Core systems

WELLESLEY HILLS, Mass. -- Sun Life Financial announced today that Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (U.S.) a member of the Sun Life Financial group of companies, has launched Sun Life Financial Masters, a re-branding of its variable annuity line.

The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Hartford, Conn., has enhanced its small commercial automation to make quoting and submitting new business applications faster and easier for independent agents--whether they connect to the Internet from their office, their customer's place of business or on the road.According to The Hartford, its ICON 2.0 electronic quoting and submission system offers agents Web-based access, efficient navigation, and a host of integrated features that streamline the submission process for the company's key small business coverages. Those include Spectrum business owners' policy, workers' compensation and commercial auto. Similar support for The Hartford's new "Xpand" products is currently being piloted.

ATLANTA-- SellingLTC.com, LLC, the leader in providing long-term care sales and marketing solutions for insurance producers, today announced the release of its new LTCI Mobile Support feature which allows SellingLTC.com subscribers to download the best of SellingLTC.com's sales support modules to a laptop computer and access the information even when it's not possible to access the Internet.

NEW YORK -- Technology has become critically important to how insurers manage risk, share information with producers and support Internet sales and customer service, a panel of carrier CEOs said June 16 at Standard & Poor's 20th annual insurance seminar in New York City.

Worcester, Mass.-based Allmerica Financial has selected Clarity IT service configuration management software from Relicore Inc., Burlington, Mass., for enhanced change management capabilities for some of Allmerica's most mission-critical business applications.Allmerica is using Relicore Clarity to track operational changes in its point of sale and underwriting workflow systems used by its independent insurance agents to originate and change policies. Allmerica's initial implementation is focused on gaining better control of hardware and software configurations, with a future goal of ensuring that IT staff members are proactively notified of changes that happen outside of approved change windows, and that they fully understand the impact of proposed changes to this environment prior to implementation.

Add Hawaii and New Hampshire to the list of states enacting legislation to adopt the Interstate Insurance Product Regulation Compact. The Aloha and Granite states join Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia in taking up the measure, which creates uniform national product standards and provides a central point of filing for insurers.Twenty-two more states currently are considering enactment of the Interstate Compact.

In their quest to expand their long-term care (LTC) products lines, many insurers have been challenged not only by the risk management and underwriting aspects of the coverage, but they've also struggled with finding the best agents tp market this coverage.

The quantity of filings submitted through the System for Electronic Rate and Form Filing (SERFF) continues to multiply as an increasing number of state regulators and insurers recognize the system as a much-needed solution to for addressing cost efficiency, accuracy, and ease of status tracking.As of May 31, 2004, over 50,000 filings had been submitted via SERFF, nearly twice the number of filings submitted during the first five months of 2003. It is anticipated that approximately 155,000 filings will be submitted by year-end 2004, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Kansas City, Mo.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), Kansas City, Mo., has submitted a detailed framework document to House Financial Services Chairman Michael Oxley, delineating several ongoing and proposed steps to create an effective, state-based national system of insurance regulation."We have been asked by Chairman Oxley to directly assist in the committee’s process of evaluating the modernization of state insurance regulation, and we have pledged our time and our full resources to move the regulatory process forward in a manner that benefits consumers and the industry," says Ernst Csiszar, NAIC president and South Carolina director of insurance.

MELVILLE, N.Y. -- AutoOne Insurance, a Limited Assignment Distribution (LAD) servicing carrier accepting assigned risks on behalf of client insurance companies, announced today that they are expanding their LAD services into other states and new markets. Assigned risks are those drivers who are unable to obtain automobile insurance in the voluntary market. AutoOne currently offers LAD services to automobile insurance companies in New York and New Jersey.

HARTFORD, Conn. --The Hartford Financial Services Group received a subpoena today from the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York seeking information on compensation agreements between insurance brokers and the company. The Hartford intends to cooperate fully with the inquiry.

Seattle-based Safeco Corp. and Aon Risk Services have introduced an online interface designed to improve communications between the two companies, thereby improving service for risk managers and contractors.By making it easier to report new bonds, and eliminating errors in the renewal and billing of in-force bonds, Aon and Safeco will reduce the day-to-day involvement of risk managers and contractors without compromising their control.

