Subject Root Tag

Members of the insurer, vendor and consulting communities last week discussed the keys to forging mutually beneficial, long-term business relationships.

Los Angeles — Farmers Group Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Zurich Financial Services, announced the appointment of Kevin Kelso to the position of Farmers EVP and chief marketing officer. Kelso was previously Farmers EVP and president of personal insurance.

Washington – State and federal regulators, consumer advocacy groups, life insurance companies and those who sell and distribute annuity products recently gathered to address the issues of suitability of annuity sales at a summit. The Bethesda, Md.-based Insurance Marketplace Standards Association (IMSA) convened the summit.

Hillside, N.J. — myClosingSPACE.com, an online title insurance and closing services company, announced it is now available to new homebuyers, mortgage refinancers, attorneys, lenders and Realtors nationwide. The decision was made after the title company successfully test marketed its online business in New Jersey, Florida, Pennsylvania and New York.

Predictive modeling and emerging claims technologies will affect the nonstandard auto insurance market, according to Conning Research & Consulting.

University Park, Ill. — Insurance technology company Applied Systems Inc., which also provides broker management systems and services for accounting, customer, policy, claims management and all related agency functions, recently named Mark Layden its new COO.

San Diego — Golden Eagle Insurance Corp., a Liberty Mutual Agency Markets regional company offering commercial property/casualty products in California through appointed independent agents, announced the appointments of Dennis Levesque to regional VP, southern region and Michael Teng to VP of underwriting. Both appointments will be effective March 17, 2008.

Los Angeles — Special investigators from Coast National Insurance Co. (CNIC), a division of Davie, Fla.-based Bristol West, worked closely with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), Los Angeles District Attorney's Office and the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) to bring down a 46-member auto fraud ring. Bristol West is a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based Farmers Insurance Group Inc., and operates CNIC.

New studies say climate and demographic changes are two of many interrelated risks that insurers must consider.

Frisco, Texas — Three of Skywire Software’s insurance customers have been recognized as “Model Carriers” by independent analyst firm Celent LLC, Boston.

Mumbai, India — Mastek, an IT solutions player with global operations providing new technology and IP-led enterprise solutions to insurance, government and financial services organizations worldwide, announced the acquisition of Systems Task Group International Ltd. (STG), an IP-based enterprise solutions provider to the North American P&C insurance industry.

Texas and Toronto — Skywire Software, a global provider of software and services for the insurance industry, has formed a partnership with Camilion Solutions Inc., a provider of next-generation policy administration systems. The two complementary technologies will help insurers accelerate product development, enhance their ability to write more business and better manage communications with their customers, the companies report.

New York — Gov. Eliot Spitzer, known throughout the insurance industry for his tireless and tough ethics reform as attorney general, announced his resignation, effective Monday, March 17. Quickly following Monday’s revelation of his involvement with a prostitution ring, Spitzer announced this morning that he will relinquish his position to Lt. Gov. David Paterson.

Waltham, Mass. — Pro-Teck Services, a provider of configured solutions for property/casualty insurers, mortgage lenders, mortgage servicers and secondary and capital markets, recently promoted Mary Gould to director of insurance services.

Beijing — The largest life insurer in China, China Life Insurance Company Limited (“China Life”), has selected Germany-based SAP AG’s SAP for Insurance solutions to help the company quickly respond to the changing insurance market and create a stable platform for future growth and evolving business needs. With SAP’s flagship enterprise resource planning (ERP) application, China Life aims to optimize its financial and human resource management processes, provide reliable support for its future operations and apply tools for better strategic decision-making on a unified, efficient and information-based platform.

Insurers are stepping up and out with best practice technology implementation and methodologies.

Indianapolis, Ind. — Kaplan Financial Compliance, a provider of services and technology solutions for the insurance and securities industries to help manage the producer/representative on-boarding process and career cycle, introduced a "just in time" appointment processing capability in its CMS G2 compliance solution. The new feature is designed to cut down on unnecessary state appointment processing fees paid by carriers.

Charlottesville, Va. — SNL Financial, a sector-focused provider of business intelligence to financial institutions, released to its clients 2007 annual statutory insurance data for early-filing companies. Included with the release is detailed financial data on each filer, data by state and line of business, Schedule P loss triangle data and summary investment data, with hundreds of ratios, snapshots and analytics to facilitate analysis of this robust dataset. SNL also intends to make consolidated insurance group data available in the coming weeks.

Wausau, Wis. — Michael Parker has been appointed EVP — Field Operations for Wausau Insurance Cos., a national property/casualty company, providing commercial auto, general liability, property, umbrella, workers' compensation and other coverage.

New York — Gov. Eliot Spitzer, known throughout the insurance industry for his tireless and tough ethics reform, made a formal statement that clarifies his involvement with a prostitution ring, reported The New York Times today.