AlliancesWorkers' compensation and other business insurance from Charlotte, N.C.-based Access CoverageCorp. will be offered on two Web sites: www.HROne.com and www.paymaxx.com under separate co-branding agreements between CoverageCorp, an Internet provider of business insurance to small and mid-sized companies, and San Francisco-based HR One and PayMaxx, Franklin, Tenn.
HomeCom Communications Inc., an Atlanta-based provider of Internet software for financial business applications, is selling its InsureRate division to OneShield Inc., a Burlington, Mass.-based application service provider to the insurance industry. InsureRate is a national online source for insurance products including term life, homeowners and automobile policies. The Web site, www.insurate.com, offers consumers competitive prices from carriers that include AIG, Zurich Kemper, Midland and Protective Life.
Ereinsure.com Inc., a Salt Lake City-based provider of e-commerce technology to the reinsurance industry, has received a $2.5 million capital infusion from New York-based The Chubb Corp. The Series A Preferred financing will enable Ereinsure.com to accelerate it efforts to develop an Internet negotiation and trading platform to serve the global reinsurance market, company executives say.
InsureConnection.com, an insurance shopping Web site based in Hillsboro, Ore., is offering annuity products on its Web site through an arrangement with AnnuityScout.com, Marina del Ray, Calif. Visitors to www.insureconnection.com can obtain access to tools and information that enable them to compare and buy no-load and tax-deferred annuities, and learn how tax-deferred compounding can make annuities an important part of an investment portfolio.
In an initiative that would simplify cross-border data interchange between insurance industry trading partners, discussions have begun between ACORD and CSIO to collaborate on the establishment of a common approach for Extensible Markup Language (XML) between U.S. and Canadian insurers and their affiliates. The collaboration is expected to be finalized within the first half of 2001. ACORD, Pearl River, N.Y., develops data standards for the insurance/financial services industry in the United States, while CSIO, Toronto, Ontario, develops and maintains EDI standards governing Canadian property/casualty companies.
Products
Real-time weather maps and forecasts and electronic-mail alerts of potential catastrophic events are recent additions to the Property Claims Service (PCS), available on ISOnet-the secure, password-protected, online information delivery platform from Insurance Services Office Inc., New York. Subscribers to PCS on ISOnet also have access to Catastrophe News.
A new software program developed by ServPro Industries Inc., a Gallatin, Tenn.-based disaster restoration and cleaning franchise system, enables its 1,017 franchisees in 49 states to offer insurance clients comprehensive estimating and reporting information on claims mitigation via the Internet. Using ScanER, ServPro franchisees create an electronic job file, which includes an estimate, digital photos of property and scanned documents such as customer satisfaction forms with signatures. Franchisees then send the job file to a secure corporate Web site where insurance clients can gain access to the information with a password.
InsureZone, a Fort Worth, Texas-based online insurance marketplace, is providing a gateway to financial institutions to sell insurance online under their own brands. Implemented from the Lexica e-commerce platform, the MarketPortal provides a private label server and infrastructure that allows banks, portals, affinity organizations and other business partners to leverage their customer base by hosting a custom-branded consumer front end to InsureZone's online insurance marketplace.
Chicago-based iwix.net, an online specialty insurance marketplace, signed three new managing general agents to its site. Russell Grace Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, will be writing commercial auto insurance. Vark Underwriters Agency Ltd., Heyworth, Ill., will provide bar/tavern commercial property coverage and liquor liability coverage. And, Acupuncture Insurance Services Inc., Elmhurst, Ill., will provide acupuncturists professional liability and commercial property (contents only) coverage.
People
Safeco Select Insurance Services has appointed Peter Lo as the company's director of management information systems. In his new position, Lo manages all information technology activities at the company's Santa Ana, Calif. headquarters and Nashville, Tenn. regional operations center. The company is a member of Safeco Corp., Seattle.
