Insurance

Okemos, Mich. — Sircon Corp., a provider of comprehensive producer lifecycle services for the insurance industry, announced its partnership with the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors - Pennsylvania (NAIFA-PA), a statewide trade association representing about 2,300 licensed professionals who provide life, health and multiline insurance and related financial services in Pennsylvania.

New York — Zurich Financial Services, one of the world’s largest property-casualty insurance companies, named Kevin McCracken as executive VP-casualty, and Joseph Tocco as executive VP-property, for the insurer’s Global Corporate in North America unit, effective Jan. 1, 2008. Both will now report to Paul Horgan, the unit’s newly appointed chief underwriting officer.

Tampa, Fla. — Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), a property loss reduction trade association of the property/casualty insurance industry, named Rod Matthews, underwriting VP, property/casualty, with State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., chairman of the board.

Denver — Jackson National Life Insurance Co. (Jackson) has strategically realigned the National Accounts group within Jackson National Life Distributors LLC (JNLD) in order to identify additional avenues for growth in the bank and regional broker-dealer channels, and expand Jackson’s presence among the company’s existing accounts.

St. Paul, Minn. - IT executives overwhelmingly identify user interface as a key criteria when considering an upgrade or replacement purchase, according to a survey conducted on behalf of St. Paul, Minn.-based Lawson Software.

Portland, Ore. - Kryptiq Corp., a provider of healthcare connectivity solutions, was recently acknowledged at the annual Portland Business Journal banquet honoring the most-admired companies in Oregon. The company received recognition as the fifth most-admired technology company, as determined by a survey of more than 2,000 Oregon CEOs.

There is overwhelming evidence that spending on servers is slowing down significantly across a number of market sectors, in some cases by up to a factor of five, according to research conducted by TechNavio from Infiniti Research.

Chicago - Aon Corp. has signed separate definitive agreements to sell its Combined Insurance Company of America (CICA) and Sterling Life Insurance Co. (Sterling). The Sterling transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter 2008, and CICA is expected to be completed by the end of the second quarter 2008.

Cary, N. C. - Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. is bolstering its enterprise risk management (ERM) program with the implementation of business intelligence from SAS, the companies report.

On the heels of its merger with LIMRA, LOMA is offering conferences at the beginning of the new year designed to help insurers capitalize on the technologies that will enable them to do more business, and do it better.

Hamilton, Bermuda — PartnerRe Ltd., a Bermuda-based global reinsurer providing multi-line reinsurance to insurance companies, named Eric Gesick group chief actuary. He was most recently chief actuary within the financial, professional, and international insurance segment of Travelers Cos. Inc.

Windsor, Conn., and Atlanta - Member companies of LIMRA International and LOMA voted overwhelmingly in favor of the proposal to unite two of the world's largest insurance and financial services trade organizations. The merger will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2008.

Frisco, Texas - Skywire Software has addressed a common, yet growing need in the insurance product development arena. The Frisco, Texas provider of software and services for the insurance industry released Launcher, an application designed to improve, coordinate and measure the process of getting new insurance products to market.

Burlington , Mass. - StreamServe Inc., a provider of document processing and dynamic enterprise publishing solutions, released StreamServe Financial Services, an application designed for use with the SAP for insurance solution portfolio.

Warren, N.J. - The Chubb Group of Insurance Cos. is rewarding policy holders who are proving a "healthier" security posture by putting together a premium discount program for its cyber insurance product: CyberSecurity by Chubb.

Approaches to policy administration systems may differ from region to region, but the factors driving replacement are similar.

Customer service, risk management and demographics will mark 2008.

Zurich — Zurich Financial Services Group announced that it is elevating the role of Chief Risk Officer to Group Executive Committee status, and appointing Axel Lehmann to the position, effective Jan. 1, 2008. Also on that date, Mike Foley will succeed Lehmann as CEO of Zurich’s North America Commercial (NAC) division, and will become a member of the Group Executive Committee.

New York — Execution is taking precedence over profit and top-line growth as a focus for CEOs around the world, according to a survey of 769 global CEOs from 40 countries from The Conference Board report, CEO Challenge 2007: Top 10 Challenges. The annual report, conducted during the first quarter of 2007, details specific challenges that CEOs face across regions, as well as by the company’s size, industry, and level of success—all factors affecting the concerns of CEOs.

Regulators advise the public to become aware of ID theft vulnerabilities, while carriers are using technology and third-party help to thwart the bad guys and bolster customer services levels.