Issue 2006-36: September 5, 2006

Claims

Sequoia Insurance Company Replaces Legacy Claims System with Guidewire ClaimCenter.
MONTEREY and SAN MATEO, CA, August 30, 2006 - Sequoia Insurance Company, a multi-line property and casualty insurer serving the western United States, and Guidewire Software®, a leading provider of solutions to property and casualty and workers' compensation insurers, today announced that Sequoia Insurance Company has deployed Guidewire ClaimCenter® as its new web-based claims processing system. ClaimCenter is supporting end-to-end claim processing for Sequoia's personal and BOP lines of business. Additional phases currently underway will support commercial auto, commercial umbrella, CMP, and inland marine, with farm and farm auto lines to follow.

2006 CAFC Conference: Fire Chiefs of The Year Announced; Stronger Support from Ottawa Requested.
Thursday, August 17, 2006, Halifax NS - At last evening's closing ceremonies of the 2006 annual conference, the Fire Chiefs of the Year were announced. At the conference, Fire Chief Patrick Burke was elected President of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs (CAFC), and a resolution calling for more standardization in firefighter equipment and training was passed.

New TowerGroup Analyst in Insurance Practice Outlines Actions Government, Insurance Industry and General Public Must Take In Order To Mitigate Financial Impact of Catastrophes.
NEEDHAM, MA, August 16, 2006 - In the wake of 2005 - the worst year on record for insured catastrophe damage in the U.S., with losses estimated at $56.8 billion (USD) - the federal government, insurance carriers, and the general public are coming to a point of convergence about the need to rethink catastrophe management beyond the much publicized issues around hurricanes. New research from TowerGroup finds that without a concerted effort by all parties to support a holistic solution to catastrophe management, the dire predictions of insolvency in the insurance sector and general economic upheaval across the United States may come to fruition.

National CARSTAR Industry conference share ideas and information.
HAMILTON, ON - August 25, 2006 - Delegates from across Canada gathered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan last weekend for the 9th annual CARSTAR Industry Conference. CARSTAR franchisees and their families, corporate employees, insurance partners, and vendor partners were among those gathered for the three-day conference which took place August 17 - 19.

Policy and Product Management

SunGard iWORKS Launches FrontTier 6.5: New Generation Policy Administration System.
Armonk, NY - August 30, 2006 SunGard announced today the launch of iWORKS FrontTier release 6.5. This milestone version of SunGard's policy administration solution incorporates major advances in integration, report generation, Web enablement, business process modeling, and SOA (services oriented architecture).

Whitehill Technologies' InSystems releases IStream Writer 1.2.
MONCTON, NB, Canada - Aug. 29, 2006 - Whitehill Technologies, Inc. today announced the latest release of IStream Writer, part of the InSystems line of software which helps insurance companies get new products to market faster.

CSC's Insurance New Business Software Launched at Foresters.
EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Aug. 30, 2006 -- Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE:CSC) today announced that Foresters(TM) -- a Toronto-based financial services organization operating in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. -- has implemented CSC's nbAccelerator (nbA) software to automate its life insurance and annuity new business and underwriting activities. This marks the first use of nbA for life insurance policies. By streamlining its processes through the integration of nbA with CSC's VANTAGE-ONE insurance administration software, Foresters anticipates significant improvements in productivity and reduced unit costs.

eBusiness and Technology

New Research Highlights That Insurers Are Failing To Hit ROI Targets For IT Projects: SunGard Survey.
London, August 24 2006 -- While insurers are increasingly embracing the use of return on investment (ROI) to measure the success and failure of IT projects, many are failing to meet their own targets. In fact, only 11% are able to achieve the ROI targets they set, according to new research released by SunGard's iWORKS business unit.

South Korea Ranks First in E-Government - The US ranks fourth. - eMarketer.
The Center for Public Policy at Brown University studied 1,782 government Web sites in 198 different countries in the summer of 2006 to determine the level of e-government services across the globe. Features assessed included the availability of online information and electronic services, privacy and security, and public access.

Gartner Says Worldwide Financial Services Spending to Increase 4 Percent in 2006.
STAMFORD, Conn., August 16, 2006 - Worldwide financial services spending is projected to total $472.6 billion in 2006, a 3.6 percent increase from 2005 spending of $456.3 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. In 2007, the market is expected to grow 4.5 percent to $493.7 billion.

Business of Insurance

Manulife Mutual Funds adds three global mandates to its lineup.
TORONTO, Aug. 28, 2006 - Manulife Mutual Funds, a division of Elliott & Page Limited, announced a number of enhancements, including the addition of three new global mandates to its lineup of funds. To help investors benefit from the gains they have made in the Canadian markets and encourage global diversification, Manulife Mutual Funds will add three new global mandates to its lineup of funds.

Consumer Information

Review insurance policy for sewer backup coverage: Royal & SunAlliance.
One year after the August 2005 storm that flooded homes in the GTA, causing more than $400 million in damage, Royal & SunAlliance is reminding home and business owners to carefully review their policies to ensure they have adequate coverage, particularly sewer backup.

USA Employee Benefits in Private Industry, 2006: Bureau of Labor Statistics Survey.
Seventy-one percent of workers in private industry had access to employer-sponsored medical care plans, and 52 percent participated in medical care plans in March 2006, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Sixty percent of workers had access to retirement benefits, with 51 percent participating in at least one type of retirement plan. These findings are from the Summary, "National Compensation Survey: Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2006".

Distribution

Eastbridge's Mid-Year Voluntary Confidence Survey Looks at Opinions on Worksite Persistency, Premium Rates, and New Group Growth.
AVON, CONNECTICUT, USA (August 17, 2006)-The majority of participants surveyed in the latest version of The Worksite/Voluntary Industry Confidence Index (July 2006) expect voluntary sales and the profitability of the business to increase over the next year. While this is good news, they seemed to be a little less positive this year about future persistency levels and new group growth compared to the last study (conducted in December 2005).

Marketing and the Market Place

US Census Bureau: Percentage of USA Population without Health Coverage Grew in 2005.
August 29, 2006 - In "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2005" published by the US Census Bureau in August 2006, a slightly larger percentage of the population was not covered by health insurance than in the previous year.

from Doug:

On mid-Monday morning the sun is just starting to peep through, the first we have seen of it here since mid-Friday, thanks to the remnants of tropical storm Ernesto. From my home office I have heard the roar of the planes from the CNE airshow this weekend - at least parts of it proceded in spite of the cloud cover. Perhaps today will be a full event.
Labour Day, the demarcation between Summer and Fall for most of us. We hope you have had a good Summer and wish you the best of the Fall season.
Today, Sept 4, my parents' 63rd wedding anniversary. Dad tells me that they are celebrating by enjoying many good memories.


Subscribe here or view past issues.