.

The potential commoditization of insurance products means companies need to focus on self-service Web presences.