Core systems

A Watermark Consulting study finds definite positive impact in customer-focused business strategies.

Intended to finance health care reform, Keating says levy would instead discourage retirement saving.

Despite soft market conditions and a contracting economy, the U.S. commercial lines insurance market remains relatively stable, notes A.M. Best.

Against looming regulatory reform, PCI says time is critical to employ a more holistic look at what caused our economic failure, and what did not.

Research from One Call Medical finds medical costs, accountability and education are the biggest hurdles.

Experts say global response necessary for biggest firms.

Bill seeking to amend McCarran-Ferguson Act now focuses solely on health insurers.

One of the plan's proposals is to adopt real-time analysis of claims and payments data to identify waste, fraud and abuse in health programs.

Financial services firms have reckoned with the fact that social media is here to stay, but insurers would be wise to watch how their name is being used in social circles.

Unitrin Inc. reached an agreement with Physicians Mutual to sell Reserve National Insurance Co., its health insurance subsidiary that specializes in accident and health insurance products and Medicare Supplement insurance. “We believe that Reserve National is a very good fit with Physicians Mutual,” says Don Southwell, Unitrin’s chairman, president and CEO. “While Reserve National has performed well since we purchased it in 1998, we do not have the scale in health insurance to compete effectively in the years ahead.”

Knowing that relationships with producers can make or break and insurer, Montgomery Insurance, a Liberty Mutual Agency Markets regional company, developed an online training and development resource for agency partners to grow their businesses. Agent Learning Center is designed to alleviate the time and financial constraints that agencies face in developing new producers and staff.

President Barack Obama laid out the first detailed legislative proposal for health care reforms to the United States’ $2.5 trillion medical care system this morning with an approach that largely follows the Senate’s version of legislation proposed in December.

With their successes in the United States, U.S. health insurers should review growth opportunities overseas, specifically Asia and Europe, according to analysts at Conning Research & Consulting.

After getting wind of unauthorized sale of health insurance products to approximately 2,500 Floridians, Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has ordered seven companies and some of those companies’ officers to stop selling health insurance in the state.

The Group of North American Insurance Enterprises (GNAIE) executive director Douglas Barnet took to the podium at the 12th Global Conference of Actuaries to rally for the use of earned rate for discounting life insurance contracts.

Hewlett-Packard ratcheted up the battle for a share of increasing cloud computing revenues this week by launching a new design service aimed at helping organizations accelerate the adoption of cloud-based infrastructures.

Essent Guaranty Inc. marked its arrival Thursday, announcing that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have approved it as an official mortgage insurer, making the Radnor, Pa., company one of only eight with such a designation.

Variable annuities (VA) sales experienced a rough start to 2009—a decline of 26% in the first six months of the year. But, the fourth quarter numbers—up 3% to $32.6 bllion—softened the blow. VA sales were only down 18% for the year, as quarterly VA sales slowly improve from the first quarter, according to LIMRA's U.S. Individual Annuities quarterly sales survey. VA sales totaled $127 billion.

Claims officers, more than ever, face rising loss costs, increased levels of litigation and higher rates of fraudulent claims, according to results from Towers Watson’s fourth “Property & Casualty Insurance Claim Officer Survey, The Economic Landscape and Operational Performance Metrics.”

Instead of purchasing new software, more than half of nearly 2,200 IT executives and technology decision-makers from Forrester's Business Data Services survey say they will be spending IT budgets on the operation and maintenance of existing applications in 2010. The fastest-growing small to midsized software markets will be customer relationship management or information and knowledge management, more than 20% of all small- and medium-size businesses (SMB) have concrete plans to implement these in 2010 or later.