Policy adminstration

The United States set a record in 2011 in its declarations of federal disasters, and insurers are still playing catch-up with claims payouts. In fact, when all is said and done, insurers will have paid more than $32 billion in claims to help people rebuild homes and businesses damaged or destroyed by natural disasters in 2011, according to the Insurance Information Institute (I.I.I.).

The ACE Group, an insurance and reinsurance company, has acquired Rio Guayas Compania de Seguros y Reaseguros, a general insurance company in Ecuador owned by Banco de Guayaquil, for about $55 million in cash.

Try as I might, some article assignments just don't elicit a very fevered response in me when first assigned (I'm looking at you, standards). This is never the case when it comes time to write about claims.

State Auto Financial Corp. (STFC), a P&C insurance holding company, says the proposed changes to the intercompany reinsurance pooling agreement for the State Auto Group received all necessary regulatory approvals from various departments of insurance. The pooling changes were made effective as of Dec. 31, 2011, and include changing the overall participation of the STFC Pooled Companies and the SAM Pooled Companies to 65 percent and 35 percent, respectively, from their current 80 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

Without previous levels of investment return, the industry's IT stance remained conservative.

A Swampscott, Mass., man was convicted in a Salem Superior Court this week of bilking insurers out of $30K for claims fraud. Owner of two auto repair shops, Robert Giller, 53, plead guilty to 40 counts of fraud, which included 20 counts of filing false insurance claims, 18 counts of felony larceny and two counts of attempted larceny.

The top technologies in use today by P&C insurers today are portal technology, business process management and fraud scoring, according to a new report from Celent. The new study outlines all technologies being used by insurers and lays out their adoption rates.

Cheaper, more powerful tools and a new breed of specialists will help insurers better understand their customers and markets in the year ahead.

One week after new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that the number of children with insurance increased by 1.2 million since President Obama signed the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Reauthorization Act in 2009, more than $296 million was awarded to states for ensuring more children have health coverage.

QBE Insurance Group will acquire Optima Insurance Group, an underwriting group in Puerto Rico that posted an estimated $100 million in gross written premium in 2011.

In its most recent Insurance Carrier Scorecard, Keynote Competitive Research, the industry analysis group of Keynote Systems Inc., named Progressive Insurance’s website the top website in the car insurance industry. The scorecard, which is part of Keynote’s Online Excellence Competitive Research Study, rates companies on nine categories. Progressive has received top honors on 18 of the last 19 scorecards, dating back to 2000.

For Tony Kerrison, the day has long passed when it made sense to question whether cloud computing had a place in financial services companies' IT plans. Kerrison has been one of the industry's cloud computing pioneers: In 2008 he helped create an internal cloud for data center servers at Merrill Lynch (back then it was referred to as "stateless infrastructure"). This year he took the helm of the Enterprise Cloud Leadership Council, a group of corporate technology buyers developing cloud standards for vendors.

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. has promoted three executives to senior VP positions.

Fidelity National Financial Inc. (FNF) agreed to sell an 85 percent interest in its personal lines business to WT Holdings Inc. for approximately $119 million. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, WT Holdings will acquire Fidelity National Insurance Company, Fidelity National Property and Casualty Insurance Company and FNIS Insurance Services. FNF will retain a 15 percent minority ownership position in the personal lines business.

The top business need driving 2012 P&C insurance technology initiatives is growth, according to a survey released today by technology solution provider StoneRiver Inc. The survey queried IT leaders at U.S. P&C insurance carriers, funds and administrators about priorities, IT direction, and status of services and architecture.

New data from Liberty Mutual and Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) reveals that teens believe New Year's Eve is the most dangerous time of year to drive, yet it also is the holiday or event when teens most frequently drive under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.

To properly address the pending changes in health insurance, organizations should have both project management and process management offices in place.

The industry continues to struggle with a bad economy and tough catastrophes, and technology will be asked to do more than ever, but at a reasonable price.

Encinitas, Calif.-based Work Loss Data Institute (WLDI) released its 2012 State Report Cards for Workers’ Comp this week. The report, which is used to track trends and give states a grade and tier ranking based on their performance, now includes data from a 10-year period. Forty-three states are covered, plus Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.

MetLife Inc. took a step closer to exiting the banking business Tuesday by announcing that it is selling the bulk of its deposits to GE Capital Finance Inc.