AM BEST'S MONTHLY INSURANCE MAGAZINE
Published: December 2009
Way to Grow!: Seven years ago, Owen and West Wingate concluded that information technology was a key factor in agency profitability. The brothers worked at an agency whose ... An Eye For Talent: If hiring people who went on to success in the insurance industry was an Olympic event, Dan Agnew would be working on his fourth or fifth gold medal, at ... Big Factors for Small Insurers: Many question the practice of small insurers adopting the pricing systems that the large carriers derive from predictive analytics. Most price shoppers are ... Complying with IT: New and escalating mounds of state and federal regulation have carriers' heads swirling. Luckily, technology is helping to ease some of the ... Complying with IT: Agent Licensing: Product: Sircon for Agencies and Brokers Company: Sircon Corp., Okemos, Mich. Earlier this year, Sircon Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Vertafore Inc., ... Complying with IT: Insurance Product Filings: Product: Oracle Insurance Compliance Tracker Company: Oracle Corp., Redwood Shores, Calif. One of the most daunting tasks carriers face when getting new ... Complying with IT: Managing Legal/House Counsel Operations: Product: Legal Solutions Suite Company: CSC (Computer Sciences Corp.), Falls Church, Va. Corporate legal teams and claims departments are under increased ... Funding the Vision: A growing arena for insurance agents centers on advising parents how to provide for the long-term financial security of their children with special needs. ... Funding the Vision: Defining the Market: Special Needs Population: Nearly one in five families have a child with special needs. In some instances, that child was born with a disabling birth defect ... Greener Pastures: In today's marketplace, consumer demand for ecologically responsible and environmentally friendly products is booming. At the same time, federal, state and ... Insight: All About the Data: As technology became more nimble in the hands of the end-user, evidenced by the growth of networks and distributed applications, focused improvements in ... Insight: Culture Change Needs Direction: A senile man was driving the wrong way on a one-way street. A police officer pulled the man over and asked, "Do you know where you are going?" "No," the ... Insight: From Challenge Comes Strength: "What does not destroy me makes me stronger." So posited German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in his 1888 book, Twilight of the Idols. A well-known ... Insight: Latency Exposure Requires Foresight: Long-term latency exposures have become an increasingly critical threat to many businesses that are just struggling to stay financially viable in today's ... Insight: Silver-Lined Cloud Has Certain Rules: Clients in the business markets looking to obtain the tax advantages for employer-owned life insurance are subject to Internal Revenue Service rules. The ... Insight: Wages, Benefits and Tighter Belts: 2009 has been a challenging year for many agencies. Client payrolls are down, bank financing is tight, premiums continue to be suppressed and competition is ... Insight: Work in Retirement May Lower Benefits: The economic downturn has erased nearly $2 trillion of value from U.S. retirement portfolios. Combine that with the poor savings rate in the United States ... It's a Small World: The numbers are staggering: Every second another disabling injury occurs, and an individual's chance of disability is two to three times greater than death ... It's a Small World: Shifting Responsibility: Small-group employees have gaps that can be filled with voluntary benefits, said Donna Owens, Berkshire Life Insurance Company of America's multilife segment ... Last Word: The Real Deal: A year-ago September, insurance broker Henry Olszewski was excited about the prospects for his National Football League fantasy team. Olszewski had drafted ... Moving Ahead: The credit crisis, global recession and volatile equity markets have dramatically affected the income statements and balance sheets of most companies and ... Not So Fast: Brazil is the largest country in Latin America and recent reforms, as well a rising economy, have enhanced the country's international status. Brazil is the ... Not So Fast: Big Risk: Cargo Theft: Cargo theft in Brazil is an issue to be considered. Its incidence is one of the highest in the world, and both a strong economy and poverty contribute to a ... Passing the Test: Insurance companies in the United States frequently are subjected to regulatory scrutiny from the states in which they conduct business. And, increasingly, ... Perfect Timing: Steve England, executive vice president of Ironshore Insurance Services and overseer of Ironshore's U.S. field operations, said his first meeting with the ... Perfect Visibility: Towers Perrin's highly advanced CATography catastrophe risk-management software has received A.M. Best's annual E-Fusion award for 2009. The global ... Settlement Strategies: It's not every day that a push for more regulation can be construed as a pro-insurance-industry move. But some within the fledgling life settlement industry ... Working Relationships: Consider the Technology: Wise leadership teams don't let a flashy new technology platform blind them to the need for product or market-specific expertise that their new partner ...