Customer service

New York, N.Y. - The insurance commissioners of several large states will convene a summit November 15 and November 16 to develop a National Catastrophe Insurance Program, which would more effectively spread insurance risk and help survivors cope with the tremendous financial damage caused by natural catastrophes and acts of terrorism.

Jersey City, N.J. - ISO's guide on state insurance laws and regulations, the State Filing Handbook, is now available in a new Web-based format designed to make it easy for insurers to access the information they need when they need it. The State Filing Handbook is available through ISOnet, ISO's secure Internet platform for delivering information to property/casualty insurers.The online State Filing Handbook features multi-state reports on a broad range of filing topics. Insurers can select a single topic, a type of filing and a number of states -- or choose all states -- and the handbook will generate a table summarizing the requirements for those states. A keyword search feature includes regulations, bulletins and forms to make it easier to locate the exact topic or section.

Los Angeles - In response to unprecedented demands on independent adjusters due to Hurricane Katrina, Marshall & Swift/Boeckh (MS/B), a supplier of local building cost information, residential and commercial property valuation technology and services for the property and casualty insurance sector, has extended its help desk hours. Its fully staffed technical support is now available weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. CST and on weekends from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The help desk can be reached toll free at 888-337-9665.

Boston - New York-based MetLife and Babson Executive Education held their second annual Thought Leadership Conference this week in Wellesley, Mass. The meeting brought together key players in the Internet and multi-channel marketing arena to discuss innovative practices for understanding the multi-channel marketing mindset.

San Diego, Calif. - Mitchell International Inc., a provider of information and workflow solutions to the automotive insurance and collision repair industries, has acquired ClaimIQ, a leading San Francisco-based provider of claims decision optimization applications for insurance carriers.ClaimIQ will join the Mitchell organization as a business unit of Mitchell's medical division. All products of both Mitchell and ClaimIQ will continue to be supported and expanded, and a new set of integrated products that combine the strengths of decision support, bill review, and collision estimating will be introduced.

Redwood Shores, Calif. - Verbalizing its intent to become the number-one CRM applications company, Oracle, announced that it agreed to buy Siebel Systems Inc., San Mateo, Calif., for $10.66 per share. The offer is valued at approximately $5.85 billion, or $3.61 billion net of Siebel's cash on hand of $2.24 billion.

Springfield, Mass. - MassMutual piloted its e4 Wireless Enrollment System with several plan sponsors and participant focus groups early this year, and so far, the results have been significant.In an effort to make retirement planning less overwhelming for participants and more action-oriented, MassMutual engaged Ameranth Wireless Inc., San Diego, to develop e4, MassMutual's custom Electronic Enhanced Enrollment Experience.

Newark, Calif. - Risk Management Solutions reports that insured losses from Hurricane Katrina are estimated to be $40-$60 billion, of which $15-$25 billion are related to the Great New Orleans Flood. This estimate does not include NFIP coverage.

Acton, Mass. - CCH Insurance Services, a part of Wolters Kluwer Corporate & Financial Services division, has launched a new micro site summarizing regulatory compliance information for insurers responding to catastrophe in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The web site, located at www.insurance.cch.com/katrina is free of charge as a public service to insurers."Affected states are now issuing requirements and other directives specifically related to this catastrophe," says Joe Bieniek, compliance manager for CCH Insurance Services. "We want to provide insurers with a resource that will help them easily determine what is required in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi so they can respond to claims quickly, avoid confusion, and maintain compliance."

The terrorist attacks that ripped through the heart of London last month provided a jarring wake-up call to American insurers.Even though the attacks, which killed 55 people and injured hundreds more, are expected to result in relatively modest liability exposure according to early estimates, insurers are taking notice.

The London bombings may have provided a wake-up call, but insurers could also be experiencing restless nights fretting over the fate of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) of 1992.The future of TRIA, a safety net that has provided some protection against the financial fallout from a terrorist event, is uncertain. The law, which was enacted in November of 2002 and is in effect until December 31, 2005, provides a federal financial backstop for the insurance industry for claims from certain terrorist attacks.

