Digital distribution

To the Agents Council for Technology (ACT), anything is possible."We want to do everything we can to accelerate agent, carrier, and vendor implementation of money-saving technologies," says Jeffrey Yates, executive director for ACT, which is an operating unit of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA), Alexandria. Va.

A survey of life insurance CFOs conducted by the Tillinghast division of Towers Perrin revealed that significant changes in insurance distribution are likely.In March, the Stamford, Conn.-based services firm asked more than 70 executives about the issues underlying distribution and remuneration concerns.

If the Norwegian luxury cruise ship that was struck by a 70-foot wave in mid-April had been carrying steel instead of people, the carrier insuring the ship's cargo would have been hit with a 25,000-ton claim.That's according to Scott Shapiro, CEO of SteelSalvor LLC, a Narberth, Pa.-based firm that operates an online auction site for steel buyers and sellers.

MassMutual Adds ERISA Advisory TabTo help plan sponsors stay apprised of fiduciary obligations and minimize their fiduciary liability, MassMutual Retirement Services, Springfield, Mass., has added a new ERISA Advisory tab to its Total Retirement Center (TRC) online. The ERISA Advisory tab replaces the Plan Info tab that was previously on the Web site. All plan-level compliance information is still available within ERISA Advisory under the Consulting Services section. In addition, plan sponsors now have access to qualified retirement plan reference material and important testing and reporting information in one location.

A number of auto insurance carriers adding real-time rating capabilities and other agent- and consumer-friendly enhancements have decided to give The Progressive Group of Insurance Companies a run for its money.

While CRM systems can get an organization 90 percent of the way toward reaching its customer relationship management objectives, the systems do not answer the key question of "why," according to CRMDirectory.com, a customer management website.

Alexandria, Va.-During the past year, the Agents Council for Technology (ACT), working closely with ACORD and agency management system user groups, has undertaken a major initiative to make commercial lines download more accurate and effective for independent insurance agencies and brokers.ACT's commercial lines download work group, which drew broad participation from carriers, vendors, agents, and user groups, has released a series of important recommendations toward this end.

Austin - United Teacher Associates Insurance Co. (UTA) is launching an initiative to Web-enable Medicare supplement insurance enrollment as well as routine agent services. The company recently signed with Cleveland-based IdeaStar Inc. to design, develop and host a state-of-the-art Web site for UTA-appointed agents. The site is targeted for launch this Fall. The site represents UTA's first foray into online, electronic signature-based enrollments for senior health and life products. Top producing UTA agents are eager to obtain online processes as they seek to stay competitive with market forces. The vision of UTA's President Billy Hill is to automate agent enrollment, agent servicing and the Medicare supplement insurance education and enrollment process. The new Web site is expected to process several thousand Medicare supplement applications per month in a paperless fashion. Senior life enrollment and other products will be added in the future.In addition, the new capabilities will help attract other agents into UTA's fold. "Site design and architecture, creating an enjoyable yet efficient and accurate agent experience, are critical in the effort to recruit and retain agents," says Mike Wise, vice president of IdeaStar Insurance Technologies. "The seamless integration with Lifepro, UTA's back-end administration system, will complete the workflow and enable high-speed policy issuance."

A national life settlement broker is taking an eBay-like approach to the secondary life insurance market, linking cash-strapped policyholders with institutional investors.In April, Life Settlement Insights drew a handful of institutional investors online to test the open-forward auction format of a new venture called LifeX, an electronic communications network that runs on a proprietary auction platform from HedgeHog Inc. Executives with Cleveland-based Life Settlement Insights claim they've created the life settlement industry's first online exchange and are considering extending the capability to other life settlement brokerages.

When executives for MetLife Retirement & Savings were considering how to make retirement planning easier for customers to understand, Chris McCloy decided to take matters into his own hands.In late 2004, the New York-based insurer had its eye on technology developed by San Francisco-based Macro-media Inc. Using Macromedia's Breeze technology, MetLife could offer plan sponsors and their employees customizable, online multi-media presentations-supported by Flash Player and delivered in a high-impact PowerPoint presentation.

