Data and information management

SITE SELLS POLICIES ON GROWNUP TOYSMarkel American Insurance Co., Waukesha, Wis., launched a Web site that provides a single access point to customers seeking to insure motorcycles, boats, personal watercraft and ATV.

AGENTS AND BROKERS ADOPT NEW RPOST E-MAIL SERVICELos Angeles-based RPost U.S. Inc. says independent insurance agencies and brokerages are adopting RPost as a service platform for outbound e-mail. Confronted with errors and omissions (E&O) liability exposures, agents and brokers need technology that enables them to optimize electronic communications while minimizing risk. By shoring up the security gap, RPost Registered E-Mail messages offer speed, security, accountability and personal liability protection in a cost-effective solution that can be used for an average cost of 59 cents per message. The company's services provide the e-mail sender with legally valid evidence of what e-mail content and attachments were sent and received, by whom and when.

How is 2007 shaping up for the insurance industry, and what lies ahead? Insurance Networking News asked Mark Gorman, strategic research advisor, insurance, for Needham, Mass.-based TowerGroup Inc.INN: Do some insurers fear being left behind by competitors this year?

Motorists Insurance Group found some help with debris removal-literally and figuratively. As a result, the Columbus, Ohio-based life, auto, property and casualty company has prevented the loss of millions of dollars in overpaid claims while creating a confident, upbeat crew of adjusters.It all began four years ago, when Motorists executives sat down for a presentation by Marshall & Swift/Boeckh (MSB), an MDA company with offices in New Berlin, Wis., and other North American cities. At the time, MSB had been providing Motorists with software for estimating property claims for about four years but was just launching an analytics consulting service to help carriers understand how claims are really paid.

What do agents want from their agency management systems? In its "Agency Technology Survey-Executive Summary," ACORD Corp.'s ACORD User Group Information Exchange (AUGIE) set out to answer this question and reveal other agency technology needs."The survey shows that many agents are frustrated with the process of having to go from Web site to Web site to get quotes-a process some liken to the situation 15 or 20 years ago, when we moved within our agencies from one company-provided terminal to the next," says Lisa Leach Goth, vice president of New Bethlehem, Pa.-based Charles P. Leach Agency and chair of the survey working group. She sees the survey findings as encouragement for carriers to support more uniform processes that work through the agent's own system.

Not so long ago, discussions of IT security tended to focus on the need to install firewalls; to tunnel via private networks; to employ encryption keys and digital certificates; to surround servers with multiple layers of access; and to install firewalls, sandboxes and "demilitarized zones" to snag hackers.Those tools and methods remain critical, but many in the IT community are recognizing the importance of addressing physical as well as digital vulnerabilities.

MASSMUTUAL UPGRADES PRODUCT MACHINE SOFTWAREThe disability income insurance area of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual), Springfield, Mass., upgraded to version 3.1 of Product Machine, a set of tools designed to enable users to build, design and publish products.

Hartford, Conn. - The surety business has recovered from a slump that began with the 2001 recession, according to a new study by Conning Research and Consulting Inc. "The combined ratio climbed more than 40 points and stayed there for the next three years," says Mark Jablonowski, an analyst at Conning, which has headquarters in Hartford. "While the recession and tightening credit resulted in skyrocketing losses, the property-casualty underwriting cycle also contributed to the problem." Those views are examined in a study called "The Surety Market: Taking Care of Business." It's Conning's first analysis of the surety segment, a business the company says has iinfluence well beyond its size because of its importance to construction and regulatory compliance. According to the study, a huge increase in losses during the 2001 to 2003 period wasn't just from claims reported but also from claims that developed badly and a falloff in recoveries and other claims mitigation, says Stephan Christiansen, Conning director of research. The situation turned round in 2004 and 2005, Christiansen observes, adding that 2006 showed continued improvement and the future looks good, too. Capacity is returning to the market but with a renewed appreciation for underwriting discipline, says Christiansen. "That new-found discipline, along with attention to automation and technology [that is]driving cost control," he says, "lead us to a positive forecast for the surety line over the next few years, with premium growing at least as fast as GDP." Source: Conning Research and Consulting Inc.

Rochester, N.Y. – Many Americans are satisfied with how their personal health information is used, but a substantial number express reservations about the confidentiality and security of their health data, a new survey shows.

Washington, D.C. – America needs a public-private partnership to protect families from a devastating, massive hurricane or earthquake, the head of a coalition that includes insurers said in testimony this week before Congress. Such catastrophes have dulled the industry’s appetite for insuring against such events, said another witness, a representative of an agents’ and brokers’ association.

Washington - The National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) has asked its members to challenge the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s recent endorsement of optional federal charters for insurers.

Phoenix, Ariz. - Insurance industry groups have banded together to create eight data initiatives and a central data repository to combat fraud, according to the keynote speaker at an industrywide meeting here of property/casualty claims and special investigations executives.

BELLEVUE, Wash. - Symetra Financial has appointed Tommie Brooks as vice president and chief actuary. He will assume leadership of the Actuarial Division from Margaret Meister, who is relinquishing the post but continues to serve as executive vice president and chief financial officer.

London - Senior executives and risk professionals consider data loss the most significant threat and key issue to address in operational risk management planning, according to a global risk briefing report conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and sponsored by London-based ACE European Group Ltd. (ACE).More than 40% of the 181 respondents said their organization focuses more on loss of data than other issues—including systems failure, human error and even natural disasters.

New York and Cupertino, Calif. - Last week brought yet another security scare to a health insurer. Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, a New York-based subsidiary of WellPoint Inc., reported that Magellan Behavioral Health Services located a CD sent via UPS by Health Data Management Solutions (HDMS), a third party vendor to Magellan, an Empire benefit program administrator, that included some members' personal health information. The CD was lost in transit but was located. The insurer reports that although there was no indication that the CD had been stolen, last week Empire sent a letter to inform affected groups and members who may have been impacted.

New York - Insurers are taking enterprise risk management (ERM) seriously, but many companies have begun ERM programs without taking the necessary step of getting management consensus on risk appetite.

Las Vegas - An Allstate executive is among the IT pros who have been named winners of the Pink Elephant Inc. 2007 IT Infrastructure Library Awards.

An insurance trade group has joined a chorus of New York officials in asking Congress to renew the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, which is set to expire at the end of this year.

The metadata standards that streamline company-to-company communication can do double duty as prototypes for internal data management within a single insurance carrier."If it has already been invented in the industry, why should we think that we're going to be able to invent our own that's better?" reasons Rich Maynard, an enterprise architect for The Hartford Financial Services Group, Hartford, Conn. He's one of many insurance executives who view industry metadata standards that way.

Still in development, it doesn't have an official name, yet the ground swell for the electronic insurance exchange appears to be growing.Depending upon whom you ask, the "exchange" is the best technology for the insurance industry since the Internet, a "me-too" service that will only add complexity to the supply chain, or a behemoth to be reckoned with by carriers and producers alike.