Policy adminstration

Bermuda and Bahrain — Scottish Re Group Ltd., a global life reinsurance specialist based in Bermuda, announced the sale of its Middle East Life portfolio to Arab Insurance Group (Arig), Bahrain-based reinsurance companies in the Middle East and North Africa.

New York – Deloitte & Touche USA LLP’s insurance sector has added industry veterans Rick Berry, Ann Connolly and Don McNees to the organization, further strengthening Deloitte’s capabilities in distribution and channel management.

Fairfield, Ohio — Ohio Casualty Group, now operating as Ohio Casualty, a Fairfield, Ohio-based regional company within Liberty Mutual Agency Markets, has been honored with the 2007 National Company Award of Excellence by the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA).

Armonk, N.Y. and Ottawa - IBM and Cognos have entered into a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire Cognos, a publicly held company based in Ottawa, in an all-cash transaction at a price of approximately $5 billion or $58 per share, with a net transaction value of $4.9 billion. The acquisition is subject to Cognos shareholder approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. It is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.The acquisition of Cognos supports IBM's Information on Demand strategy, a cross-company initiative announced on Feb. 16, 2006 that combines IBM's strength in information integration, content and data management and business consulting services to unlock the business value of information, according to IBM. Integrating Cognos, the 23rd IBM acquisition in support of its Information on Demand strategy, will enable new business insights to be delivered to a broader set of people across an organization, beyond the traditional users of business intelligence.

Baltimore — Former Maryland Insurance Commissioner R. Steven Orr was named president of Life Settlement Providers LLC, a Maryland-licensed life settlement provider and leader in the secondary market for life insurance policies. Orr will be responsible for overseeing Life Settlement Providers' marketing, regulatory and legislative activities beginning Dec. 1, 2007.

New York — New York Life Insurance Co. announced that Sheila Davidson has been named chief legal officer and general counsel. Her new responsibilities include the Corporate Compliance, the Office of Business Conduct, the Corporate Ombudsperson and the Chief Tax Counsel. She also will continue to have responsibility for the Office of the General Counsel, the Office of the Secretary and the Office of Governmental Affairs.

Toronto — Zurich Insurance Co., a commercial property/casualty insurance provider serving the global corporate, large corporate, middle market, small business, specialties and programs sectors, announced that Robert Landry will retire as head of its Toronto, Ont.-based Canadian operations at the end of the year. Alister Campbell, previously senior vice president at ING, will be appointed chief agent and chief executive officer for Zurich in Canada, subject to board and regulatory approval.

Des Plaines, Ill. — The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing, detecting and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft through information analysis, investigations, training and public awareness, is launching a free service to help protect the nation's consumers.

Seattle – N2uitive, a recorded statement management solution provider, announced a strategic alliance with East Hartford, Conn.-based Full Capture Solutions Inc., a provider of predictive analytic technologies to the insurance industry.

Pittsburgh – Looking for something special for a special someone this holiday season? Highmark Inc. has come up with a novel marketing idea - the Highmark Healthcare Visa Gift Card.

Novato, Calif. - AT&T Inc. reports that Allianz of America (AZOA), parent company of Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. and Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America, has signed a new four-year managed network services agreement with AT&T.

Naperville, Ill. - INSTEC, a Naperville, Ill. , provider of rating and policy administration software for the insurance industry, struck a deal with Conshohocken, Pa.-based NSM insurance Group for implementation of INSTEC’s QuickSolver Workers Compensation rating and policy administration solution.

Needham, Mass. – New research from Needham, Mass.-based TowerGroup Inc. finds that in today’s global business model, electronic commerce is no longer a “nice-to-have” capability, but a necessity, yet the insurance industry continues to hold onto the traditional paper-based, wet-signature contract execution model.

Wellesley , Mass. - The division of Sun Life Financial is broadening its universal life product portfolio with the addition of its Sun Universal ProtectorPlus offering, a new flexible premium universal life (UL) product featuring affordable death benefit protection plus high cash value accumulation. ProtectorPlus complements Sun Life's no-lapse guarantee UL by appealing to a wide spectrum of clients seeking value and flexibility in a single product.

New York - With location-specific terrorism risk exposure data, TerrorRisk is a unique risk assessment model that provides the insurance industry with targeted and actionable terrorism risk forecasts to help maximize opportunities and mitigate risk. Developed by New York-based Pitney Bowes MapInfo and Exclusive Analysis, TerrorRisk utilizes fact-based, location-specific metrics to score the propensity and likely severity of violent and political risks on more than 3,700 global points of interest to help insurers and risk managers make more insightful underwriting, rating, coverage and risk selection decisions.

El Segundo, Calif. - ELM Insurance Brokers Inc., a wholesale brokerage firm, is rolling out a new suite of products for specific professionals called Comprehensive Coverage Care. The suite consists of the following products: D&O, employment practice (with optional 3rd party extensions to eligible insureds), fiduciary liability, crime and professional liability and is available on a national basis with an admitted market.Target risks include: accountants, architects & engineers, consultants, insurance brokers,real estate brokers, title agents, mortgage brokers and certain miscellaneous classes.Coverage is issued by a nationally recognized "A" rated company.Limits can be shared or segregated; although the Crime is written almost exclusively on a segregated basis. Minimum limits can be as low as $500,000 or as high as $10,000,000 for qualified risks. The company is located in El Segundo, Calif.

Bolivar, Mo. - Surrey, England-based Duck Creek Technologies Europe, backed by New York-based Pequot Ventures and Duck Creek Technologies Inc., Bolivar, Mo.,announced its intention to bring to market software applications that enable insurers to rapidly define, develop, deploy and manage their insurance products and services.

Minneapolis - The Allianz Income Management Services division of Allianz Life Insurance Co. released its "PONG" annuity product, the Minneapolis-based insurer announced. PONG, broken down liberally, spells "P" - paychecks forever (lifetime income annuity payments), "O" - opportunity for a pay raise each and every year (payouts indexed to the S&P 500), "N" - never less income than what you start with, and "G" - guaranteed return of remaining premium to the beneficiary upon death, plus a 10% bonus (if taken as income). The PONG analogy, quite naturally, comes from the early and first real video game that helped spawn a revolution.It was quite simple and direct, much like the AIMS product, claims the company, which really goes under the name of Command Provider.

San Antonio, Texas - Wi-Fi is now being offered to BlackBerry customers. AT&T Inc., San Antonio, Texas and Research In Motion Ltd., Waterloo, Ontario have announced that the first cellular and Wi-Fi BlackBerry handset-the BlackBerry 8820-is available for purchase.

Eatontown, N.J. - Quaker Special Risk, Eatontown, N.J. , launched a new homeowners policy coverage enhancement.The "Protecting Your Family" option provides medical expense, miscellaneous expense and reward payment reimbursement related to incidents of home invasion, stalking or car jacking. The coverage is exclusively available to new and current customers of Quaker Special Risk's High Valued Homeowners Program.