Published: October 2009
Pet Projects: Price and service. These are traditionally the major ways auto insurers compete for business in an insurance line that is mandated by almost every state. ...
Pet Projects: Coverage for Four-Legged Family Members : In September 2007, Progressive Insurance Group began to cover accident-related injuries to dogs and cats under its collision coverage at no added cost to ...
Pet Projects: Customers Name Their Prices : Progressive Insurance Group has been an innovator in online marketing. Its latest venture is the "Name Your Price" program, which allows shoppers to enter ...
Pet Projects: Usage-Based Insurance Turns a Corner : In matters of accuracy and fairness, usage-based insurance underwriting is considered by many to be tops. This type of underwriting ranges from tracking ...
2009 Technology Resources Guide: Insurance companies need to keep up with the latest technology innovations. The following is a sample of companies that offer products and services aimed at ...
A Lifetime of Discovery: The third anniversary of the seismic-rule changes in the federal courts, addressing how electronically stored information is incorporated into the flow of ...
A Model for Change: A target operating model that links claims professionals and law firms can benefit an insurance claims organization. Such an operating model could yield ...
A Model for Change: A Partnership: Claims and IT: Many organizations make the mistake of viewing any organizational design and implementation that has a technology component as primarily an IT function. In ...
Call Forwarding: Call centers play an important role in auto insurance sales, providing a healthy chunk of the strong origination volume now being achieved through so-called ...
Conference Coverage: Vermont Captive Insurance Association: The financial crisis was a hot topic at the Vermont Captive Insurance Association conference--although most agreed captives had fared better than many ...
Cruising Around: Confronted by new forms of distribution, sluggish premium and a difficult economy, the U.K. motor insurance market faces growing uncertainty. The rise of ...
Cutting Edge Claims Management: MICHAEL A. COSTONIS Accenture Costonis is responsible for the global claims practice at Accenture, a $24 billion organization with about $1 billion in ...
Economy Hurts Life/Health Yields: For most life/health insurers, overall investment yields are at five-year lows. In fact, 20 out of the top 25 companies had declining investment yields in ...
Finding a Balance: When it comes to profitability, reinsurers spend a lot of time thinking and talking about underwriting, but it's investments that often drive a company's ...
Four Ways to Improve Call Center Conversations: 1. Use voice recognition software to transcribe recorded conversations into texts. These texts then can be analyzed in relation to key words and phrases that ...
Geared Up for Growth: Growth Prospects: With all its problems, motor insurance is viewed as a big cash cow for nonlife insurers in China. Car sales are expected to exceed 10 million this year, said ...
Geared Up for Growth: Car consumption often is used as a barometer for economic well-being in China, where government entities have recently resorted to automobile loan insurance ...
Geared Up for Growth: Distribution Loop: Insurers and distributors often use discounts to win new customers, but this practice does little to discourage high-risk driving. In some cities, drivers ...
Geared Up for Growth: Locals Dominant: PICC Property & Casualty Co. Ltd., Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance Co. of China Ltd. and China Pacific Property Insurance Co. Ltd. are the three ...
Innovation Is Key: Innovation brings to mind major technological breakthroughs such as electricity, refrigeration, automobiles, powered flight and the telephone, and more ...
Innovation Is Key: The iPod Model: It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that innovation's success is measured by the number of unique, show-stopping products a company can introduce. ...
Innovation Is Key: Why Innovation is Important: Before understanding this latest predicament that companies find themselves in, it's important to define innovation. Put simply, an innovation is a new way ...
Insight: Embed Your Risk Management: Insurance risk managers face the challenges of identifying, assessing, prioritizing, controlling and monitoring multifaceted, often disparate risks across ...
Insight: Getting to Know You: In today's difficult environment, customers are re-evaluating coverage, cashing out policies and reassessing their overall relationships with insurers. ...
Insight: Ideas for Reform: Most industry observers quickly acknowledge the overlaps, gaps and inefficiencies in our domestic regulatory framework. But they don't agree on how to fix ...
Insight: Leadership Lessons for Difficult Times: Insurance companies are the perennial whipping boy for any two-bit demagogue seeking to gain political advantage on social issues. If one had just listened ...
Insight: Revving Up Business: Today's dynamic auto insurance market creates many challenges for independent agents to retain current customers, and to meaningfully grow their business. ...
Insight: What CEOs Have To Know About Risk: My first boss wanted to make sure I understood the business. "Insurers charge a fee to assume a client's risks," he explained. "To be profitable, an insurer ...
Insight: 'What's Good for GM' Is Trouble for Others: In 1953, then-GM President Charles Wilson appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee as President Eisenhower's nominee for Defense Secretary. ...
Issues & Answers: Insurance Technology: Sharper Focus on Claims Management MSB leverages better technology and more data to help property insurers and vendors improve the claims process and ...
Last Word: Flying High: Flying cars may be straight out of a futuristic movie, but the vehicles are becoming a reality. In March, Terrafugia Inc. of Woburn, Mass., successfully ...
New Environment, New Solutions: For financial advisers in the wealth-management business, last fall and winter were not happy times. Most were likely generating retirement income for ...
New Environment, New Solutions: The Value of Segmenting Retirement Assets: Without pensions, retirees need a plan to deliver income for as long as they live. Financial adviser Steven Plewes has switched the bulk of his ...
Scanning for a Solution: With $100 billion in annual radiology costs expected to double over the next four years, it's no wonder diagnostic imaging scans are the second-largest and ...
Scanning for a Solution: The Right Image: Private payers may not be the only ones to reap the benefits of decreasing diagnostic imaging utilization. Medicare is taking initial steps to drive similar ...
The Road Ahead: Calculating the gains on the largest acquisition in its history may have been the easy part for Farmers Insurance Group when compared to the balancing act it ...
The Road Ahead: Execution Is Key: Farmers hasn't disclosed how its future business model will operate, but its chief integration officer, Keitha Schofield, said it could be in place by early ...
US Property-Casualty Assets Drop: While 2008 was anticipated to be a difficult year, few predicted the magnitude of the economic crisis and its impact on the U.S. property/casualty industry, ...
When Opportunity Clicks: Nibby Priest no longer has a need for business cards. "I tell people, 'When you need some insurance, just Google me,'" said Priest, an independent insurance ...
When Opportunity Clicks : 'Social' Workers: A direct online carrier has gained a new sense of market leverage through social media. USAA Group has 7.2 million members who have qualified for insurance ...