When online insurance marketplaces first appeared on the Internet horizon more than five years ago, they filled an important gap in carriers' online business strategies. At that time, most insurers had Web sites that industry experts mockingly referred to as "brochureware" to describe their informational, non-transactional qualities.Insurance marketplaces attracted the attention of consumers who were surfing the Web to comparison shop for auto, home and even life insurance. Typically frequented by young, Internet-savvy Generation Xers and baby boomers, these online insurance marketplaces provided participating carriers and independent agents with hundreds of leads from consumers who were patient enough to wade through screen after screen of questions before they received their prize: multiple quotes from brand-name insurers.

ZURICH UPDATES SURETY EXPRESSZurich North America, the Schaumburg, Ill.-based commercial property/casualty insurer, has launched Surety Express Release 2, an updated version of its free online surety bond processing system. Offering a number of key enhancements, including improved screens and time-saving features, Release 2 enables agents in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to rate, underwrite, quote, obtain and issue commercial and contract surety bonds directly from the Zurich Web site at www.zurichna.com/surety.

Hartford, Conn. - ACORD XML standards are going a long way for The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. The Hartford, Conn. carrier has harnessed the standards to provide its agents with the ability to speed up placement of midsize commercial accounts.

Boston - John Hancock announced a new turnkey marketing program called Key Employee Excess Enhancement Plan (KEEEP) to help producers sell deferred compensation cases and maximize sales in the business market. The program enables producers to present, sell, implement, service and administer a deferred compensation plan, including business owner and employee brochures on how the plans work and their benefits, as well as a sample client presentation. The package also contains executable documents needed to implement the plan that are ready for sign-off by the plan sponsor's legal counsel, and a producer guide offering a comprehensive program overview.

San Francisco - InsureWorx Inc., a provider of modular software solutions to the insurance industry and the workers' compensation carrier market, has launched its new Web site, located at www.insureworx.com. The site introduces the look and feel of the newly formed InsureWorx organization which resulted from the January 2005 acquisition of Taliant Software by WorldGroup.The new InsureWorx Web site includes information about the company's PowerComp products, the company, and the insurance software market. Of particular interest to existing InsureWorx customers is the client services area. These pages are designed to become a primary source for customer information and communications/

Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. Novato, Calif., has taken a third major step in its total IT transformation by awarding IBM a ten-year $94 million contract to modernize a major portion of the property/casualty insurer's application, development and maintenance software into an On Demand infrastructure that could reduce the number of major applications by 70 percent while improving customer service. When completed, the work could save Fireman's Fund $200 million, more than double the project's actual cost.With IBM's assistance, Fireman's Fund will shift its IT operations to an Internet-based computing model known as a "service-oriented architecture" (SOA) that enables consolidation of costly, redundant applications. Under Fireman's Fund direction, IBM will sift through mission-critical applications using a unique IBM Business Consulting process called Component Business Modeling to determine which applications deliver the most value to the business and which processes can be refined, consolidated or eliminated.

Insurance revenue reported to the Federal Reserve by the nation's bank holding companies grew by $7.3 billion in 2004 to $40.8 billion, 22% higher than 2003, according to an analysis by the American Bankers Insurance Association (ABIA), Washington, D.C.

Quincy, Mass.--eStudentInsurance.com, a service of the Edvisors Network announced this month a new partnership with Worldwide Insurance Services. The Edvisors Network, a multi-national education services company, teamed up with Worldwide Insurance Services, a global leader in travel insurance, to create a new insurance policy for students traveling anywhere in the world. Global Student Health plans from eStudentInsurance.com are designed specifically to benefit international and domestic students by offering optimal affordable coverage, anywhere in the world.

With industry research indicating that many individuals don't understand their annuity and life insurance needs, the responsibility falls on insurers to provide product research and needs-analysis to customers.While meeting with a financial advisor is one way to educate customers, many carriers, such as New York Life, are enhancing their Web capabilities to reach customers directly. And their efforts are being noticed.

In a move to strengthen the services it provides to sponsors of defined contribution plans such as 401(k) plans, Nationwide Financial Services Inc. in April purchased a company that provides third-party money management services to plan participants.The company, Registered Investment Advisors Services Inc. (RIA), which is based in Dallas, has been providing investment management services since June 2002 to plans that are part of Nationwide's Best of America Group Pension Series programs. Based on that experience, Nationwide executives say tighter integration with RIA Services will provide plan participants with expert advice on how to manage their retirement funds, and it will enable Nationwide to expand these services to other plans.