Selling Up in Down Times: Keep It Simple: Companies may slow down sales if they fear parting with capital. Bob MacDonald said some large companies have multiple billions of dollars in unrecognized ...
Selling Up in Down Times: Never Been Needed More: During the 2003-2007 bull market, customers often said everything was great and that they didn't need an annual review, said Walton Rogers. Today, they ...
Selling Up in Down Times: Reach Out to Clients: When the figurative economic earthquake hit last fall, Penn Mutual's historically high level of surplus placed it far away from the epicenter, said Eileen ...
Selling Up in Down Times: Service Reaps Rewards: The opportunity to talk with clients is great, said Dennis Pettinelli, a top adviser with the John Hancock Financial Network. "You have to take a lot more ...
Best's Review's Annual Corporate Changes 2008: Life/Health Mergers AIG Assurance Canada (AMB# 66828), Toronto. This company merged into AIG Life Insurance Company of Canada on Oct. 1, 2008. AIG Life ...
Calm Before the Storm: The best gauge of volatility in the upcoming hurricane season may have less to do with an El Niņo or La Niņa weather pattern and more with the economy. The ...
Calm Before the Storm: Travelers' Zone Coverage: One idea gaining traction as a way to offset escalating catastrophe losses got its start as an op-ed piece in the Aug. 27, 2007, edition of The Wall Street ...
E-Sign of the Times: In many industries, applications completed by paper and pen are perceived as outdated as the rotary phone. But in the insurance industry, which tends to ...
E-Sign of the Times: Finding the E-Value: E-signature adopters' take on the technology is unanimous: There's tremendous value to be had. Silanis Technology's analysis of e-signature use revealed that ...
E-Sign of the Times: Putting It to the Test: Electronic signatures are a central part of NAVA, the Association for Insured Retirement Solutions' Straight-Through Processing Standards Initiative. The ...
Give and Take: If you want to know what agents are thinking about, you have to ask them. That's why commercial property/casualty insurer CNA launched Pacer, its advisory ...
Give and Take: One Agent's Story: Central Mutual Insurance Co. offers a special personal lines program for high-performing agencies. Central's "Blue Streak" program, launched in 1979, ...
Insight: Competing for Customers: Economic challenges have forced insurers to an increased focus on customer analytics. Competition has never been fiercer nor have profit margins been ...
Insight: Monitor, Measure And Manage ERM: In today's turbulent economy, it is more important than ever for businesses to enhance their results though improved risk management practices. While the ...
Insight: Nanotechnology: Risks and Rewards: The blossoming field of nanotechnology engages scientists at the smallest of scales--the nanoscale, where matter is measured from one- to ...
Insight: Plan Ahead to Be On the Winning Side : A four-year-old boy meeting his grandmother at the airport for the first time asks, "Are you really my grandmother?" "Yes, on your father's side," says the ...
Insight: Renewing the Industry's Brand: As difficult and painful as it has been to see, the problems of American International Group, Hartford Financial Services Group, MetLife and a number of ...
Insight: Resist Temptation To Lower Standards: Economic pressures have affected our industry significantly--policy volume is down, pricing is soft and competition is fierce--while insurance coverages have ...
Insight: Underwrite Health, But Do It Only Once: The market is booming for individual, underwritten health insurance. Companies are flooded with applications. There is pressure to underwrite fast to avoid ...
LIMRA/LOMA Conferences: When the current global financial crisis and economic downturn are history, the U.S. life insurance industry will look vastly different. Companies will have ...
LIMRA/LOMA Conferences: Broker-Dealer's Due Diligence Toughens Up: In the fallout of the financial crisis, the due diligence process used by at least one independent broker-dealer to evaluate which life insurance products ...
LIMRA/LOMA Conferences: Genworth Financial Plans To Up 'Main Street' Selling: Bucking an industry trend of serving the wealthy, one company seeks to grow its U.S. life insurance business by targeting a largely untapped group of people ...
LIMRA/LOMA Conferences: ING Touts Estate Benefits of 'Standby Trusts': As one life insurer gets the word out about the benefits of a standby trust to people concerned about the federal estate tax, a company executive says the ...
LIMRA/LOMA Conferences: Lincoln Seeks Growth in Life/LTC Combo Products: Lincoln National Corp. is among companies in the U.S. life insurance industry hoping that people nearing retirement will see the value of buying a life ...
Last Word: New Kids on the Block: Insurers are joining the fight against childhood obesity. Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and ...
Learning Curve: In January 2008, more than 6.1 million individuals were enrolled in a health savings account paired with a high-deductible health plan, a rise from 4.5 ...
Learning Curve: More Skin in the Game: Along with education, health savings account members are seeking information on quality, efficiency and cost. "The cost transparency movement in health ...
Learning Curve: Technology Tools: Online education tools are another effective way to personalize information and communicate what HSAs have to offer, said Jake Biscoglio, vice president of ...
Protection Plans: The financial crisis is negatively impacting the world financial sectors, and the property/casualty industry is no exception. In the third quarter of 2008, ...
RIMS 2009 Annual Conference & Exhibition: As American International Group ramps up plans to transfer its core property/casualty business into a new entity, AIU Holdings, other industry heavyweights ...
RIMS 2009 Annual Conference & Exhibition: A Market in Flux: Insurers Discuss an Uncertain World: Insurance companies are finding their sea legs in a different kind of market, the likes of which they've never seen before. In spite of heavy catastrophe ...
RIMS 2009 Annual Conference & Exhibition: Economy Affects RIMS Attendance: Another sign of the economy's impact on the insurance industry surfaced with a 30% drop in attendance at the Risk and Insurance Management Society's annual ...
RIMS 2009 Annual Conference & Exhibition: Levene: Industry In 'Good Shape': The biggest challenge facing the insurance industry today is to underwrite for a profit, and not take on any business simply to collect the premium, said ...
RIMS 2009 Annual Conference & Exhibition: Natural Disasters May Drive Rates: As rates in the commercial property markets generally grow firmer, shrinking capacity for natural disasters may force rates up for companies within ...
RIMS 2009 Annual Conference & Exhibition: Recession and Legislation: Top Risks in 2009: The economic downturn is the top risk on the minds of risk managers, according to a survey by broker and consulting firm Aon Corp. The 2009 Global Risk ...
Store Policy: Several Blue Cross Blue Shield plans are selling health insurance coverage direct to consumers from a storefront. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida ...
Tear Down the Wall: Anyone who is moving toward an enterprise approach to managing risk knows old habits die hard. Day-to-day demands get in the way of the need to assess the ...
Tear Down the Wall: Expect the Unexpected: Write-downs in the subprime mortgage market, soaring oil prices, tainted food ingredients from overseas suppliers--the risks facing companies are ...
Tear Down the Wall: Wired for ERM: In this age of wireless communication, data can move at ever-increasing speeds. But it's often difficult to separate useful information from the background ...
Tech Buzz: For all you frustrated insurance professionals who know there's just got to be a better way of doing things, Best's Review presents a sampling of new ...
Trouble Ahead: A strong 2008 performance in terms of incurred losses may not be the best indicator of what lies ahead for the $5.3 billion surety industry. A deeper pool ...
Trouble Ahead: Fidelity Carriers Expect an Uptick in Worker Fraud: It's a chicken-and-egg scenario: Do tough economic times motivate employees to steal? Or does a sharpened focus on a firm's bottom line unmask hidden ...
Unleash the Power: Insurers are quickly realizing that the mountains of data they have accumulated represent a valuable, but mostly dormant, corporate asset in an increasingly ...