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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.

Insurance companies—including actuaries and IT executives—will be under growing pressure to enhance their financial management system capabilities as they face changing financial reporting requirements, and more extensive risk management challenges in 2008.

Alpharetta, Ga. - BB&T Insurance Services plans to expand its metro Atlanta operation with the acquisition of Ott & Co. of Alpharetta, Ga.

New York - XL Insurance, the global insurance operation of XL Capital Ltd., has completed the purchase of Global Asset Protection Services LLC (GAPS) from Swiss Re. GAPS is a provider of unbundled loss prevention consulting services, offering individually tailored risk management solutions to risk managers, insurance brokers and insurance company clients operating on a global basis.

Frisco, Texas - Mark Depker, president of Hall Financial Group's management division, announced Skywire Software signed a new 49,500-square-foot lease for its new worldwide corporate headquarters at 3000 Internet Blvd. in the Hall Office Park development in Frisco, Texas.

Boston - Liberty Mutual Agency Markets (a strategic business unit of Liberty Mutual Group) senior special investigator Barbara Parker was honored by the National Society of Professional Insurance Investigators (NSPII) with the 2007 F. Lee Brininger Award, which annually recognizes one insurance professional's outstanding contribution to the fight against insurance fraud.

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.

Washington – The House passed a seven-year extension to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) by a margin of 360-53. The passage of bill, which mirrors a version passed by the Senate, paves for the way for a signature by President Bush, who had threatened to veto a more ambitious TRIA extension passed by the House in September.

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.

Columbus, Ohio - Grange Insurance, a Columbus, Ohio-based insurance provider, has been awarded the 2007 Insurance Standard of Excellence Award from the Web Marketing Association.

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.