Insurers are better prepared to face the hurricane season this year, after the harsh 2004 season forced them to learn how to more effectively interpret the information they get from catastrophe (CAT) modeling systems, according to Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a Newark, Calif., provider of products and services for the management of catastrophe risk. At press time, RMS estimated that losses from Hurricane Dennis were likely to be between $1 and $3 billion.The two million claims produced from the 2004 season were a catalyst that encouraged companies to improve their understanding of the models, much like Hurricane Andrew in 1992 pushed catastrophe modeling into the mainstream, says Kyle Beatty, meteorologist with RMS.

Dublin, Ireland - The U.S. insurance industry has fully emerged from a rough patch at the early part of the decade, according to Research and Markets, a Dublin research firm. Both life and non-life carriers are currently experiencing a period of relative stability, and have reassessed their technology opportunities. In its report, which examines how U.S. insurance technology strategies have evolved over the past 18-24 months, Research and Markets asserts that claims processing will continue to be the focal point of IT spending for non-life insurers through 2008. Overall spending growth will moderate around 2007 as the bulk of costly system rationalization and standardization efforts will be either underway by then, says the firm.

Springfield, Mass. - In its latest effort to provide women with comprehensive financial education, MassMutual Financial Group is targeting females with an online financial seminar designed to help them assess their personal finances and develop a long-term financial strategy.

Hartford, Conn. - Specialty Risk Services LLC (SRS), a property-casualty third party administrator for workers' compensation and general liability claims, is offering its clients access to a suite of tools to monitor their program's performance on its newly redesigned Web site.In SRS' password-protected Employer's Toolbox, clients have secure access to resources, including industry statistics, employee training materials, libraries of legislative and industry updates, loss control and safety tips, and links to national and industry Web sites.

Hartford, Conn. - Aetna is launching an online customer service program that lets consumers find out what they can expect to pay at the doctor's office before going in for a visit. The service will allow consumers to better estimate their out-of-pocket health care expenses by having online access to the actual discounted rates for up to 25 of the most common office-based services offered by their own primary care or specialist physician. The program will initially be piloted with information for approximately 600 distinct procedures provided by 5,000 individual physicians and physician groups in Cincinnati, Dayton and Springfield, Ohio, Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana.

Stamford, Conn., - While property and casualty insurers need to implement the same standards to provide real-time transactions for brokers and agents, survey results by Gartner, Inc. show that many insurers have been slow in offering the technologies necessary to implement these transactions.A Gartner survey of 72 members of the Council of Independent Agents and Brokers (CIAB) conducted between January and April of 2005 showed that agents and brokers prefer to do business with insurers that provide real-time transaction capabilities to better service policy holders. However, adoption of single-entry multiple-carrier interfaces (SEMCIs), which enable distributors to send and receive data seamlessly, continues to lag among insurers and distributors.

Hartford, Conn. - If small businesses always maintained the same workers, locations, fleet vehicles or inventories, then reporting changes for their premium audits would be easy. Reality, however, is quite different. The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has introduced an online Premium Audit Reporting tool that dramatically simplifies the process of submitting information to reconcile insurance premiums.Most commercial insurance premiums are provisional, calculated at the beginning of the policy year based on estimates of the business operations throughout the year. At the end of the policy year, the business's records are audited for changes that may affect the premium, including increases or decreases in payroll and sales. When the audit is complete, the premium is modified accordingly.

Brea, Calif. - XDimensional Technologies Inc., the provider of Nexsure, the Internet insurance agency management solution, and The Ohio Casualty Insurance Co., Fairfield, Ohio, have extended the inquiry services available on Nexsure."Our company is committed to providing cutting-edge technology to agents in order to help them succeed in the competitive marketplace," says John Kellington, senior vice president and chief technology officer for Ohio Casualty. "We work with innovative, proven vendors to help us achieve this goal. For example, agents using Nexsure from XDimensional Technologies and leveraging extended services are able to access a wider variety of information exactly when they need it, to speed business along. Specifically, Nexsure users are able to access selections of loss run and document retrieval information through this process. This provides an advantage over the traditional process, yielding a timely, accurate and convenient solution."

Northbrook, Ill. - Allstate Financial Corp. has launched a new illustration system for its variable annuity product line called ClearCast Illustrations. This new illustration system enables producers to create hypothetical views of the entire variable annuity product suite.ClearCast walks the user through the process of selecting features, riders and subaccounts. The system has several unique characteristics that include: