Issue 2006-39: September 26, 2006

Claims

ACE INA Canada Announces Opening of ESIS(R) Canada Office in Toronto; A Claims Administrator Offering Customized Claims and Risk Control Solutions.
TORONTO, Sept. 14 2006 - ESIS, Inc., ("ESIS") a risk management services company, today announced the opening of ESIS Canada, Inc. ("ESIS Canada"). ESIS Canada, based in Toronto, will offer U.S., and Canadian-based clients access to superior claims management and a wide range of risk control programs and services that meet each customer's unique needs.

MSB 2006 ITV Quality Index Figures Show Slight Improvement in Home Insurance Valuations.
LOS ANGELES September 19, 2006 - MSB, the worldwide leader in building cost valuation technologies, announces the release of its 2006 Insurance to Value (ITV) Quality Index. The ITV Index, published annually since 1999, highlights the estimated amount of undervalued residential properties in the U.S. economy, with a particular emphasis on the nearly 80 million single-family, main street type dwellings.

Custard Insurance Adjusters Selects MSB IntegriClaim™ As Preferred Claims Tool.
NEW BERLIN, WI and NORCROSS, GA September 14, 2006 - Marshall and Swift / Boeckh (MSB), the leader in providing building cost data, estimating technology and consulting to the property insurance industry, and Custard Insurance Adjusters, one of the largest independent loss adjusting companies in the United States and Puerto Rico, announce they have entered into a contract for MSB's IntegriClaim and IntegriClaim Administrator products for use in Custard's catastrophe (CAT) and home office claims divisions, enabling claims to be sent from carrier to independent adjuster in a seamless manner.

Lloyd's London insurance market goes live with new electronic claims system.
19 September 2006 -- The London insurance market has reached a significant milestone in its on-going work to reform processes with the launch of a new electronic claims system. In what marks a good step towards eradicating paper in the market, an 'electronic filing cabinet' has been launched for handling Electronic Claims Files (ECF).


Product Announcements

Manulife Financial introduces a new U.S. group benefits solution to Canadian clients.
WATERLOO, ON, Sept. 21, 2006 - Manulife Financial has obtained exclusive rights to introduce ClearSource(TM) to Manulife's Canadian Group Benefits plan sponsors. Provided in the U.S., this new U.S. group benefits solution is available to all of Manulife Financial's Canadian group clients with less than 50 resident U.S. employees.

RBC Insurance Launches Segregated Funds.
MISSISSAUGA, September 18, 2006 - RBC Insurance today announced the introduction of RBC Insurance Guaranteed Investment Funds (GIFs), available for sale beginning September 18, 2006. RBC Insurance has selected 12 leading underlying mutual funds from the RBC Asset Management Inc. fund lineup for its segregated funds. Four portfolios have also been created, using these funds, to provide an innovative investment choice for consumers seeking the growth potential of mutual funds, with the security of a principal guarantee.

Aon leads again with the formation of the first insurance ICC.
LONDON, 12 September 2006 - Aon has become the first company to form an insurance ICC through its Captive Services Group. White Rock Insurance (Guernsey) ICC Limited will provide medium sized companies with cost efficiencies over a stand-alone captives and offers increased flexibility whilst allowing for faster entry and exit.

Distribution

Standard Life helps boomers get what they need.
MONTREAL, Sept. 18, 2006 - As more boomers head into retirement, smart advisors are recognizing the importance and challenges of providing them with what they need-retirement income education and flexible financial solutions. Standard Life's Retail Markets Division is also rising to the challenge by helping educate advisors about the needs and nature of this growing market, and by developing product solutions that can follow clients throughout their lifecycles, from the saving money stage to the retirement income phase.

EDS SOLCORP Wins INFO Financial Group Contract.
21 September 2006, TORONTO, Canada - EDS SOLCORP (EDS) today announced that following a rigorous competitive process, the WealthServ Investments solution has been selected by INFO Financial Consulting Group Inc., an independent Canadian financial services company, to support compliance and growth initiatives.

Distribution Bottlenecks Lead to Inefficient Allocation of Sales, Marketing, and Product Resources, says kasina.
NEW YORK, September 5, 2006 - As the distribution of investment management products has evolved from a relatively straightforward, primarily relationship-driven business to an increasingly complex, quantitatively oriented, "institutionalized" one, asset management firms' National Accounts teams must learn to navigate a new series of bottlenecks with their distributors or risk misallocating resources and losing sales, according to a study released today by kasina, a leading consultant to the asset management industry.

Drive® Insurance from Progressive Surveys Young Agents; Asks for Their Perspective on Key Drivers of Success, Industry Challenges and Technology.
MAYFIELD VILLAGE, Ohio - Aug. 31, 2006 - The future of independent insurance agencies across the U.S. depends on the successful development and advancement of today's young independent agents and brokers. To help these agents master the skills needed to grow their businesses, many industry associations and carriers have stepped up to lend a helping hand, offering leadership training and educational programs, networking opportunities and technology support.

Marketing and the Market Place

LIMRA Research: In Words and Pictures, Consumers Show Their Deepest Feelings About Life Insurance.
Windsor, CT, September 11, 2006 - The terms "art" and "life insurance" aren't usually spoken in the same breath, but by asking consumers to express their feelings creatively, research organization LIMRA International revealed the typical American's "love-hate" relationship with life insurance.

Policy and Product Management

Kingsway Chooses Insurity for End-to-End Property-Casualty Solution.
HARTFORD, Conn. - August 22, 2006 - Kingsway Financial Services Inc., a property-casualty insurer with extensive operations in the United States and Canada, has contracted with Insurity, a ChoicePoint® company, to deploy Insurance Decisions, a comprehensive suite of products and services for insurance processing.

Business of Insurance

Managing Risk Ranks as the Top Priority for Senior Executives, Accenture Study Finds.
NEW YORK; Sept. 19, 2006 - Managing risk ranks as the top priority for senior executives, according to a global study released today by Accenture. This is a change from the study's findings during the last three years, which ranked workforce-improvement issues as the top issue.

eBusiness and Technology

Desjardins Group signs a new service agreement with Bell Canada, a contract valued at 670 million dollars.
Montréal, September 19, 2006 - Desjardins Group, the largest integrated cooperative financial group in Canada, and Bell Canada, Canada's national leader in telecommunications, have announced that they are renewing their service agreement.

from Doug:

Our Technology in Claims seminar on Nov. 6 is coming along well. We are now planning the next one, on Business Intelligence in the distribution and marketing side of P&C Insurance. It is scheduled Monday Mar. 6 in downtown Toronto. More on that later.
In the meantime, I am taking a little R&R over the next four weeks, and that may cause some changes and delays to the distribution of this newsletter, most likely the Oct 10, 17 and 24 dates. Will see how it goes.


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