Crashing the Party: The Making of Erin: Kristin Brewe, director of brand and public relations for Esurance, actually conceived the idea for Erin Esurance after culling fan sites and chat boards. It ...

A Form for All Reasons: A mere 24 hours after an emergency appendectomy, Robert Hamburger, vice president of agency services for the Chubb Group of Cos., was back to work. Not at the ...

A Form for All Reasons: The OPRA and OLLIE Show: Though it may sound like a talk show or a puppet act, the Massachusetts Department of Insurance has created two Web sites--OPRA and OLLIE--to expedite the ...

A Pressing Need: "A unique opportunity exists in China today: to be the first country ever to develop a new earthquake insurance system without the undesired incentive of a ...

Bullish Plans: Sometimes it's how you look at things. While some watch the financial turmoil with a careful eye, Max Specialty Insurance Co. Chief Executive Officer Stephen ...

Group Lessons: Group long-term care may be what Jesse Slome, executive director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance, calls "the best underground secret ...

Group Lessons: Feeling the Pinch?: While sales of group LTC remain on a steady climb, will the current economic recession change that course? "When things initially start going awry we ...

Group Lessons: Multilife and More: An emerging trend in the group long-term care marketplace is the growing interest in multilife policies. Scott Beck, vice president, distribution and ...

Insight: Eye on Regulation: The tumultuous economic events of 2008 can be expected to significantly impact the insurance regulatory world in 2009. As government reins pass to both a ...

Insight: Flummoxed Over Bancassurance: The word "flummoxed" best defines the intellectual consequences of trying to fathom how life insurance distribution via banks can thrive globally, but ...

Insight: Insurance to Value: As homeowners across the country watch the values of their homes plummet, they may start to think that their insurance premiums should follow suit. Many ...

Insight: Memo to Producers: Heritage Is Strong: It wasn't so long ago that owning a life insurance policy was a clear symbol of personal responsibility. Many policyholders actually eschewed common ...

Insight: The Long and Short of IT: In today's difficult economic environment, life and property/casualty insurers are under relentless pressure to cut costs. Much of the search for savings is ...

Insight: Tune in Tomorrow: The insurance industry is full of baby boomers, the oldest of whom are now entering retirement. And more than half of the insurance industry's employees are ...

Last Word: Navigating the Road: Kids and video games go hand-in-hand. Now, parents and grandparents are getting in on the action. Allstate is piloting a new program for drivers ages 50 and ...

Legal Maneuvers: Risk managers work with lawyers on a regular basis, consulting with them on insurance coverage issues and transactions. One goal in working with counsel is ...

Legal Maneuvers: Finding the Right Lawyer: While transactional attorneys doubtless know the insurance business very well, it is good practice to choose a trial attorney who offers a broad base of ...

Paper Jam: A fundamental concept deeply rooted in insurance law appears to have been negated in Florida by the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The ...

Path of Least Resistance: Although Sarabeth Gordon heard news reports about methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, the stay-at-home mother of three and aspiring novelist from ...

Quite the Contrary: As the stock market melted down last fall, financial advisers were busy urging clients to not panic, to be patient and to stick with their long-term ...

Quite the Contrary: Liquidity, Choice Spur Sales of Aviva's Indexed Annuity: Aviva Life & Annuity's MultiChoice IncomeXtra ranked second among the top 10 products by sales in last year's third quarter, according to the third-quarter ...

Reaching Out: Where economic value and information technology converge was the cornerstone of the 2008 A.M. Best Co. E-Fusion online conference. And some notable industry ...

Regulator Yearbook: United States of America Alabama Department of Insurance Jim L. Ridling, Commissioner 201 Monroe St., Suite 1700, Montgomery, AL 36104 334-269-3550; ...

Rich in Potential: In March 2008, ING USA entered into an alliance with the Asian American Insurance and Financial Professional Association as a way to build distribution in ...

Rich in Potential: Part of the Community: New York Life focuses on the Asian Indian, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese markets, but has agents serving all Asian cultures. A key to its strategy is ...

Saving Grace: Workers' compensation has become a prime area of focus for employers and carriers looking to save money during the current economic situation, and ...

Sizing Up Specialty Lines: These are some of the highlights as three well-known specialty-lines company executives, along with an A.M. Best vice president and expert on the sector, ...

Sizing Up Specialty Lines: A.M. Best's Perspective: Sizing up the E&S market: We believe the sector remains strong. We also believe ROEs for 2008 will be sitting somewhere around 12%, down from about 12.4% in ...

Stepping Out: Who says actuaries are only trained to understand the world statistically? This long-standing misconception not only shortchanges the value of the training; ...

The Pandemic Wager: Indications are that 2009 could mark a return for an insurance-linked security that lets investors make what has been a historically safe wager against ...

Waits and Measures: It has enjoyed arguably the broadest industry support of any recent insurance regulatory reform proposal, with endorsements from insurers and producers, both ...