Issue 2002-20:   May 21, 2002

This newsletter is for members of the Canadian Insurance Industry, and those who serve it. The newsletter is published weekly, and notes information mostly about the use of the Internet and related technologies in the industry. Some is international, where we feel it is relevant to Canada.

Distribution

National Life is taking the guesswork out of investing with the launch of the E-fficient Investor Portfolio Management Program (E-fficient Investor). This innovative new product helps investors determine their long-term goals and risk tolerance to establish an asset allocation mix that protects against the roller coaster ride of short-term market volatility and delivers long-term results. The program is available for clients through MGA and broker business partners' Web sites. National Life provides customized financial Web sites for business partners, a new electronic initiative that was launched on May 6, 2002. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/distribution/canada/NatLifeEFF200205.php

Convergence, the new reality: CLIEDIS Seminar, May 9 2002, Review
The objective of the seminar was to “discuss the convergence and consolidation occurring within the Canadian financial services marketplace and how the life insurance industry and standards development is adjusting to meet this new reality. We'll look at the change nature of insurance distribution and include a panel discussion on "XMLife in Action" where you'll hear about successful XML implementations.” (My brief review of the seminar...dg). At www.insurance-canada.ca/distribution/canada/CliedisRev200205.php

CSIO Insurance Portal

CSIO announces a Portal rating service for its member companies. On Thursday May 9th 2002, the CSIO Board of Directors met and unanimously approved the inclusion of a rating service for its company members on the CSIO Insurance Portal. It has also been announced that an Agreement in Principle has been reached with Insurance Systems Inc. (ISI) to provide that service. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/distribution/canada/CSIOIPISI200205.php

Week ending May 17. Various preliminary indications are that AXA, ING, CGU, Dominion, Economical and RSA may well all use the new Portal rating service to provide an earlier availability of quoting, while continuing their own back-end development for full quaranteed quotes. The ISI function could be available by August, but that probably would not include all six companies noted. ISI should be testing with the portal sometime in June. Some changes in the networking environment this weekend will hopefully enable the testing with Applied to get to the next level.

The CSIO's online strategy,the Insurance Portal, is supported by Applied Systems Canada. Applied is actively involved in its development. From conception, Applied's Executive saw the necessity for a technological infrastructure that would improve policy issuance.

Claims

Kinberlin Associated Inc., a leading e-business solution provider, today unveiled Vivo, a fully-featured corporate management system for rehabilitation and medical assessment service providers serving the insurance and workplace safety industries. Vivo is the first out of a family of solutions designed to meet the unique needs of claim service providers. Announcement at www.insurance-canada.ca/claims/announce/Kinberlin200205.php

OneBeacon Insurance Group and The St. Paul Companies are the first carriers to use IVANS Transformation Station™, a data exchange for real-time transactions, with their agents for First Notice of Loss reporting. "The First Notice of Loss transaction in Transformation Station allows an agent to send a First Notice of Loss to a carrier in real-time while remaining in their agency management system," said Anna England. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/claims/other/IVANSTS200205.php

eBusiness & Technology

TD Canada Trust retains top spot, due in part to its single sign-on functionality, integration between banking and brokerage platforms and design consistency between secure and non-secure areas. Toronto, April 1, 2002 -- Traditional Canadian banks are making major headway integrating online banking, brokerage and other related lines of business into long-envisaged one-stop financial services supermarkets, according to Gómez, Inc., the Internet Quality Measurement firm. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/ebusiness/canada/GomezBanks200205.php

Reference and Statistics

Life Insurance Activity Registers Significant Increase after Slight Drop in March: MIB Life Index. Compared to the same period the year before, consumer applications for life insurance registered a significant increase in April after experiencing a slight downturn in March. Before that, the industry had seen five consecutive months of increased activity. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/refstat/canada/MIB200205.php

Marketing

Use B2B Newsletters to Reach Your Target: Your Virtual Insurance May 9 2002
A USA Commerce Department report, "A Nation Online," released February 5, reveals that most people use the Internet for two primary purposes, email and product research. This data supports the idea the email marketing is the most effective use of the Internet for marketing purposes today. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/market/other/EMailB2B200205.php

Skills and Careers

Clarica Scholars Program, a partnership with Acadia University and the University of Waterloo, aimed at enhancing the integration of information technology in Canadian schools, has to-date selected 32 secondary schools from coast-to-coast to participate in two one-week sessions to be held this summer. More at www.insurance-canada.ca/humanres/canada/Scholars200205.php

from Doug:

It was good to have a long weekend - I hope you enjoyed it. I think Mother Nature would have been much better to swap the hot days in April for the cold temperatures we experienced all weekend long. I am glad I was not one of those who over-nighted at opening weekend of one of the campgrounds.

Interesting queries we continue to get from our the ConsumerInfo side of our site - people asking about auto insurance when they arrive in Canada for vacation or even extended periods. A second topic is rental houses, especially where the owner is currently out of the country, on a foreign assignment, education or whatever.