Manulife Financial Corp., Toronto, has selected CGI Group Inc., Montreal, to create an information technology support centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The mission of this centre of expertise will be to provide systems development, maintenance and integration services to Manulife and other CGI clients in the U.S. and Europe.The memorandum of understanding, when finalized as a contract, would be valued at $120 million (Canadian) for a five-year agreement. As part of the agreement, 300 Halifax-based technology professionals will join CGI in September 2004. Over time, CGI expects to grow employment at the centre to 500 technology professionals.

EXTON, Pa. -- Guarantee Trust Life Insurance Company's (GTL) Impaired Risk Division has contracted with iPipeline to syndicate their insurance forms and product information to its distributors' Web sites. GTL Impaired Risk has also taken advantage of iPipeline's proprietary Web-based forms and database software, as well as their Web professional services to completely redesign its Web site, giving GTL's impaired risk producers greater access to the tools they need.

UnumProvident Corp, Chattanooga, Tenn., has selected customer data integration (CDI) software from Atlanta-based DWL Inc. The software, DWL Customer, will provide consolidated views of customer and producer information across UnumProvident's multiple lines of business.UnumProvident will be using DWL Customer, an enterprise customer hub to replace and enhance its existing customer index, providing increased availability to information currently contained in more than 30 business systems.

DriveCam Video Systems, a San Diego-based developer of fleet safety technology designed to improve driving behavior, reported a 120% increase in revenue for the first quarter 2004 over the same period in 2003 due to growing demand for its products and services.To support demand, the company has added new staff in safety services, sales, engineering, product management, customer service and administration while increasing its facilities. The new staff members will work with DriveCam fleet customers to maximize the results of the DriveCam Driving Feedback System in reducing collisions and lowering operating expenses.

To support insurers’ initiatives in the health savings account (HSA) market, Portland, Ore.-based MyHealthBank is collaborating with HSA Bank, Howards Grove, Wis., to provide insurers with a highly integrated banking and technology offering for health savings account-based plans.Through this relationship, MyHealthBank will integrate technology from HSA Bank for health savings account banking transactions with MyHealthBank’s Unify platform, a Web-based, self-service platform for broker quoting, member enrollment and benefits administration.

ViPS Inc., a Baltimore-based provider of business intelligence solutions for healthcare and life science companies, has signed a multi-year licensing agreement with Medical Mutual, a Cleveland-based health insurance company, for the ViPS anti-fraud software, STARSentinel.STARSentinel is an early-warning detection system that surveys health plan data and evaluates claims in the light of provider claims' histories, specialty profiles and the most common, documented fraud schemes. By calling questionable patterns to management's attention, STARSentinel helps prioritize cases so the plan's financial investigations department use its resources more productively.

ICICI Infotech Ltd., an Edison, N.J.-based IT solutions provider, has signed an agreement to implement its PREMIA 10.0 system for Comercial America Insurance Co. (CAIC).PREMIA 10.0, has been tailored for the U.S. insurance industry, and combines a modular application software solution with a single, integrated system. Beneath a consistent presentation layer, PREMIA 10.0 provides business functionality that supports rating, quoting, underwriting, binding, billing, endorsing (including out-of-sequence), claim administration, reinsurance management, and general ledger accounting. PREMIA 10.0 also delivers enhanced reporting and an improved capability to integrate with existing systems.

Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC), El Segundo, Calif., has signed a seven-year agreement with Trinity Universal Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Chicago-based Unitrin Inc. CSC will support Unitrin Multi Lines Insurance's commercial lines of insurance with business process outsourcing (BPO) and Internet-based services.A CSC client since 1982, Unitrin Multi Lines Insurance, which provides insurance products in 30 states, used CSC's technology to establish its X-Sell-A-Rate agent Web site two years ago. Under the new agreement, CSC will help Unitrin extend its Web capability to include a full range of commercial insurance services to more than 2,000 independent agents.