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While expectations are not dwindling in the face of these challenges, respondents also complained that they are being given fewer resources to accomplish performance goals. According to a Towers Watson report, the bulk of 48 claims officers from small, medium and large insurers believe they have the authority to make a difference, but not necessarily "the range and depth of resources" to do so. To sidestep this detrimental trend, technology-in the form of electronic communications and processes-is being looked to as a bridge for the gap left by dwindling resources.

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.).

The ACE Group, an insurance and reinsurance company, has acquired Rio Guayas Compania de Seguros y Reaseguros, a general insurance company in Ecuador owned by Banco de Guayaquil, for about $55 million in cash.

Try as I might, some article assignments just don't elicit a very fevered response in me when first assigned (I'm looking at you, standards). This is never the case when it comes time to write about claims.

State Auto Financial Corp. (STFC), a P&C insurance holding company, says the proposed changes to the intercompany reinsurance pooling agreement for the State Auto Group received all necessary regulatory approvals from various departments of insurance. The pooling changes were made effective as of Dec. 31, 2011, and include changing the overall participation of the STFC Pooled Companies and the SAM Pooled Companies to 65 percent and 35 percent, respectively, from their current 80 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

Without previous levels of investment return, the industry's IT stance remained conservative.

XL Group Plc.'s North America Primary Casualty group has hired Jay Lefkowitz as head of U.S. Risk Management. Lefkowitz is based in New York and reports to Ken Riegler, the recently appointed president of XL's North America Primary Casualty group.

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.