Digital distribution

Ebix Latin America says its agreement enables a large number of Brazilian brokers to concentrate on selling insurance while outsourcing their IT needs to an exchange hub.

Or, do carriers' attempts to humanize themselves on social networks strain relations?

Increasingly sophisticated user expectations drive tech market, Celent says, as insurers look for ways to differentiate commoditized products.

Agent and consumer portals, business intelligence and core systems revamps are top priorities, as personal lines insurers concentrate on growth, expense reduction and improving underwriting results, Novarica says.

Where once underwriters called the tune, it is now the distributors who have leverage and are setting the ground rules.

MyFirstAm designed to provide users with access to title order status and the ability to place customer service requests.

Since the option to buy commercial insurance materialized online, the segment has become more open to the new channel as it prioritizes price and convenience, according to Novarica research.

Product is designed to enable consumers to complete the entire enrollment and eligibility process via the health insurer’s site.

PURE, a personal lines insurer, created a pre-fill capability for auto insurance quoting by integrating external data with its existing policy administration solution, which enabled the company to streamline the application process and improve cross-sell with homeowners.

Surveys from Towers Watson and IIS describe global insurance executives’ concerns and find much consistency across nations.

LifeApply designed to provide flexibility to respond to carrier’s business needs.

Small agencies are growing faster than their larger counterparts, in part because of greater investments in mobility and other technologies, according to a new survey from Vertafore.

A watershed year is shaping up for insurers and their use of technology, and IT/business relations are more important than ever.

Board members should raise nine critical questions when discussing technology strategy with IT and business managers.

The Hartford has launched Private Choice Ovation, a package policy for private company management liability, extending coverage to private securities fundraising techniques, reimbursement for notification costs and expenses related to a data privacy breach and optional defense cost sublimit for wage-and-hour violations

General liability is most likely to be purchased online, workers’ comp is the least likely, according to a new study from Deloitte; majority of shoppers expect modest discounts.

Product designed to enable life/annuity insurers to automate processing of insurance applications that include natural handwriting.

United Fire Group has selected the Jarus Mobile solution for the implementation of self-service mobile applications for its agents and policyholders.

The Affordable Care Act has had the unintended effect of boosting developing private exchanges markets where uninsured consumers compare and purchase high-deductible health insurance plans (HDHPs), according to Aite Group. As a result, the U.S. has 75 million HDHP consumers who have a serious reason to be more price-sensitive than traditionally insured consumers, the research firm said in its report, “Transparency in Healthcare: A New Market.”

Low interest rates continue to weigh on the annuity industry, but sales of deferred income annuities increased 150 percent compared to last year and set a fifth-consecutive record high in Q1 2013, according to the “Beacon Research Fixed Annuity Premium Study.” Overall, income annuity sales grew 1.4 percent year-over-year.