A Defensive Posture: So far, authorities have indicated the massive data breach at Heartland Payment Systems Inc., a payment processor, happened sometime after Christmas Day in ...

Branding a New Social Norm: When Progressive wanted to bring motorcycle enthusiasts together in a new way, it turned to Facebook, the free-access social networking Web site. Not only ...

Branding a New Social Norm: Establish Guidelines: Creating a successful social media presence begins with establishing policies or guidelines, said Bruce Foudree of Locke Lord Bissell and Liddell ...

Branding a New Social Norm: Security Guards: While social media helps carriers' branding efforts, opening themselves up online isn't without some risks. "One problem is that anyone can write on your ...

Cat Bonds Are Growing: The catastrophe bond market has warmed up in 2009, now that the insurance-linked securities have been restructured to include better protections for ...

Come Together: Like most large organizations, Assurex Global struggled with how to share its collective brainpower and information with the rest of the enterprise. It is a ...

Fighting Against the Tide: After Hurricane Katrina brushed the southeast coast of Florida in August 2005, as a Category 1 hurricane, and was downgraded to a tropical storm a few hours ...

Finding the New Normal: Francois Gadenne is co-founder, chairman and executive director of the Retirement Income Industry Association, a not-for-profit financial services think tank ...

Guns and Rose Gardens: Should homeowners insurers pay a liability benefit when someone in the insured's household commits murder? Some already have, due to the circumstances of ...

High Aspirations: Unlike his company, Ross Buchmueller can't be characterized as the newcomer to the high net worth personal lines business. Buchmueller led the segment at ...

High Aspirations: One-on-One With PURE's Ross Buchmueller: Ross Buchmueller, president and chief executive of Privilege Underwriters Insurance Exchange, recently sat down with Best's Review. Here are excerpts from ...

Hold the Line: In the perennial tug-of-war between regulators and the regulated, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' budget deliberations are an annual ...

Insight: Back to Basics: Life insurance "deals" have been with us for 40 years or more. Most of us remember "minimum deposit" and using mutual funds to pay for life policies. There ...

Insight: Foreclosure Exposure: Home foreclosure rates have reached record high levels in 2009, and the trend is likely to continue at least until the unemployment numbers begin to drop. ...

Insight: Home Court Advantage: Personal jurisdiction issues in insurance litigation often arise when insureds seek to enforce claims on policies issued or delivered in another state. Due ...

Insight: How Top Sellers Climb Mountains: A veteran producer recently shared an experience with me. A junior producer had asked him to go along on a prospecting call. When they arrived at the company, ...

Insight: Lesson Plan: Despite reduced information technology budgets, one area of continued investment is in business intelligence. Insurers are looking to leverage their data ...

Insight: New Layer of Risk: Today's Internet and technological innovations have created a world in which companies can interact directly with customers, understand their preferences and ...

Insight: Rise of the Machines: Unlike "Terminator" movies, the machines in question here are the so-called "underwriting engines." These "straight-through processors" have been around for ...

Last Word: Through the Years: Insurance has been part of Astrid Thoenig's life for more than 30 years. And the 100-year-old has no plans of changing that anytime soon. On Sept. 24, ...

Measurement Rules: When Jay Fishman addressed Barclays' investment conference Sept. 15, he quickly noted that precisely a year had passed since the "financial cataclysm came ...

Measurement Rules: Travelers Crafts its Next Metric: The Travelers Cos. Inc.'s expansion into the personal lines market through a direct-to-consumer initiative has generated one key analytic for 2009. The ...

One for the Ages: Whether you call them millennials or Generation Y, individuals born between 1978 and 1993 are a powerful consumer force. They represent more than 75 million ...

One for the Ages: Losing Eyeballs: Television--traditionally the workhorse of broad-market advertising--is changing, too. When asked which competitive challenges they expect to be most ...

Passing Storm: The downturn in the economy continues to wreak havoc on workplaces around the world. More than half of the companies surveyed in the Society for Human ...

Proven Factors: Insurance premium is determined by numerous factors, based upon the class of business. Insurance companies use external rating bureau classifications and ...

Searching for Higher Ground: The United Kingdom endured one of the worst flood disasters in modern history in 2007, and its aftereffects are still being felt by thousands of people in ...

Secrets of Success: Many insurers view Greater China as a golden opportunity. However, after conducting business for a few years in China's evolving business market a few U.S. ...

Secrets of Success: Regulatory Matters: Regulation is a major force in shaping the future of the industry, regardless of where insurers operate in China. The Chinese Insurance Regulatory ...

Ten Years After: Culprit or savior, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act is getting a lot of fresh debate for a law that was enacted 10 years ago. Some blame the act, which opened up ...